Rainbow stepped off her Jetbike as she landed in the hanger of the Nar’bok clan home, looking around at the Eldar who were walking around, tuning their own Jetbikes or donning wargear in preparations for the day ahead. Looking around her own area of the hanger, Rainbow sighed, running a hoof over the armour, still on its stand. The armour had gotten her through so much in the past year and a half, from Chainswords to Bolter rounds, and yet it still remained strong, capable of turning away all but the most hideous of assaults on her. Grabbing hold of one of the leg pieces, Rainbow pulled it on, slowly donning her armour, covering up her cyan fur until only her head remained uncovered, the helmet hanging loosely by her side.
Now armed, and with her sword slung across her back, Rainbow made her way further inside the clan home, heading for the feasting hall. By this time, she knew that both Tar’nek and Juhani would be awake, and even if they weren’t in the hall, someone there would know where they were. She had a few goodbyes she needed to say, a few she could live without, and one who she had to make sure of, before all others. However, that one would be her last port of call, the final thing she did before leaving Saim-Hann.
Taking a deep breath in, Rainbow pushed open the doors of the feast hall, walking into the loud, crowded room as she scanned the tables for signs of anyone she recognised. As always, she got a few odd looks due to her race, and slightly more due to the fact she was wearing armour, which wasn’t the norm in the feasting hall, but she shrugged them off, making a beeline towards a table at the far edge of the hall.
“Rainbow!” Tar’nek beamed happily. “I was wondering where you got to. Anira said you went off with Nar’bok to look at the data we recovered from Hannibal.”
“Yeah, he showed me the Webway patterns,” Rainbow nodded, sitting down on the bench between Tar’nek and Juhani, before reaching for a plate.
“Well, don’t leave us in suspense, what happened?” Juhani asked.
“There was a blip, I took the data and showed it to the Seer council,” Rainbow said, taking a bite of the piece of fruit in front of her. “I’m leaving in a cycle.”
“What?” Tar’nek asked, coughing up the mouthful of food he had been in the process of swallowing. “Leaving?”
“They found it,” Rainbow smiled, “Well, gave me something to go on at least. There was a portal opening when I arrived. If I can just find that thing…”
“Then you’ll be able to get home,” Juhani finished for her. “So where’s the portal? We’ll come and wish you off by it.”
“That’s the thing,” Rainbow sighed, her smile fading slightly. “The council, they don’t know where it is. Only one place has that information, meaning I’ve got to find the Black Library of Chaos.”
“So…let me get this straight,” Tar’nek began, leaning forward slightly, “you’ve found out that you managed to break through the webway, without technology, and without simultaneously burning up from the speeds of crashing through the webway’s walls, flash freezing in the few seconds you probably were exposed to the vacuum of space, and ripping yourself apart on anything you landed on on Hannibal, and now you’re just going to go off and search the webway for the lost Craftworld of the Eldar, the same one that is supposed to be the hardest place to find in any dimension? Is that about right?”
“Umm….yeah,” Rainbow nodded. “When you put it like that, it just seems so bleak. Where’s your can-do attitude?”
“There’s a can-do attitude, and then there’s just stupid,” Juhani pointed out. “Even if you found the Black Library, let’s just say you manage to get to it before you luck out and die of something, what makes you think that they’ll just allow you in? They don’t exactly run tours of the Craftworld after all.”
“I can see it now,” Tar’nek laughed. “’Welcome to the Black Library of Chaos – Adults ten credits, under one hundred year olds go free.’ I’m sure the Solitaires and the Guardians of the Black would just be fine with that.”
“I don’t care,” Rainbow replied bluntly. “I don’t care if it means I’ll die, I don’t care if I’ll starve while searching for it, and I don’t even care if when I get there, they refuse me entry, but I’ve got to try. I’m going home, one way or another, I will see my friends again. I’ve got to.”
“Rainbow, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but you won’t find it,” Tar’nek pressed, looking straight at the Pegasus. “If you go, you’ll die. Stay on the Craftworld, we can look for a way to get you home together, but not like this.”
