Rainbow woke uneasily after a fitful rest, and found herself in the bed in her quarters within the temple. Looking around, she saw her armour standing off to the side, attached to some sort of mannequin that kept it in the exact shape of her own body.
Swinging off the bed, Rainbows hooves touched the ground, and she momentarily stumbled as her mind instantly remembered what had happened during her test. She quashed the memory however, telling herself that it was only a simulation, and she didn’t actually have any lasting damage.
“You are awake then Rainbow Dash?” Tar’nek asked, the door to her room sliding upwards to allow him entry.
“How come whenever I finish doing anything, one of you guys appears?” Rainbow asked with a smile.
“The temple has biometric scanners that can tell what state an inhabitant is in. Yours just lit up to indicate you awakening.” Tar’nek explained. “Now please, Kaliden and the others are already convening in the main hall.”
Without another word, Tar’nek turned and exited the room, and Rainbow jumped to follow closely behind him. Catching up with the Eldar, she went to talk to him, but decided against it and shut her mouth again.
Eventually, the pair emerged into the now familiar centre of the shrine, and Tar’nek once again moved away to the near identical position he had occupied the last time she had been summoned, and the time before that as well.
“Rainbow Dash, you have completed your final trial.” Kaliden said, before Makhutar took over.
“You faced an enemy you feared beyond measure, and fought them in a place you cherish even more. Not only that, but you found evidence that all of your friends had been slaughtered.”
“Despite this, you were undeterred.” Juhani continued. “You continued to attempt to find out what your mission was, and when you saw civilians, you made a decision. Even though it cost you your life, you did what you could to ensure those same civilians escaped.”
“These qualities, even more tha the skills you demonstrated while displaying them, have proved yourself more than just a common soldier.” Jolee said.
“From this day forth, you have earned the title you have been given, and will forever be remembered as a Swooping Hawk, and the first none Eldar in the history of this shrine, and possibly in the history of every craftworld, to walk this path.” Kaliden finished.
“Congratulations Rainbow.” Tar’nek smiled, getting down from his pedestal and walking over to Rainbow, sticking out a hand.
Rainbow went to place her hoof against it, but Tar’nek moved it away, and instead grabbed her around her stomach and pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing his other hand against her mane.
“Too slow Rainbow, you’ll have to be faster next time.” He laughed.
The other Eldar of the shrine laughed as well at the antics of their companion, before getting down and surrounding the pair. All that is, except Kaliden, who looked on wistfully at his soldiers.
“Alright Tar’nek, let the pony go.” Juhani laughed, prizing the two apart.
“Thanks.” Rainbow said with a snicker as she was released.
“Come on. Now that your training is complete, you can leave the shrine.” Goroic pointed out.
“Yeah, we should celebrate our uniqueness as a shrine.” Faren agreed.
“You coming Kaliden?” Rainbow shouted.
Kaliden gave her a mournful look, before turning his back on the group and walking off.
“What was that all about?” Rainbow asked, turning to the rest of the group.
“Kaliden is an Exarch. Therefore he can’t leave the temple. Another part of the curse of the Exarchs. And yet another reason why he is feared, even by those for admire him.” Jolee explained.
“Wait, you fear him?” rainbow asked, turning to the group. When they all unanimously nodded, she continued with the next obvious question. “Why?”
“We admire him for the service he does to our race. Without the Exarchs, the aspect warriors would cease to function as a single unit. This would doom the Eldar again. We fear him because he represents what we can all become. A warrior, so enthralled by the art of war that he can no longer distinguish between battle and peace, that loves act of spilling blood so much, that he is incapable of taking off the war mask we wear to battle.” Jolee explained again.
“I thought you wore your helmets?”
“The war mask isn’t physical. It is a state of mind, one that allows us to slip into Khaines embrace, and escape from it. Some, the Exarchs, get snagged and pulled back in. Forever.” Faren said darkly, before shifting his mood back to a lighter tone. “Now, I believe we said celebrations were in order?”
“You had me at alcohol.” Goroic laughed heartily.
“But he never said alcohol.” Rainbow pointed out.
“Well I was thinking it.” The Eldar smiled.
