//------------------------------//
// The Rocks and Shoals 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"Uhm..."  Ariel huffed and puffed several hours into the hike.  "...one question."

"By all means, frriend," Kepler replied, no less exhausted.

Frowning, Ariel's narrow eyes reflected the line of pale bodies far ahead of them.  "When the Hell are they gonna stop and make camp?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh..."  Flynn craned his neck.  His mechanical eyes rotated in out and out until he ultimately blurted:  "I don't think they're going to."

Seraphimus added:  "I suspect that they will not stop trotting until they have reached their home base."

Wildcard nodded.

"What are they friggin' made out of?!" Ariel whimpered.  "They look all skin and bones!"

"Strong skin and bones," Logan said.  "They've been doing this all their lives."

"No wonder most of them are so young!" Ariel exhaled, sweating from the weight of her things.  "They must kill themselves by marching!"

"We can't prroperrly judge theirr stamina unless we know wherre they arre going and at what distance," Kepler said.

"That's just the thing..."  Flynn winced, almost stumbling once or twice as he scaled the bouldery landscape.  "We're not as friggin' invincible as these guys.  We gotta take a break at one point or another."

"I am doing quite fine," Seraphimus remarked.  "Jordan as well, I suspect."

Wildcard nodded again.

"Fine... most of us need to take a break!" Flynn snarled.

Logan shook his head in mid-sweat.  "I don't think that's going to happen, Baldy.  These bozos are simply drawn towards Curveside."

"Well maybe we can convince them to slow down for a bit or s-something!"  Ariel swiped her brow.  "So we can catch a breather!"

"Pfffft..."  Logan smirked bitterly.  "What are the odds of that?"

"Well it's worth a try!"

"Who's gonna talk them into camping?"  Flynn asked.  "You?"

"Hrmffff..."  Rainbow Dash's nostrils flared.  "I will."

"Can you even catch up to them?" Flynn asked.

"I can if I lighten up."  Rainbow detached two-thirds of her bags and tossed them into Flynn's telekinetic field.  "Here.  Thanks for volunteering."  Swisssssssh!  She flew ahead briskly.

"Grnnnngh..."  Flynn grimaced, his horn almost shorting out from the added weight.  "D-don't m-mention it...!"

As Rainbow glided over the craggy landscape, she came upon the caravan of Dihmers.  Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the girls hovered in close to her.

"Now Rainbow..."  Twilight chided gently.  "...remember to try talking in the style of their diction."

"It cracks," Rainbow grunted.

Twilight blinked.  "Huh?"

"Friggin' egghead."

"Dang it, Rainbow—"

Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Reckon I could try and lend a hoof?" Applejack remarked, removing her hat in mid flight.  "Try and be an... emotional translator or somethin'?"

Rainbow nodded.  "Sounds splendid, AJ."

"But..."  Fluttershy looked over.  "...how are you going to understand emotions if they have no emotions to give?"

"It's not that the Dihmers lack emotions, Fluttershy," Twilight countered.  "They simply repress them."

"Are you certain about that, darling?" Rarity said.  "It was changelings who brought them over here, yes?"

"One would assume."

"Maybe they sapped these poor Dihmer ponies dry."

Twilight pondered silently on that.

"Shhh!"  Pinkie hissed.  "Dashie's time to shine!"

Rainbow Dash touched down beside the front pony of the caravan.  "Hello there!" she said.

"It talks," one of the ponies in line droned.

Rarity and Pinkie facehoofed.

"And sooooooo it begins."  Rainbow rolled her eyes.

One Dihmer glanced at the sky above her.  "It begins."

Rainbow blinked.

"Was..."  Twilight narrowed her eyes.  "...was that interrogative?"

Applejack fanned herself with her hat.  "She sure seemed a mite bit perplexed at what Rainbow said."

"Quick!"  Pinkie hopped in mid-air.  "Seize it!"

Rainbow flapped her wings, hovering upright before the moving caravan.  "It begins!" she said boldly.  Then—after searching for words—she added:  "It begins to tire."

"It begins..."

"It tires!" Rainbow's voice cracked.  "It camps!  It sleeps!  Y'know..."  She leaned in.  "...It sleeps?"

"It returns," one Dihmer said.

"It returns to where it beats," another added.

"Yeah... about that!"  Rainbow held a hoof over her sweaty chest.  "It also beats."  Her brow furrowed.  "It beats weakly.  Because it needs rest."

The Dihmer elder at the front of the caravan breathed in and out.  "It returns."

"It makes camp!  It rests!"  Rainbow gestured wildly.  "So that it gets strong!"

"It returns to where it beats," they maintained.