“You always knew my time here was only until I could find a way home,” Rainbow smiled weakly. “I don’t know if I’ll get another chance Tar’nek. There’s so much that could go wrong with this plan, but it’s all I’ve got. I’ve got to try.”
“Would saying that this is a plea from me convince you to stay?” Tar’nek asked.
“No, it wouldn’t,” Rainbow shook her head, her voice cracking slightly and her bottom lip quivering. You guys, you’ve been amazing friends, you helped me get through everything, and have put up with my shit for over a year, but I can’t stay here for you. My friends, my old ones, they mean everything to me. I’ve got to find them, and I’ll risk everything I have for that, but I won’t risk anyone else. I’ve got to do this without you guys, if you died trying to get me home…I’d never forgive myself.”
“And what do you think we’ll do when you leave Rainbow?” Juhani asked. “I don’t want to see you go. You’re the only one who can beat me in a sword fight if nothing else.”
“And I’ll always be that mare that beat you when we got initiated,” Rainbow smiled back. “But I can’t let this go, I just can’t. I’m the Element of Loyalty, as in, the most loyal pony in all of Equestria, the only one who can wield it. If I let this opportunity slide, I’m not loyal to anyone, least of all myself, and if I do that, I might as well just give up my name along with everything else.”
“Your heart’s set on this isn’t it?” Tar’nek sighed.
“I’m going, that’s a fact. I just…wanted to say goodbye first. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I just upped and left you two as well. I already did that when I came here, I’m not doing it when I leave.”
“The good luck Rainbow,” Tar’nek smiled, before pulling her into a tight hug. “Just, promise me one thing. If you don’t get in, if you find the Black Library and are turned away, come back here. You can still have your own life on Saim-Hann, start afresh.”
“I know I can, but I don’t want one,” Rainbow smiled weakly. “This place, it’s designed for two feet. I need to get back to a place with hooves in mind. But I promise that if I find it and can’t get in, I’ll come back. But if I don’t find it, I’ll keep looking, even if that means spending the rest of my life looking for it.”
With that, Rainbow got up, smiling at the pair for a final time, before walking towards the door to the hall, sliding it open and disappearing from sight.
“You care about her, don’t you Tar’nek?” Juhani chuckled.
“Yes Juhani, I do,” Tar’nek nodded with a smile, before leaning over and lightly kissing her cheek. “But not like that.”
“Good. I was getting worried I had a rival,” she smirked, returning the kiss with one of her own, before turning to watch as Rainbow walked from the hall, heading back towards the garage. “She’s a good kid Tar’nek. If anyone of us could find the Black Library, it would be her. I mean, when has she ever let impossible odds and the chance of death stopped her from doing anything?”
“Never,” Tar’nek chuckled. “I guess you’re right, but she’s like family to us now you know? One of the last members of the Floating Assault.”
“And because of that, she’ll be fine. Kaliden trained us well, better than most of the Exarchs of the other temples would have done,” Juhani assured him. “Come on, we can go to the hanger to wish her off it that would help.”
“Yeah, yeah it would,” Tar’nek nodded, before getting up from the table and making his way out of the feasting hall, followed swiftly by Juhani as the pair made their way into the main hanger.
Striding down to the far end, Tar’nek watched as Rainbow clamped her helmet onto her armour, sealing herself in, before swinging her leg over the bike. He didn’t say anything, and he doubted that she knew he was there, but he watched her all the same, right up until she shot out of the hanger bay, disappearing into the distance of the craftworld.
“She’ll be fine Tar’nek,” Juhani assured him, placing a comforting hand on his back.
“I know she will,” Tar’nek nodded, before turning, walking back towards the rear of the hanger. “Come on, there’s someone we need to talk to.”
***
Rainbow sped across the skies of Saim-Hann, weaving in and out of the other traffic crossing the Craftworld, drawing some odd looks from the other bikers as she shot past them, being the fastest thing in the skies at the time. Unless the crimson hunters decided to break out their hangers, then it would remain that way.