Smiling and shaking her head at the warrior’s antiques, Rainbow followed the Eldar to a small room just before the entranceway to the shrine. Inside were various lockers, each one marked with a single rune. Looking closer, Rainbow saw that they weren’t part of the Eldar alphabet, which she had made a habit of learning in the days gone past. Instead, they looked more like small murals. The locker Faren walked over to had a single shuriken engraved on it, while Juhani moved to one emblazoned with a sword.
Instantly, Rainbow saw the one which was obviously for her, and swung the door open. Inside was the same simple garment that she had been wearing for training, both the one that allowed her to use her wings, and the one that pinned them to her side.
Looking around her, Rainbow saw the other Eldar slipping out of the simple lower half robes they had been wearing, and drawing out their own pieces of clothing. While they were all similar to Rainbows, they were also different in more ways than just the body structure they were made for, either in the intricacy of patterns carved into the leather, or by the amount of coverage they actually provided.
“Why don’t you wear armour?” Rainbow asked.
“The Wind Rider clans get jealous of our armour if we strut around in it.” Goroic laughed.
“Exactly. Instead, we wear garments that identify who we are, and what are place is.” Faren explained. “Take Juhani for example. She exemplifies the speed and precision of the hawk in combat. To that end, she based her garment after that of the Wych Cults of our darker kin.”
Ashe said that, Juhani came out from behind her locker door, this time, wearing a tight, yet revealing black suit, which seemed a lot thinner than Rainbows garment.
Goroic moved behind Juhani, embracing her in a tight hug, as Rainbow turned away and pulled out her own, non-wing restricting, suit, and slipped into it, before grabbing a small bracer and standing back, and closing the door to her locker and looking a the symbol. A lightning bolt coming out of a cloud.
Her Cutie mark.
Her defining feature.
Soon, everyone else had donned the clothes they would wear outside of the shrine, and at a nod from Jolee, the seven Hawks exited the temple.
***
Rainbow had forgotten just how big Saim-Hann really was. It was easy to forget that outside of the shields and nanoglass, the dark void of space waited, prepared to strike down those who thought they were its master the moment they made even the tiniest miscalculation. She knew that Eldar technology was advanced enough to stop it, but it was humbling to think that it was possible for just one hit, to spell doom for a member of the craftworld. A single meteor or weapon discharge hitting the outer shell, and the resulting vacuum could easily de-pressure a small space.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the morbid thought, Rainbow instead looked around her surroundings, and suddenly realised that she had been to this part of the craftworld before.
“Hey, I remember this place.” She exclaimed.
“I thought you might.” Tar’nek smiled, before pointing out a statue. “Au-henal, remember?”
“This is where you first found me.” Rainbow smiled.
“And my friends, Rainbow.” Tar’nek reminded her. “The other honour guard of Nar’bok, who if they got my message, should be…”
“Here.” Said another voice, and Rainbow turned to see an Eldar adorned in a heavy black leather body suit walking towards the group. “Or more specifically, over there.”
“Maura!” Tar’nek exclaimed happily, embracing the Eldar, before turning to Rainbow. “You remember Maura? The Dark Reaper?”
“I do.” She smiled back.
“Come. The others already have a table in the courtyard. It will be big enough to seat us all.” Maura said, indicating for the group to follow him.
***
“I swear, ten feet tall and with big teeth!” Tar’nek said, deep in the midst of a story.
“You’re lying through your teeth! Squigs aren’t that big.” Faren laughed, taking a sip from his glass.
“I’d have gone bonkers!” Rainbow laughed, downing her own glass.
“I mean, it turns out those white things are tusks and I mean tusks! And it’s woken, and it’s not happy.” Tar’nek continued.
“How could you not know it was there?” Jolee asked exasperatedly.
“And we’re standing there, the five of us, naked!” Quek added, getting a nod from Tar’nek, who had his mouth full with food and couldn’t reply himself.
“Naked?!” Juhani asked.
“And I’m like, of, no, no, it’s got nothing to do with me. And then it roars, and we are running. Oh Isha we are running! And Ionth falls, so I turn to him and I say…” Tar’nek started, finishing his mouthful.
