"Val Roa?!" Seclorum exclaimed, gawking.
Arcshod and several other Xonans glanced at one another with similar confusion.
"Uhm... some details would be a big help, Color Wheel," Josho muttered across the lamplight.
"It's a kingdom located far to the east," Rainbow Dash said, facing all of the gathered survivors of the hold. "Like... super far. But that's small stuff for a Queen like Chrysalis to sweat. She's got her broodlings situated—like—everywhere, and they're all picking up information about everything under the sun, giving her the freedom to move east and do what it is that she wants to do."
"Which is...?" Prowse leaned forward, pale brow furrowed.
"Well... uhm... that's hard to say," Rainbow Dash said. "But considering who and what she's impersonated before..." She gave Lasairfion a brief glance and continued. "...odds are it won't be good for the ponies who live in that place."
"Is she gonna start another super stupid war?!" Props remarked.
"I don't see what's stopping her," Rainbow Dash said. "Chrysalis was once an alicorn who lived in the kingdom where I'm from, Equestria," she explained. "Her and her sister Tchern have been in exile for countless thousands of years, during which they've mutated into shapeshifting monsters who feed on emotion."
"There's another changeling queen named Tchern?!" Seclorum exclaimed.
Rainbow swiveled to stare blankly at them. "What, you didn't get that out of the little fella after days and weeks of torture?"
Seclorum clenched his jaws and said nothing.
Razzar's masked face turned left and right. He stepped forward from the Lounge, his voice crackling to life: "Assuming Chrysalis has a diabolical plan for the kingdom of Val Roa, then what is her purpose with this place?"
"Who's to know who or what Stratopolis actually belongs to," Rainbow Dash said with a shrug. "I have my ideas—but none of that is important right now. What is important is that Chrysalis has been using this place as a base of operations, and it will totally benefit her to have it located much closer to her new place of operations."
"You mean Val Roa?" Prowse remarked.
"Think about it," Aatxe said from where he stood beside Ranbow. "Chrysalis has been impersonating Lasairfion for months... years. She needed a place to keep most of the replaced ponies—a prison where the changelings could gather, feed, recharge, and then fly back into action."
"The Strip of Flurries has been masking this place for Celestia-knows how long!" Rainbow exclaimed. "But it's too dang far away to be of any use to her in Val Roa."
"So she needs to move it," Razzar remarked. "That would suggest that she knows some way of accessing the navigation systems of this place."
"Rainbow Dash, for it is called," Lasairfion's voice resonated. Arcshod and other Xonans stepped aside as she shuffled forward, staring inquisitively at her. "It is curious that it has so many attachments to this place."
Silence. Rainbow blinked, then pointed at her. "What? Me?"
Lasairfion nodded. "Its rulers held past blood with that which mothers the brood. Its wings match those in corpses and mosaics."
"Yeah... about that..." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a nervous smile. "Ehhh... seems like this place flew by Equestria long, long ago. A bunch of ancient pegasi led by Commander Hurricane took control of Stratopolis, it would seem."
"It would seem?" Seclorum remarked, squinting at the pegasus. "Well, did she or didn't she?"
"That's what the words on her tomb suggest," Rainbow said with a shrug. "The ancient warriors of Pegasopolis saw this place as a big huge threat to the Harmony of Equestria and moved it."
"How?" Razzar asked.
"Uhhhhhh..." Rainbow Dash blinked.
"Rainbow..." Josho spoke, staring at her pointedly.
Props leaned in. "Your magic touch..."
"Magic... touch...?" Lasairfion repeated.
Rainbow gulped and said, "Turns out that the crystals that filled the control room around Hurricane's tomb responded to my touch and nopony else's. Well... uhm... nopony—that is—until..."
"Until the damnable shape shifters took your form and screwed everything up for your friends and us!" Seclorum said with a growl. "Sometimes I wonder just how much help you are, Miss Dash."
"Secchy, lay off," Josho grumbled.
"Why should I?!" Seclorum gestured with his hoof. "Don't you see?! Chrysalis and her goons had the foresight to expect this! Hell! They could have coerced your and your friends to specifically take the flight path you did that brought you here! Just how many blood tests did you give the strangers you met on your journey from the Xonan battlefield?!"
Josho sighed and ran a hoof through his hair. "None..."
"Exactly! For the love of the Spark! Nothing's happened that they haven't somehow orchestrated!"
"Bloody Hell..." Prowse stammered.
"Secchy, if you've paid any damned attention..." Josho growled. "You'll realize that Rainbow's done enough and lost enough to prove that she's on our side—"
"But!" Rainbow silenced the room, her eyes darting across everyone's gaze. "I won't deny that—yeah—there's been a lot of diabolical fluff thrown into the mix here. From what the changeling told me, it's pretty clear that Chrysalis has anticipated my arrival."
"Equestria was going to be Chrysalis' second target," Aatxe added. "But... uhm..." He glanced nervously at Rainbow. "Looks like something made her choose Val Roa at the last second."
Rainbow sighed, her wings drooping. She closed her eyes, gulped, and glanced up. "A lot of bad stuff went down in my kingdom when I began my journey. Equestria suffered a major blow. Harmony took a big dip while... erm... a chaos rift s-sorta formed in the center of the nation. I... I-I lost a lot of good friends..." She gulped. "I lost everything."
The ponies were silent as they waited for her to go on.
"Long story short, there's nothing to feed on in my hometown cuz the banquet food's already gone stale."
"So the bug lass is fixin' to get her something meatier to munch on?" Prowse remarked.
Rainbow nodded. "Seems like Val Roa is a peaceful enough place for her to set up shop..." She exhaled through flaring nostrils. "And do to that kingdom what she's done to Xona and Ledomare."
The survivors mumbled amongst themselves.
"But I feel as though you keep deviating from the most important matter at hand," Razzar said, pointing at the pegasus. "She was waiting for you to show up in this place, because you obviously act as some sort of key."
"It would seem so, yeah," Rainbow Dash said with a nod. "But it's gotta be for doing more than just moving a bunch of huge friggin' temples into one another and crashing them into bits."
"Maybe she knows of some way to control all of Stratopolis?!" Props remarked, her bright blue eyes glancing at everypony. "Could there be a hidden chamber of sorts?"
"We'd be looking for a door, if that was the case," Aatxe said.
Ponies murmured aloud, pondering.
Then, with sudden enlightenment, Lasairfion's regal eyes widened. "Urohringr," she murmured.
Rainbow Dash gave her a double-take. "Buh?"
Arcshod gaped at his queen. "He'lunniul trenna su'lien Austraeoh niul Urohringr en'vanna sien?"
Lasairfion nodded. "Dreit." She turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "Has it heard the legend of the Celestial Circle?"
"Hooboy..." Rainbow's ears drooped as she glared boredly. "Here we go."