“Rainbow?” The voice of Tar’nek asked suddenly, coming over her helmet comm with such clarity that she had to double check that he wasn’t sitting right beside her, however impossible that would have been.
“Tar’nek? Is that you?” She replied, slowing the bike down to a crawl so she didn’t risk crashing out.
“It is,” Tar’nek replied. “I know we already said our goodbyes, but I found something that might interest you.”
“What? I only have a day, and I’ve still got to get to the Forest of Ghosts,” Rainbow pointed out.
“I understand that, but if you want to make sure you see everyone you should before leaving, go back to the square where I first met you. You’ll know who you’re looking for when you get there.”
With that, the radio went dead, leaving Rainbow feeling puzzled, before she shook her head and accelerated her bike again, changing the heading she was travelling on. It didn’t take her long to reach her destination, and she quickly set her bike down in a clearing just beside the square, hopping off it and removing her helmet, slowly walking towards the bar.
“Your friend told you then?” Someone asked from behind Rainbow, a voice she hadn’t heard since before she had fought against the forces of chaos.
Whirling around, Rainbow looked at the three Eldar facing her, a frown cresting her muzzle as she fought with emotions that were raging inside her head. She wasn’t quite scowling, but she would be lying if she said she was ecstatic about who Tar’nek had arranged a meeting with.
“Yes Egarion, Tar’nek told me to come here,” Rainbow nodded, before looking at Dorgolmar and Aranel, giving them a curt nod.
“So, you’re leaving the Craftworld then?” Egarion continued, not cracking her face.
“I’m leaving one to go to another,” Rainbow nodded. “I can go home Egarion, that’s all I want to do.”
“So you’re not fighting anymore?” Aranel asked sceptically.
“I didn’t say that did I?” Rainbow deadpanned. “I’ll fight if I need to, and considering the fact that I still need to find the goddess damned Black Library.”
“You honestly think you’ll be able to find it?” Dorgolmar asked with a quizzical smile. “I mean, it sounds like it could be a fun thing to look for, but no one ever finds the Black Library until they want to be found.”
“Then I’ll make them want to be found,” Rainbow said simply. “I’m going to go home, I want to see my friends, my friends that accept me. Not ones who try and tell me that I’m doing wrong because it’s not what they’re doing.”
“That’s cold Rainbow,” Egarion scowled. “Elarique said…”
“Not to lose myself out here,” Rainbow finished. “But what does that actually mean Egarion? Don’t fight? Elarique taught me how to fight, so I doubt it was that. Don’t go looking for home and get lost in the webway? I doubt it, he knew I wanted to get home, Talvan to. No, he meant don’t lose who I am, don’t give into the war mask. I think I can say I’ve done that with a bit of success, considering the fact that I can’t put it on again. I haven’t betrayed Elarique, I’ve done what he said, and now, I’m doing what he would have wanted.”
“You have lost yourself Rainbow,” Egarion pressed. “You aren’t the same as on Hannibal.”
“Of course I’m not,” Rainbow scoffed. “That mare is dead, squashed down by this universe, ripped apart by violence and reduced to ashes by the fires of war, but I’m still here, the proverbial phoenix. I am Rainbow. The Pegasus, transformed.”
“Yes you are,” Egarion nodded sadly. “But transformed into what?”
“We won’t keep you any longer Rainbow,” Aranel added, walking forward. “If this is your last time seeing us, then we can at least depart on even terms.”
He slowly dropped to one knee, bringing him to Rainbow’s eye level, before extending his hand, proffering it to Rainbow. Smiling, she took it allowing her to grip her hoof and shake it gently.
“Whatever happened between us Rainbow, I’m glad to have known you,” Aranel smiled.
“And I’m glad to have called you friends,” Rainbow replied. “I’m sorry that we drifted apart, but some things…some things just won’t happen.”