Rainbow looked at Applejack.

Applejack looked back.  "They ain't budgin', sugarcube."

"Soooooo..."  Pinkie squinted.  "Is stubbornness an emotion?"

"If so, it's my second-least-favorite," Fluttershy said.  A blink.  "Okay.  Third-least."

Twilight leaned in.  "Try some negative reinforcement, Rainbow!"

"Some what?"

"Convince them that something bad could happen to us if we just keep trotting endlessly!"

"Uhm..."  Rainbow flew backwards, fidgeting with her fuzzy forelimbs before the caravan.  "The Bloodwings!  Erm..."  She showed her teeth.  "It hunts!  It hunts that which returns!  If... if it doesn't camp and if it doesn't rest... then it hunts until it dies!  But if it camps and if it rests then it returns faster!"

"It quickens!" Twilight whispers.

"It quickens!" Rainbow supplied.

"It returns to that which beats," the elder said.  "It returns and it supplies so that it sustains."

"But..."  Rainbow's ears drooped.  "It hunts!"

"It hunts," the elder nodded.  "It talks with a false glimmer.  It focuses on Penumbra when it should return.  It fails."

"Uhhhhhhhhh..."  Rainbow looked at Applejack.

Applejack exhaled.  "Whew..."  A bitter smirk.  "I think she done diss'd you, girl."

"Okay... listen!"  Rainbow grabbed the first Dihmer's shoulders.  "We're following you—but we can't do that if you won't stop for camp once in a while—"

"It fails."

"It fails."

"It fails."

"Yeah—and soon it'll be spitting in its face!" Rainbow barked.  "How does a civilization of emo jerks prevail anyway—?"

Fluttershy gasped suddenly.

As always, that was Rainbow's cue to drop what she was doing—in this case the Dihmer's upper body—and spin to face the dainty ghost.  "What?  What is it?"

Rarity drifted closer.  "What do you sense, darling?"

"At f-first I j-just thought it was a normal school of creatures swimming in some underwater spring..."  Fluttershy looked towards the rest with shrinking pupils.  "But it's one big specimen—moving towards us at a great speed!"

"What?  Where?"  Rarity looked at every available horizon.  "I don't see anything, dear!"

"That's because it's underground," Fluttershy hissed.  "Sense for earth that's shifting!"

"... ... ... ... ...!!!"  Rarity gasped.  "By Celestia!  I feel it!"  She pointed forty-five degrees between Omega and Edgeside.  "From over there!"

"Sheeeee's nottttt wronnnnng!" Pinkie Pie yelped, body shaking all over.

"It's... it's gonna attack us or what—?"  Rainbow stopped in mid-sentence.  She noticed the Dihmers stopping suddenly.  One of the elders had squatted low and was pressing his ear to the ground.  "...they hear it too."

"That they do, darlin'!" Applejack began—

"It stops!" the elder said in a bold tone.  Seconds after the entire caravan had paused, he then exclaimed:  "It burrows!  From nearest it arrives!  It hungers!"

Another Dihmer nodded, gesturing Curveside at a plateau filled with scattered rocks and boulders.  "It scatters!"

"It scatters!" Several more Dihmers nodded in agreement.

"It scatters!"

"It scatters!"

With remarkable speed, the shaved ponies spread apart and galloped for separate spots among the loose stones of the plateau.

Rainbow hovered in place, staring dumbly at the vacant scene.  She heard a low, rumbling thunder... increasing in severity.  "Fluttershy...?  Rarity...?"

"It's still coming in... very quickly," Fluttershy said.

"Wait..."  Rarity's brow furrowed.  "...the ground.  A new fissure forming..."  Her horn glowed as she concentrated.  "...its weight is shifting... forming a new tunnel underground..."

"Is it changing directions?" Twilight asked.

"Yessssssssssssssss—"  Pinkie shook and wobbled.

Fluttershy yelped:  "Rainbow!  You have to warn them!"

"... ... ..."  Rainbow turned towards Edgeside.

She saw the Herald marching towards her.  Seeing the petite pegasus hovering alone in mid-air, they stopped and gazed perplexedly.  The pebbles and dust around them started to shift—

"Move!"  Rainbow sailed towards them in a blue blur.  "Scatter!"  She slammed into the first body—Kepler's—and shoved the two of them away from the rest of the group.  "We're being attacked by below—"

POWWWWWWWWWWW!

The earth exploded.

Rocks scattered.

Bodies flew.

And an immense cylindrical body lashed at the open air with tripartite jaws.  Purple scales glistened in the twilight as the serpentine specimen hissed wildly into the rusted air:  "RAWWWWWWWRRRSSSH!"