//------------------------------//
// The Roof of the World 
// Story: Utaan 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	Hours later, the two mares had reached the summit of their mountain.  A craggy plateau stood at the roof of the world.  The air was was moist here, and yet it wasn't nearly as cold as Rainbow Dash had anticipated.  Twilight noticed this as well, and her horn glowed as she detected unseen spots of interest around her.

Soon, Rainbow's ears twitched to the sound of errant hissing noises.  Twilight and Rarity pointed through the mists, and eventually their anchor saw what they had spotted: random jets of steam billowing upwards from cracks and fissures in the uneven mountaintop.  Thermal pressure from deep within the earth was venting its heat from numerous pores within the rock.  While it certainly increased the temperature of the plateau, the air was far from sweltering.  Rainbow noticed that much of the ice had dwindled past a fading snowline, but not much else.  The air still had a cold sting to it, and the clouds dipped constantly from overhead, carrying blistery patches of frosted air.

Rainbow and Remna continued trekking northwest, shuffling their way gradually down a craggy incline bathed in cold fog.  The floor here was a polished marble, scalded to a glinting sheen by an untold number of hot steam bursts throughout the eons.  Loose rocks lingered across the sloping path—from tiny pebbles to large, looming boulders.  Gradually, the path narrowed and narrowed until the two ponies found themselve shuffling through a winding trench.  The clouds shifted and twirled briskly around them, so that it almost felt as though the mountain itself was flying in random cardinal directions through the troposphere.

And yet, throughout the entire march, an impenetrable stillness permeated the landscape, numbing Rainbow's figure and teasing her ears until tinnitus set in.

Thankfully, Remna's voice—of all things—broke the unbearable lull:  "You said that you had 'magical senses.'"

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie jolted, startled by Remna's sudden dialogue.  The ghostly mares blinked blankly at Rainbow.

"Ahem..."  Rainbow Dash cleared her throat.  Her limbs were still sore from the near-death debacle back at the cliffface.  Nevertheless, she trotted as evenly as she could manage.  "Yeah.  I suppose I did."  She arched an eyebrow.  "What about it?"

Remna rounded a boulder or two.  She talked without looking back.  "I trust that you were not born with such extra sensory perception," her deep voice rolled.  "A gift that was bequeathed to you, perhaps?"

"Why are you so interested all of the sudden?" Rainbow grumbled.

"Rainbow," Fluttershy calmly chided.  "This is the first time this mare has shown any legitimate interest in you.  Would it hurt to respond with a modicum of good faith?"

Rainbow sighed, hanging her head.  "I'll never have that kind of patience, I swear."

"That... was not spoken to me," Remna declared.

Rainbow blinked.  Twilight and Rarity squinted at the bounty hunter.

Remna exhaled.  "How many are there?"

"How many what?"

"Souls freed by the beacons," Remna droned in response.

Twilight flashed Rainbow a look, her muzzle agape.

Rainbow squinted at her guide.  "So Wildcard did tell you..."

"I'm not speaking to Wildcard right now.  I'm speaking to you," Remna grunted.  "If you do not wish to answer, then don't."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "Yes, Remna.  The Seeds—... the machine world beacons that hide deep beneath us react specifically to me.  I've... always encountered them in my travels.  Only—since the Blight and beyond—they have been... releasing the spirits of my old friends."

"And how many have been freed by now?"

"Uh... four.  Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy."  Rainbow gulped, shivering slightly.  "Only Applejack remains.  Once I've freed my last friend from the machine world's torch, all of the Elements of Harmony will have reunited.  Erm... at least in sp-spirit."

"I see..."  Remna nodded, marching ahead through the fog.  Her voice took on a curiously breathy tone.  "Then... it is truly happening."

"Hmmm?"

"What you are... what you're meant to do..."  Remna exhaled slowly.

"Something you're not telling me, Remna?"

Silence.

Rainbow's brow furrowed.  "Hellooo?"

The bounty hunter cleared her throat.  "This... Applejack.  This last Element... where is she?"

"I'll give you a hint," Rainbow grunted.  "Not where we're headed right now."

"She is in the east, then?"

"Yes.  Totally."  Rainbow Dash turned around.  Facing east for the first time in days, she was startled to find Yaerfaerda missing.  Before panic could set in, she simply tilted her head down slightly.  The orange beacon was still there, only it was actually below her on the invisible horizon.  "Huh..."  She murmured.  "We've climbed a long way..."

"You can sense the location of the next beacon, as well?"

"Erm... yeah."  Rainbow looked back.  "Have Wildcard and Bard seriously not told you all of the details?"

