"Then she is fine, I trust?" Seraphimus leaned in. The amber artificial light of the shop glinted off her silver feathers. "She's not succumbed to the alien metals?"
"Yeah, she's cool. She just has to chillax and catch her breath some," Ariel said. She threw the former Talon Commander a cheesy grin. "It's so very sweeeeeeet that you care so much."
Seraphimus snorted. "I just wanted an assessment of our team leader's condition."
"She's tough as shit," Logan grunted. "Same old song and dance." He looked at Ariel. "Now we've got a job to do."
Ariel nodded back.
"Oi...!"
The Herald looked across the counter.
Campo gazed at them, his ears flaring above his head. "Ya don havin' a yob? I've got me some Dihmahs to be tradin' with, not to mention some hides to be skinnin'. Either youse got collections for strips or youse best be muckin' about elsewhere!"
"Let me guess..." Logan leaned his rotund body towards the puny counter. "You like to collect animal pelts." He motioned outside with his skull. "We've seen Dihmers marching into town by the droves with all sorts of slaughtered game. I'm guessing you get a lot of fur off them."
"Good on ya, lardo!" Campo grinned with razor sharp teeth. "You're not half as daft as ya look!"
Flynn chuckled. "Well, at least they got your name right."
Logan sighed. "We don't have any skins or pelts to give you," he said. "And we can't afford to part ways with our supply of meat. We need that for the journey ahead."
"You could always skirt the coast of the Blob!" Jacko said, smirking up at the group. "Dan in me outpost, we're always takin' in animal flesh on the side!"
"Buggah off, Jacko!" Campo snarled. "Don't be snivelin' into me tradie talk! Reckon I should come by your shit farms and have me a squat!"
Jacko snorted. "You certainly seem keen on dumpin' all your gahbage theah!"
"Blow!" Campo pointed out the front entrance with his claw. "Before I sick Dyno and Jiro on your ass!"
"Mrmmmfff..." Jacko shrugged his shoulders and scurried out of the establishment. "A damned bloody monopoly—that's what thees is!"
"You're just pissed we Fur-Bloodahs managed it first!" Campo stared after him, then smiled at the Herald. "Just like a Tail-Bloodah, aye? Always gettin' his mouth mixed up with his puckah."
"Charrming," Kepler exhaled.
"You said it, anteatah!" Campo leaned back, arms folded. "So... if ya don't skins or meats, then what do ya got for me tradie blood?"
"How is the market on weapons in this town?" Logan asked.
Seraphimus glanced at him sharply.
Logan waved a dismissive hoof.
"Hmmmmm..." Campo rubbed his green chin. "Ain't gonna lie, chubbo. The Dihmahs craft their own bludgeons out heah. Plus, they nevah seem to go to blows with the bats-os, so they ain't exactly bitin' in the weapons department."
"But you could certainly try and defend yourselves..." Logan arched his eyebrows. "If the need ever arose?"
"Pffft! Are ya kiddin'?" Campo chuckled. "We're Fur-bloodahs! Not warriors! For that, ya gotta sniff up some of the Blade-Bloodahs ovah in Petra! But that's far across the Blob and they already got all the ogre-tech they need for fightin' off the change-os!"
"Still, wouldn't hurt to have some nice ranged weapons, I bet," Logan postulated. "For when you're making your next trip to Jacko's crudville or whatever to dump some more 'garbage.'"
"Hmmmmm..." Campo leaned back with a thoughtful expression. "Gotta admit. The skysharks have been rathah uppity lately since the bats-os keep chasin' them out of hidin'."
Ariel's pupils shrank. "Skysharks?"
"Just what do youse gots, anyhow?" Campo asked. "I'll let you know if it's worth some strips."
"Wildcard..." Logan spoke aside. "Show 'em a taste of Abaddon's gift."
Wildcard nodded. Wordlessly, he pulled a satchel off his back and unpacked it.
Seraphimus watched, silent.
"Although..." Campo chuckled. "I'm still willin' to give youse a whole stack of strips if you'd quietly leave the parrot's metal arm down on the countah theah—"
Cl-Clank! An immaculate bow crafted out of arachnid exoskeletons landed on the table.
Campo's eyes almost exploded. "Piss on me mum!" He hopped back, trembling. "Are... are those made out of actual Spindlahs?"
"They were given to us," Seraphimus said in a low tone. "After we spent weeks as their guests in the ancient city."
"We haven't found much of a way to use them," Logan said. "Outside of one fight that we couldn't win anyways."
"We're not much in the way of gifted archers," Flynn added smoothely. "We have other ways of holding our own in a fight."
"Suffice to say, they're yours," Seraphimus said. "Provided you can help us plan where to take the fight to next."
"No way..." Campo shook his head. "This... this a deal for strips! Bottom line! I just..." Campo tugged at one ear, staring incredulously at the bow. "...I'm just at a lost for words! I swear I'm not usually this unprofessional—"
"Ach! It is cerrtainly a lot to take in, my frriend." Kepler smiled blindly in his general direction. "Fact of the matterr is... we desirre strrips far less than we desirre inforrmation."