“True friendship, it’s like a rose,” Dorgolmar said softly. “We never appreciate its beauty until it’s gone, for a broken friendship can be a comma or a full stop. It is up to us to decide which we choose for ourselves.”
“That was beautiful,” Rainbow smiled.
“You know, sometimes I forget that you’re a clever person Dorgolmar,” Egarion chuckled softly.
“Let’s leave it on a comma,” Rainbow smiled, looking between the three Eldar. “I don’t like full stops.”
“That sounds acceptable,” Aranel nodded. “Good luck Rainbow. I hope you find all the answers you need.”
“I will, or I’ll die. There’s no middle ground for me, there never was,” Rainbow chuckled softly, before turning, walking back to her Jetbike. “If I do fail, if I have to come back, I’ll come find you guys. If I’m not going home, maybe we can make things right, keep the sentence going after that comma.”
“I’ll hold you to that Rainbow,” Dorgolmar called, shouting to be heard over roar of the Jetbikes engines, watching as she headed out across the Craftworld.
“The Forest of Ghosts is that way,” Aranel mused. “Think that’s where she’s going?”
“She’s saying goodbye to everyone who mattered to her on the Craftworld. Who do you think she’s going to talk to,” Egarion said with a slight smirk. “Talking to the dead. Anywhere else, they’d think she was crazy or a necromancer.”
“We’re all crazy,” Dorgolmar chuckled.
“Yeah, just some are crazier than others, right Dor?” Aranel laughed.
“Guilty as charged,” Dorgolmar nodded, keeping an eye on the speck that was Rainbow as she descended over the central node of the Forest of Ghosts.
***
Rainbow sighed as she breathed in the unique scent of the Forest of Ghosts, the slightly ionised air smelling not of death as one would have imagined, but rather of a peaceful, Zen like area, not unlike the smell that seemed to cover the statue garden in Canterlot. Everything seemed peaceful here, the worries of the universe being a million miles away from her right now. She just regretted not coming her more often, and for leaving so quickly the first time.
For a long time, she sat on her Jetbikes saddle, leaning back and allowing the whispers of the spirits that resided here to whisper to her, snaking in and out of her ears as she closed her eyes, instead opening her mind’s eye to the forest, just like Makhutar had taught her when she had first begun her training as a Swooping Hawk.
The voices seemed to grow in magnitude as Rainbow looked around the inside of her mind, scowling at the black cracks that were present around the edges, and especially the one that was pointed straight at her, descending from above as if it wanted to reach out and strangle her, which in a way, she supposed it did. If that touched her, she didn’t know what would happen, if she would die, if she would fall to the war mask completely, or if something equally as terrible would happen, but she didn’t want to find out.
Focusing on the voices, Rainbow began to slowly drown them out, reducing the noise in her head, before she finally narrowed it down to two solitary voices, the owners of them quickly materialising in front of her. The last time she had seen these two, they had been much larger, rendered down to souls occupying massive Wraithbone armour, but this time they looked like she chose to remember them, like they had looked when they had first met her on Hannibal.
“Rainbow,” Elarique beamed. “I thought I felt a familiar presence drawing me out.”
“It is nice to be able to stretch out of the spirit matrix,” Talvan agreed, stretching his arms. “A Wraithseer, it’s no place for a warrior to live. Lyanden, I feel sorry for those poor souls, doomed to walk in Wraithbone shells for eternity.”
“It is sad,” Elarique nodded, “But it is also not a concern for the living. Only the dead can know their pain, and it is not for us to burden the living with that knowledge. I am guessing Rainbow didn’t come here just to talk, something is on her mind, am I right?”
“I’m leaving,” she nodded her head. “The Wind Rider clan that took me in, Nar’bok, got word of Hannibal. We rode there, and managed to retrieve the webway data from the node there, meaning I know how I got here. I broke through the webway, and I’m going to get back in.”