Remna ignored her.  "How lofty a destination is this next torch located?"

"Look, what's with all the questions—"

"An answer will make me cease the interrogation."

Rainbow sighed, hanging her head.  "The location of Yaerfaerda—the marker for the next beacon—is pretty darn high.  Well, normally it is, but now that we're up here in these mountains, we're actually kinda sorta above it."

"But before now, it was always positioned above you?"

"Yeah.  Due east.  In the heart of Rohbredden.  Why?"

For once, Remna stopped in her tracks.  She gazed icily into the fog-slick stone.  "Then it is true.  She guards it.  She watches over the last Element."

"Who... are you talking about?" Rainbow breathed.  She cocked her head to the side.  "Verlax?"

Remna shuddered suddenly.  "You... do not call her by her butchered name."

Rainbow merely shook her head.

Silence.

"Hmmmm..."  Remna clenched her jaw muscles and marched forward.  "And so it is."  She motioned for Rainbow to follow.  "We are almost there.  Let us tarry no longer."

Rainbow's hooves scuffled as she caught up.  "Do you and the Divine of Frost have some sort of history together?"

"It matters not," Remna grumbled.

"To me it does!"  Rainbow galloped until she trotted alongside the bounty hunter.  "Most Rohbreddenites would probably freak out at hearing their goddess called simply 'Verlax.'  But you?  You're not brainwashed to whole 'Unification of the Tribes' myth, are you?"

"I know what it means to survive in this dying world," Remna replied with a snort.  "That is all, and it is enough."

"Oh please."  Rainbow frowned.  "Don't play coy.  You know more about Verlax and the beacons than you let on.  Tell me... have you ever heard the name 'Austraeoh' before?"

"Mrmmmm..."  Remna's jaws tightened as she frowned.

"Well?!"  Rainbow glared daggers.  "What did the Desperadoes tell you?"

"They told me enough," Remna grumbled.  "But it doesn't matter."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means..."  Remna sighed suddenly.  "...that I thought it was my place to protect you.  But now..."  A dull exhale.  "...I see that perhaps I was mistaken.  You have enough resources to protect yourself.  The beacons sustain you; the wheels of fate are turning.  It is as it should be."

Rainbow's mare friends glanced at one another.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pinkie squeaked.

"I think this mare's hiding something," Twilight muttered.

"You think?"  Rarity remarked.  "Still, whatever knowledge she possesses, if she wanted to take advantage of Rainbow Dash's vulnerability she would have made a move by now.  Stabbed her in her sleep or something."

"Can we please stop expecting the worst from this pony?" Fluttershy remarked with a frown.  "She's simply lacking in social grace.  She's not the enemy."

"You don't know that for certain, Fluttershy," Rarity remarked.

"No, but I have faith that there's something good in her.  And this may be the one chance Rainbow has—or any pony has for that matter—to reach out to her."

Silence.

Rainbow sighed.  "Look, Remna..."  She trotted side by side with the bounty hunter.  "You and I have our differences.  Quite frankly, I find your cold-hearted attitude to be mind-numbing and I think you could use a serious attitude adjustment."

"So you're a pony psychiatrist now," Remna muttered.

"I wasn't finished ya melon fudge."  Rainbow frowned.  "You've done nothing but badger and berate me since we met."  A heavy gulp.  "But all of that still doesn't change the fact that... you saved my life."

Remna's brow furrowed as she looked ahead.

"I was nearly freezing to death back there, cold and starving and without fire.  That's when you strolled in and nursed me back to health.  I'd be dead right now if it weren't for you.  My friends... the Elements... this whole world would be royally screwed... if you hadn't intervened.  So... y'know... you've protected me quite a bit, I'd say."  She bore a tiny smirk.  "If that helps you at all to know."

"It would help me even better if you didn't crowd me in this narrow chasm."

"Ugh!"  Rainbow face-hoofed.  "Okay, look."  She swung a forelimb.  "I'm being grateful, ya sorry sack of sass!  Would it kill you to show a little gratefulness too?!"

"I think we both know what should have happened back there."

Rainbow blinked.

Remna's violet nostrils flared.  "You should have cut the rope.  Trying to haul my body back onto the cliff-face was risky, dangerous, and stupid.  You're lucky to be alive."

"Look, it worked, didn't it?!"

"Someday, it might not, and nopony but yourself will be there to protect you."

"What is your deal?!"  Rainbow Dash barked.  "For realsies!  If the Desperadoes told you anything about me, then you'd know that I don't give up on doing the right thing that easily!"