"Ehhhh..." Campo's eyes thinned. "What kind of information, youse reckon?"
Logan leaned over the counter. "Start exhaling."
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine bundles of rock on the walllll!" Pinkie Pie sang, her blue eyes cheerfully bouncing between the crude buildings surrounding them. "Nine hundred and ninety-nine bundles of rockkkk!"
"Pinkie, darling..." Rarity ran a hoof over her face. "Can you not? Seriously?"
"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Pinkie shrugged. "It's how little Marble and I used to pass the time while we waited outside for Papa to bargain with the local rock appraiser!" She blinked. "Although Marble always left the singing to me. I wonder why..."
"Just look at everypony," Fluttershy marveled, staring at the crowds of Dihmers marching to and fro. "They don't stop to talk... eat... or even sleep."
"I guess wherever they go to relax, they do it beyond sight," Twilight Sparkle remarked.
Fluttershy's eyes narrowed. "They... go somewhere alright." A gulp. "I sense distant pockets of them in the larger building... gathered around and sitting still."
"I'm sensin' somethin' too," Applejack added. "Reckon whatever it is they do in there, it's more or less how these folk 'recharge.'"
"And just where are all of the foals?" Rarity squeaked. "It's curious to see so many young adults—but no children or senior citizens."
"Maybe they live in another part of the city," Twilight suggested. "The goblins appear to have a caste system. Maybe the Dihmers do as well—divided by age."
"I'm almost scared to find out where all the little colts and fillies are," Fluttershy stammered. "I can't imagine that everypony foaled in this world shows up just as unemotional as the grownups we're seeing."
"That's a good question," Twilight said with a nod. "I've been hypothesizing that the Dihmers have some sort of psychological practice for purging their emotion."
"Makes sense." Applejack gazed about. "I'm feelin' almost nothin' from these here ponies. That's gotta take practice."
"Then again..." Twilight took a breath. "...some Equestrian scientists have postulated that—with enough neural damage to the brain—emotion could be affected on a biological level." She looked at the others. "Who knows just how much the changelings could have feasted on these poor ponies' ancestors. Maybe—just maybe—this current generation is born without feeling... at least in the faculty that you and I can relate to."
"That... would be terribly tragic!" Rarity grimaced. "To come into this world without the ability to feel?" She shook her head. "To experience love or pride?"
"Then again..." Applejack shrugged. "...might be nice not havin' to worry about fear, pain, or sorrow."
Rarity glared at her. "You can't possibly be serious..."
"I ain't sayin' I'm on board with the notion," Applejack said. "Just... somethin' about these Dihmer folks must be workin' for them to be prosperin' the way they do."
Pinkie grimaced at the deadpan faces wandering by. "You call this 'prospering?'"
"Well, ya know what I mean."
"No! I don't!"
"Fine. Forget I said anythang, then."
"Okie dokie lokie! Nine Hundred and Ninety-Eight Bundles of Rock on the Wallllll—!"
"Ugh!"
"Guh!"
"Consarnit!"
"Pinkieeeeeeee..."
"Hehehehe—whaaaaaaaat?"
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was standing in abject silence. While her friends chatted and rambled away, she lost focus of them. Instead, she had honed in on the constant... never-ceasing thump of noise rolling in from the distance. She pivoted about, squinting and peering all across the city.
With enough concentration, it occurred to the pegasus that the source of the drums was not in the Dihmer commune, but rather someplace beyond it. And as her fuzzy ears flicked and her mind narrowed in on the noise, she realized the source of the percussion could only be one place.
The Ocean. Squint and peer as she might, Rainbow couldn't see the shoreline beneath the Curve. The haze and soot from the nearby foundry was simply too thick, too blinding. All she could make out was a dull malaise that occupied a good portion of the bent horizon.
There was only one way to get to the bottom of this.
So, with stealthy hooves, she padded her way down the sloped street and towards the heart of the drumming.
Her friends were still chatting when they noticed their anchor moving.
"Rainbow?" Rarity craned her neck. "Rainbow Dash?"
"Uhm..." Fluttershy stirred.
"Where you headed, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.
"Shhhhhhh..." Rainbow slinked forward like a bloodhound. "The drumming."
Pinkie's muzzle scrunched. "What about it?"
"Gotta figure out what's causing it."
"Careful, Rainbow." Twilight glided up alongside her. "You don't want to stray too far from your friends."
"Fluttershy and Applejack can help me find them in a pinch."
Twilight cleared her throat. "And... if you should fall unconscious somehow from more chaos metal and they need to find you...?"
"Wildcard will find me." Rainbow shrugged in mid-trot. "Wildcard somehow always finds me."
"But—"
"Keep your horn pointy," Rainbow hissed, moving down the sloped streets. "We may need it."