“You went back to Hannibal?” Talvan asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise. “I thought you said the Tyranids…”
“Overran it,” Elarique finished with a sigh. “Yeah, nothing we did at Aspoh fields changed everything, but then again, we didn’t expect it to do anything but slow down the swarm. Saim-Hann was supposed to stop it, but even they failed.”
“It was gone, there was nothing there that even remotely resembled the Hannibal I knew, but the world spirit was intact, despite some meddling mechanicus morons,” Rainbow chuckled. “I’m just saying goodbye to everyone, before I leave Saim-Hann, hopefully forever.”
“You’ve made me proud Rainbow, you know that?” Elarique smiled. “So proud, it’s like a father watching his kid grow up when I look at you. You’ve done so much, things that no one would have expected you to try, let alone succeed in. I was on Verbatim VIII, Talvan to. We know what happened with you and the humans, and I’ve got to say I’m proud. Not everyone could seal a warp portal, hell, if it had been anyone else, we might have lost the planet, and then the craftworld. You have no idea how much that prospect terrified me, and all the other souls here.”
“Death should only be experienced once,” Talvan nodded solemnly. “But if that is our fate, so be it, just like your fate is in the Black Library of Chaos. You can find it Rainbow, I believe in you, Elarique as well. Traverse the webway, speak to the Rangers guarding the portal nodes, and you may just find it.”
“Promise me one thing though Rainbow,” Elarique said, placing a hand on Rainbow. “You will avoid the dark node of Commoragh. Evil, vile things, happen in that place. I don’t want to see you there.”
“Don’t worry Elarique, I promise,” Rainbow smiled, pulling both him and Talvan into one last hug, before the trio faded from rainbows mind, the Pegasus opening her physical eyes once more.
Rainbow sighed as she looked around the Forest of Ghosts for the final time, trying to listen for Elarique’s and Talvan’s voices one more time, but hearing nothing. The forest was silent, eerily so, as if the universe had decided that sound was an unnecessary factor in the existence of organics, and so had decided to stop it. She couldn’t even hear the sound of her own breathing as she replaced her helmet, starting up her bike once more and finally, mercifully, she heard something, the engines roaring as she shot off towards the webway portals on the furthest edge of the craftworld.
It didn’t take her long to get there, looking up at the shimmering portals as she stopped in front of the towering buttresses that supported them, keeping them contained and allowing passage through them. These were not the largest ones on the Craftworld, there were bigger ones in orbit, ones that would allow even the largest of ships to enter, but these ones were better trodden, used on an almost daily basis by at least one person or another.
She didn’t know which one to take, or even if there was much of a difference between them, and there wasn’t exactly someone she could ask for help, so she did what she thought was best, relying on solely on her instincts to guide her towards home.
Choosing one of the smaller portals, she positioned herself in front of it, readying herself for the final hurdle of her journey through this universe. It had been a crazy experience, one filled with pain and loss and tears, but at the same time, she had found friends, both in the form of Eldar and Humans, she had had laughs, so many good times. So many good memories. No matter what had happened out here, she wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
This is it, she thought to herself, looking up at the webway portal in front of her, I’m actually going to do this? To leave the Craftworld to look for the hardest place to find in existence? Am I mad?
She chuckled at that last thought, realising the answer would be plain to anyone who so much as spoke to her these days, especially back home. She was mad. Physically broken and completely and utterly mad. Why else would she constantly throw herself in harm’s way, continually putting her life at risk? The madness was always with her, but it was a madness that defined who she was, her one factor that above all others dictated her actions, even before she came to this universe, stretching as far back as she could remember. That madness had a name, one that ponies would use to dress it up, to try and disguise what it really was, but Rainbow now saw what it could lead to, all the good this madness could do. Now she saw the truth of her madness.
Rainbow gunned the engines of her Jetbike, shooting forward and hitting the shimmering surface of the portal, disappearing from the surface of the craftworld for the last time. It was an odd experience, travelling from the physical universe to the parallel reality that was the webway, but her madness kept her going. It was what it did.
That was the madness of Loyalty.