The Dihmers—for being completely flightless—covered a remarkable amount of ground in little time. Between re-charging the hover wagon and gathering their wits about them, the Herald took an entire half-hour to catch up with the group. To accomplish this, Fluttershy was of very little assistance—at no fault of her own. The natives of the Dark Side—of Dihm—were quite good at masking their emotions, making themselves virtually invisible. Even with Applejack's and Twilight Sparkle's help, Rainbow Dash had a hard time triangulating the location of the mobile group.
Eventually, it came down to a combination of Ariel's and Wildcard's reconaissance along with Pinkie Pie's random senses. Rainbow eventually spotted the tight cluster of hiking ponies and she swiftly flew down to meet them. A few more had suddenly been added to the group—no doubt scouts who had been hiding along the fringes of the hunt—and now the Dihmer party numbered at about ten to twelve ponies.
In truth, Rainbow Dash had a hard time counting them. She had an even harder time telling them apart. It wasn't just their manes and tail-hairs that were shaved, but the very coats of fur on their bodies had been trimmed completely, leaving the bulk of their wrinkly, pale skin exposed.
"Friggin'... never fails," Rainbow Dash muttered.
"What are ya ramblin' about?" Applejack asked.
"If I had a bit for every fringe group I've met in my travels who love to shave their manes..." Rainbow's nostrils flared.
"She'd be richer than golden griffins," Pinkie Pie said. It was spoken through a melodic sigh. At that precise moment, Twilight and Rarity looked particularly melancholic. Applejack and Fluttershy exchanged curious glances over the matter, but chose to say nothing.
While the Herald fumbled to catch up, Twilight Sparkle took the opportunity to make a few observations. First of all—most of the Dihmers struck her as being particularly young. Two of them were obviously elders... but the majority of the hiking group was few in years. Most of them were younger than even Rainbow Dash. Despite this—and despite their tenacious agility and the muscle strength that they possessed—their skin was decrepit to the point that it resembled the wrinkled flesh of far... far older equines. Rashes and permanent bruises and nasty lesions pockmarked their bodies in multiple places. They looked more weathered than filthy, and it was obvious that a lot of the blemishes had been with them all their lives.
"And you see how asymmetrical some of their eye sockets are?" Twilight murmured, craning her neck. "And how some of them have smaller fetlocks and smaller ears?"
"Yeah?" Pinkie Pie floated in closer. "What about them?"
Twilight gulped. "Lots and lots of inbreeding. I've no doubt at least half of them are hemophiliac. Hence the dark... dark bruises on some of their bodies."
"Oh my..." Fluttershy winced.
Applejack's brow furrowed. "Dun that mean they'd have increased trouble makin' young'n's with each generation?"
"In the history of Equestrian biology, that checks out," Twilight Sparkle said with a nod. "But who knows if that's how genetics work one hundred percent over here on the Dark Side."
"Don't you mean 'Dihm?'" Pinkie Pie suggested.
"Let's not subscribe to that quite so quickly," Rarity interjected.
"Why not? It's simpler and monosexualbyllic!"
"Monosyllabic," Twilight corrected.
"Fiiiiiiiine. You be a prude!"
Rainbow Dash sighed. As the rest of the Herald caught up, she made some more observations of the Dihmers. For the first time, she noticed horns on at least two of the natives. However, for whatever reason, the unicorns weren't using their magic. Even when having to lug enormous satchels full of fresh, bloody meat, they resorted to the muscles of their flanks and legs. Rainbow tried looking for wings among them—but she wasn't successful in spotting any pegasus. Considering this was a hunting/scouting party, the fact that they lacked any flying ponies probably meant there... weren't any pegasi available whatsoever.
"And all them scars?" Applejack spoke in a hushed tone, as if some of the locals could hear her. "Self-inflicted?"
"Yes." Twilight Sparkle nodded, observing the copious amount of markings—mostly gathered along the Dihmers' scalps and foreheads. "Although none of it appears... ornamental."