“…I knew we should have turned left!” Rainbow shouted, picking up where the story was going.
***
Canterlot, at the exact same moment.
***
“I knew we should have turned left!” Pinkie shouted, just before rainbow could say it.
“Umm, yeah.” Rainbow said, shaking her head at Pinkies antiques.
“However you do that Pinkie…” Celestia smiled, before nodding to Rainbow.
***
Saim-Hann
***
“That’s my line!” Tar’nek shouted, reaching over and lightly punching Rainbow on the foreleg.
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe a word you say ever. That’s so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?” Juhani laughed.
“No, I just picked Ionth up and went right to our jetbikes, full throttle. Didn’t stop until I hit the rest of the clans’ forces. We were all shaking. It was unbelievable.” Tar’nek explained.
“Nar’bok didn’t really approve of that did he?” Fu’rage asked in amusement.
“No, he wasn’t.” Ionth affirmed.
“That sounds like fun.” Rainbow smiled, taking a bite out of the food she had in front of her. From what she could gather, the closest they had to a description for it back in Equestria was a mix between a root vegetable and a tomato.
“So go on Rainbow.” Makhutar said, turning to face her. “Tell us a story of your home.”
“Well, I guess there was this one time me and my friends went to an experimental party of Pinkies.” Rainbow said, thinking back to the time.
“What happened?” Jolee asked.
“Pinkie had discovered that the Cider Applejack sold was non-alcoholic, and insisted on throwing us one of her parties instantly. We didn’t know that she had discovered alcohol, and she put so much sugar in all her drinks we couldn’t even taste the difference.” Rainbow laughed. “Long story short, Twilight found herself sleeping on top of a fifty foot statue of Starswirl the bearded, Applejack turned up in Appleoosa, Rarity spent a night with an equally intoxicated pony, and she still won’t say who it was, and I ended up floating on a cloud miles out to sea.”
“Didn’t you say you had five friends? What about the other one and this ‘Pinkie Pie’?” Faren asked.
“Oh, Pinkie, she didn’t do anything. She drank almost as much as me and AJ, but it didn’t even phase her. As for Fluttershy, I’m not sure she even drank.”
“Speaking of drinking Rainbow, I do believe that when we first met, Maura said something about you being competition for me.” Ionth said, looking between the Dark Reaper and the pony.
“I simply said that with the ease she downed the full glass of Re’ka, it would be interesting to see who would come out on top.” Maura clarified.
“Well then let’s settle it.” Ionth laughed, grabbing the jug from the table and pouring Rainbow and himself another glass full. “First one to pass out loses.”
“You’re on.” Rainbow said, grabbing the glass and placing it near her lips. “You ready.”
“When you are fly-girl.” Ionth winked.
“Whatever spider.” Rainbow grinned back, before draining the glass and slamming it back down on the table in tandem with Ionth.
“This could last a long time.” Fu’rage muttered to the others.
***
Twelve glasses later
***
“That’s…thir…teen.” Rainbow slurred, shakily placing the glass back on the table.
“Right…behind…you.” Ionth slurred, going to place his own glass back on the table, but missing, and tumbling to the floor instead. The sound of snoring signified what state he was now in.
“And it looks like once again, the Swooping Hawks prove superior to the Warp Spiders.” Juhani pointed out with a grin, before looking at Rainbow. “Come on, let’s get…”She began, but was cut off by another voice.
“Rainbow?” called an Eldar, walking over to the table, and flanked by two other Eldar.
“E…garion?” Rainbow managed, looking up at the spinning form of the Exodite.
“One and the same.” She smiled politely, before gesturing to the two other Eldar with her. “Dorgolmar and Aranel are here to, just in case you can’t see them in your current state.”
“Just what have you been doing Rainbow?” Aranel asked.
“Drinking.” The group replied in unison.
“Heavily.” Tar’nek added.
“Well then, could you please let her know that we stopped by, and would like to speak to her if she recovers enough in the next three cycles.” Egarion asked.
“I’ll make sure she remembers.” Jolee assured her.
Bowing deeply, Egarion and the other Exodites turned and walked over to their own table, while the rest of the group turned back to face Rainbow, who was now lying on her back on the floor.
