//------------------------------// // It Is a Big Grand Joke // Story: Ynanhluutr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// All of the shadows dwindled—save for one—in the size of a dainty equine mare standing before Rainbow. Verlax's slitted eyes opened, blue and piercing. “That living torch... that spark of salvation is you, Austraeoh.” The shadow slowly shook its head. “But you will not get there on just harmony alone. Sooner than later you shall discover that chaos is as equally useful and necessary an ally.” Rainbow frowned. “You can cut the crap right now, 'cuz no way in heck am I gonna let chaos take the reins.” “And have you not already?” The Divine's voice resonated with amusement. The equine shadow cocked its head to the side from beyond the blizzard. “Did a single Element of Harmony make it all this long and dreadful distance? Dying more than once—only to be reborn? It wasn't just Eljunbyro that saved you, Rainbow Dash. Your body had learned to embrace the touch of death a long, long time ago. How else do you think you've been capable of returning?” Rainbow Dash was shivering at this point. She hung her head, her eyes piercing the golden platform beneath her. In a blink, she envisioned the rusted, blood-stained laboratory floors situated deep beneath Blue Shelf. Clenching her eyes shut, she couldn't shake the look of fear on Roarke's face as she dragged a chaotic beast out from beneath a collapsed airship. The shadow paced around her. “And your friends. Surely, they are parts of the harmonic flame, carried by loyalty itself. But what has been the vessel, Rainbow Dash? What has preserved them instead of losing their essences to limbo?” “Everywhere I've gone...” Rainbow Dash droned, teeth clenched as she fought her shakes. “...I've done all I could to spread harmony.” She gulped hard. “The war in Ledomare is over. Darkstine avoided a civil conflict. Silvadel is at peace and Val Roa—” “And just how much of that have you accomplished by being a good, angelic missionary of harmony, my little pony?” Rainbow turned away from the shadow. It formed together on the other side, occupying her vision yet again. “The Austraeoh's purpose is not defined solely through peace or discord,” Verlax said. “If you are to save this world, to undo the Sundering so that one day the universal cycle will let it happen again, you must transcend that which is black or white. You've already accomplished this, Rainbow Dash. You've done it more times than even I or the alicorns or the metamorphic queen can account for. However, you must accept this reality for what it is. You must embrace it, or else your journey will not even make it to the dark side of this plane, and all of my trials will have been orchestrated for nothing.” Rainbow opened her eyes. Tilting her head up, she glared at the figure. “What do you mean... trials?” “The moment I realized that this world was calling the spark east, I understood that these lands would act as the final hurdle for the Austraeoh's journey. For decades... centuries... millennia, I prepared for such an arrival, augmenting the beacons so that they would fuel the flame. Only through such trials would I know... would we all know... and would you know that the time for rebirth had arrived.” “Are you trying to tell me that... you somehow fixed it so that my friends would appear to me when they did?” “I would certainly like to think so,” Verlax said, suppressing a giggle. “Pfft! Horse hockey.” “The Element of Magic,” Verlax suddenly droned, her shadow standing tall and proper with a flick of the tail. “Representing a soundness of mind, a rational approach to problem solving, and confidence in the presence of friends. Mastery of this Element means understanding how to function with it... as well as without it. Tell me, Austraeoh, have you experienced a bout of madness lately?” Rainbow Dash blinked. “I... I found Twilight right after... right after...” She blinked, shuddering slightly. The mare brought a hoof to her head as she teetered from the sheer magnitude of the thought. “I just... just felt so alone... so friendless.” She gulped. “All of the magic was gone. My wings couldn't even work! I was lost in such a huge friggin' desert full of nothing and... and...” Her jaw dropped. She gazed up at the shadow. “Holy cow... did... did you invent the Grand Choke...?!?” Instead of answering, the shadow paced around the eye of the storm, murmuring: “The Element of Generosity, something embodied by its selflessness and altruism. However, to properly ascertain the poignancy of giving, you also have to take... and shamelessly too. Did you truly get to the Nealend Atoll by fruits of your own labor?” “Well, n-no. Nick... Sinrar... the Nealenders...” Rainbow gulped. “They helped me—” The shadow scuffled to a stop, its blue eyes peering down at her. “And did you ask for such help? Or did you hijack them?” “Well... well I...” Rainbow grimaced, fumbling for words. “No! I mean... it all ended up alright in the end! Nick f-found true love and Sinrar... uhhhh...” “Did the Nealenders ever ask for their whirlpool to be replaced with a tower?” Verlax asked. “Or for the source of their favorite hunt to be driven away? All just to help a wandering pegasus reunite with her phantom friend?” Rainbow bit her lip, her eyes darting back and forth. The shadow strolled closer to the wall of blizzard, but not so close as to pierce it. “Two cities. One above the ocean, and the other beneath it. There has been pain amongst the citizenry, yes. Even acts as merciless as arson. But, all in all, these remote colonies have existed in equilibrium with one another for decades. And then—with harmony as her goal—a wayward soul arrives to disrupt the balance through the most criminal means possible. It's an absurd act of heroism at best, with very little planning and very little chance of positive results. An impulsive exercise in organized calamity if ever there was one.” “A joke...” Rainbow Dash muttered, her eyebrow twitching. “...a laughable plan... desperadoes and a desperate pegasus...” Rainbow felt a lump forming in her throat. With ears folded, she looked up at the shadow. “Are you now learning, Austraeoh?” Verlax asked. “Are you now realizing the lines that you must cross to form a circle?” Rainbow's expression hardened into a sneer. “If you for once think that I'm going to—” “But you have. That much cannot be denied, Rainbow Dash. Nor is it the crux of the issue.” Verlax strolled around in a circle. “You are here only because you had to take major steps... major steps that you wouldn't have taken beforehand... in a time when the other Elements of Harmony were alive to judge you. Well, now, there is no way to avoid their scrutiny. To gain them, you must lose them. And to help you, they must embrace you... just as you must embrace yourself.” “No...” “The destiny of Austraeoh is absolute. It was spelled into being long before I too became a spoke in the great machine that wills it. The Sundering must be undone, and now that one flame has been called this far, I shall see to the completion of its journey—at least as far as I am able.” Rainbow stomped a hoof. “Stop pretending like any of this crud is excusable! Tell me! Did you really make the Grand Choke?!” She snarled and shivered upon the brink of hyperventilating. “Did you really build an entire desert of magic, starving and isolating countless civilizations, just so you could put a hapless pegasus like me through some stupid test?!” “I did what you and I both had to do, Austraeoh. You have your contributions, and I have mine. At this juncture, however, I only intend to enlighten you.” The shadow loomed closer, growing, enlarging. “Before you reach the edge, you are going to have to do very disharmonious... very dishonest... very unkind things.” Five horns protruded from the dragon's skull, and the eyeslits burned brighter. “And before you rapture this world from its frigid plight... a lot... and I do mean a lot of souls are going to die.” Icy vapors bled through the blizzard's wall. “Make peace with your chaotic side, Rainbow Dash, before it wages war with the whole of you. This world cannot survive without Austraeoh, and the healthy circle will not repeat.” Rainbow shook her head. “Forget it! What you're expecting of me is stupid... laughable!” “I would certainly hope so!” The shadow's head reared back as she chuckled. “It is all a big, grand joke!” A pause, and the draconian shape bowed. “And on that note, I give you your gift...” Just like that, the swirling snow faded, the shadow melting along with it. In a blink, Rainbow spotted a dozen statues standing around her—all collapsing into rusted metal shingles. Then, right before her, a pedestal of flame loomed, completely devoid of ice. She tilted her head up, and the colored bands of Yaerfaerda leapt straight at her— FLASH!!!