"Egads..." Rarity shivered. "Do ponies ever cease to be so mindlessly brutish?"
"There has to be a reason for why they do it," Fluttershy said.
"Come now, darling, let's not excuse them."
"But we hardly know anything about these equines!"
At around this point, Ariel and Wildcard caught up with Rainbow Dash.
Swooooosh! "Rainbow..." Ariel landed beside her and trotted briskly. "Flynn and Logan are struggling to get the Hoverplank over these ridges behind us."
Rainbow took a momentary glance back at the erratic topography. Chunks of rocks with multiple, shadowed alcoves lingered all about.
"Wherever these ponies are headed, they're taking us straight Curveside," Ariel declared. "That's against the grain of most of the canyons here." Her eyes narrowed. "We gotta make a choice soon—do we give up the chase or the hover craft?"
Wildcard added with slicing talons: "We might not run into a group like this again."
"Fair enough..." Rainbow nodded. "The gloves are off."
"Rainbow, whatever you do..." Twilight began. "...don't be brash with your—" She yelped as she and the rest of the girls were yanked along with their anchor.
Fw-Fwooosh! Rainbow Dash flew and landed imposingly before the Dihmers. "Okay. Look. We gotta talk." She frowned. "We need some answers and we need 'em now. Where's the Grand Ocean and how can we best avoid the Bloodwings?"
One of the elders in the group pointed straight Curveside. "It beats."
"... ... ...the fudge is that supposed to mean?!"
"It fails."
"Look—yes. I know I'm getting emotional. But you gotta understand—" Rainbow floundered, for the Dihmers were marching past her in a deadpan lurch. She flew backwards so that she was constantly facing them. "—my friends and I have gone through so much! And there's a crazy amount of crap lying ahead of us! There're the factions of the Trinary War to face off against... and then there's the friggin' Midnight Armory to access..."
"It talks."
"Can you at least tell us which direction we need to go in to find this Grand Ocean?"
"It beats."
"Why such the dang hurry?!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she struggled to keep up with their swift march. "You all got what you came for! Do you have to cook that raw meat in record time or what?"
"It incinerates," one Dihmer said, her face empty and calm. "And then it clamors."
"It returns and sustains."
"Yeah... you've said all that already," Rainbow Dash muttered. With her friends looking on worriedly, she implored: "Is it something that you're running from? The Bloodwings? Queen Tchern's hive? I feel like something's going on and we don't know why it's freaking you guys out."
Between even breaths, another Dihmer spoke without breaking his stride: "It must keep going. Soon the moon rises and it quickens."
"Wait..." Ariel did a double-take. "What?"
"The moon rises," the Dihmer repeated, bounding over a cleft of rock. "It quickens."
"Uhm... I hate to break it to ya, buddy..." Rainbow Dash smirked slyly. "But you're on the Dark Side. There is no moon. Just like there is no sun—"
Rarity gasped, her sparkly blue eyes reflecting a pale sheen.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Applejack gawked.
"Dashieeeeeeeeeeee..." Pinkie Pie was pointing towards Omega.
Around that time, Wildcard let loose a shrill whistle. Ariel had stopped in her tracks, muzzle agape.
"Huh...?" Rainbow Dash turned around. She then produced the mother of all double-takes.
Low in the sky—and swiftly rising—was the brightest thing the Herald had seen since arriving from the world's edge. It was enormous, shaped like a jagged crescent, and multiple blemishes stretched across its pale surfaces. Nevertheless, with a blindingly bright strobe, it rose quickly above the mountains and canyons of the world. A ghostly blue sheen stretched across the lengths of the plane, freshly illuminating a labyrinth of sterile fissures covering miles and miles between that location and Omega. At long last, the object lingered in one spot about thirty degrees from the observable horizon, strobing slowly with luminescent grace.
Twilight Sparkle was practically pulling at her mane. She threw a bug-eyed glance at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow's ears had long drooped. "What..." Her lips pursed. "...the fuzz?"