“Yo Rainbow Dash.” Goroic said, his voice becoming more distorted to rainbow as she slipped from consciousness. “You alright?”
***
Rainbow lay in bed, feeling like her brain had been squeezed into a jar two sizes too small. Her vision, whether her eyes were open or closed, was filled with the glaring faces of the disapproving looks of her friends... and she could have sworn that there Twilight actually called her a lightweight. Her legs twitched as she sprawled on her side. All she had to do was crawl out… but her legs just twitched and jerked again as she went nowhere.
She could just lie here… yes… lie here in this nice soft bed and wait for sweet oblivion to claim…
“Hey, Rainbow!” Tar’nek yelled in the perfect pitch to make it feel like an ice-pick had been shoved in Rainbows ear canal. She tried to say something about loudness, volume, or killing noisy and annoying Swooping Hawks, but was fairly that certain all of that went right over his head, though, as he screeched, “Jolee told me to come in and ask you about your hangover! He said you probably had one hell of one, so I should talk really loudly! Makes perfect sense to me!”
“Ngggghhh!” was all she could reply as she flopped around and finally managed to bury her head under the pillows.
“So, Rainbow, are you hungover? Do you need me to talk louder? Hey, Rainbow! Can you hear me now? Rainbow!” He shrieked as he shook the prone form of Rainbow hard, making her stomach lurch and her bladder clench. “Can you hear me, Rainbow?”
‘She could kill them. She could kill them all. No court in on Saim-Hann would convict her’, she thought, rolling over and pushing herself up off the floor which she had just crashed to.
“Jolee wanted me to tell you that your Exodite friends called” Tar’nek shouted, a massive grin plastered on his face.
“I remember.” She groaned looking up at him from the floor. “Just…give me five minutes.
“They said they’d wait in the same place when you got up.” Tar’nek said, finally stopping the shouting and walking out of the room. “I’ll go and get in contact with them. Twenty minutes?”
“Sounds good.” She groaned.
***
Twenty minutes later, rainbow sat in the same courtyard as she had yesterday, garbed in her leather training suit and resting her head against the table. She would get Tar’nek back for that. And Jolee for that matter.
“Rainbow!” Shouted Dorgolmar, catching sight of her and beckoning for the others to follow him to the table she sat at.
“Hey.” She groaned, lifting her head up to look at the trio.
“Hungover?” Aranel asked with a slight smile.
“Let her off.” Egarion laughed. “From what I heard it was justified. The first xenos to become an aspect warrior in the history of Saim-Hann.”
“Why did you do it?” Aranel asked suddenly.
“Do what?” Rainbow asked.
“Join a shrine.” Aranel expanded.
“Tar’nek found me just after our argument. Said I was a danger to myself and the craftworld. He took me to Kaliden to help me.” Rainbow explained.
“And did it work?” Egarion asked.
“Yes.” Rainbow smiled.
“So you’ll be leaving soon? “ Dorgolmar asked.
“Why would I leave?” Rainbow asked in puzzlement.
“Well you never seemed to like combat on Hannibal, where you had to fight. Now we don’t have to fight, and you’re the only one of us who is going to be fighting.” Dorgolmar explained.
“I know, it’s just, Tar’nek saw something in me. He took me in, not the others. I can’t just leave now.”
“Fair point.” Egarion nodded.
“So what have you guys been up to?” Rainbow asked, looking around the group.
“I am beginning to tread the path of the artisan.” Egarion began. “A sculptor to be precise.”
“Path of the dreamer. Sleeping as a life style sounds good to me.” Dorgolmar grinned.
“Merchant navy.” Aranel finished.
“Awesome.” Rainbow smiled. “Hey listen, why don’t we…”
She was cut off as the bracer she wore on her foreleg started beeping. She looked up at the group sheepishly, before explaining what it was.
“The shrine is calling. I’m needed back there. We should meet up again soon though.” She smiled.
“Wait rainbow, we still need to talk to you.” Egarion said rising from her seat.
“Sorry, but I’ve really got to go.” She said apologetically, before taking to the sky and banking towards the shrines entranceway.