"Except that you did," Remna's voice grumbled.  "Back in the Quade.  It got you this far, yes?"

"Rrrrrgh!"  Rainbow tossed her hooves.  "I give up.  You know what?  I give up!  Just... just take me to the friggin' nest of the Wyverns and let's call it a day."

"Consider it done," Remna muttered.

"Huh?"

The bounty hunter merely pointed.  "Behold..."

Something was flapping in the misty air.  Rainbow's ears twitched, and she turned curiously towards the source of the noise.

The chasm around them opened up.  A gusty cold wind blew in, kicking at Remna's red dreads.  Something shifted to the left.  Rainbow looked to see several bright colors emerging from the mists.  As the two shuffled on, Rainbow spotted a long rope dangling between two heavy boulders.  Several rectangular flags hung from the rope, dyed with every color of the spectrum.

"OooOooOoooh!"  Rarity's eyes dazzled.  "Now this is a nice change of pace!"

"Look!"  Twilight pointed.

More rustling sounds traveled along the mountain breeze.  The fog rolled apart, and Rainbow saw more ropes clinging to cliffs and promontories, dangling with colored banners.  Each tiny flag bore the tell-tale illustration of a windigo, surrounded by indistinguishable script.  Some of the banners looked as though they had been planted along the mountainous walls centuries ago, where they hung for eons, touched only by breeze and cloud.

As the two strolled along, Rainbow spotted a narrow gravel path lining a cliff that clung to the east side of a jutting mountain.  This ledge stretched on and on, winding its way north as the landscape gradually ascended once again.  Splintery beams lined the edges—a meager barrier of protection from what appeared to be an incalculably deep plunge into a deep stone abyss.  At last, the last wave of fog rolled away, and the air tingled with Rarity's and Fluttershy's gasps.

There, at the northwest roof of Rohbredden, the plateau had been sundered by a deep vertical wedge, filled with boulders and bent trees that magically jutted out of the rock.  The ledge with a gravel path rose up and joined with other precarious platforms winding in from the west and northeast.  At the heart of this lofty crater, a cluster of houses loomed.  They were tiny, humble, crooked hovels, constructed out of old cracked stone that had been worn charcoal black from the limping slouch of age.

There was life here... old wrinkly life in the form of pale equines trotting about, carrying baskets full of dull green vegetables and herding goats with thick, thick wool.  Snow-white mares could be seen drawing water from an ancient well in the center of a village.  Elders sat along buildingfronts, smoking pipes and squinting down the path.  A few stallions stopped talking with one another, turning to gaze at the arrivals.

"These... uh..."  Rainbow Dash muttered, eyes shifting about.  "...these aren't wyverns."

"Yet again, little pony," Remna's lungs shook.  "Your witty observation is astounding."

Rainbow was too busy staring at the village to bother rolling her eyes at that.  She saw tall wooden stakes—to which several ropes full of colored banners had been attached like dilapidated merry-poles.  As she came within earshot of the tiny villagers, the wind carried a familiar tongue.

"They're Snow-Bloods," Fluttershy said with a smile.  "Look at them!  They must have been living up in this mountain for ages."

"Why are they looking at us like that?" Pinkie remarked.

"These... uhm..."  Rainbow murmured aloud.  "These ponies seem a bit shocked to see us," she said.

"I believe it's simply that they're not used to ponies arring here on hoof," Remna said.  "Very few central Rohbreddenites come here.  That's why it makes for such a secure sanctuary for the wyverns."

"Errr... yeah..."  Rainbow shifted nervously as a couple of villagers shuffled up, staring at her wide-eyed.  The pegasus trotted sideways.  "Speaking of those dudes... do they even live here?"

Just as she said that, a loud deafening crash rippled past her ears.  Only after the mountains afforded four layers of echo did the sound even come close to resembling a musical note.  Rainbow wasn't certain whether to smile or wince.  The villagers simply shrugged off the noise, even as a second round of thunder roared through the canyon... followed by a third.

"What in the fuzz...?!"  Rainbow wheezed.

"Up there," Twilight pointed north.

"My stars!"  Rarity cupped her muzzle.  "Will you look at that?!  Simply marvelous!"

Rainbow's head tilted skyward.  By the time a fourth salvo shook the mountaintops, she spotted a rectangular structure capping off the summit due north.  Several of the colored flags led up to this structure, and as the building came into focus, Rainbow made out polished bowers, ivory-white pillars, and rich mahogany roof shingles.  An enormous palace of untold antiquity clung to the peak overshadowing the ravine.  Tall vertical windows laced with bronze and silver devoured the glinting sunlight as it pierced the clouds.  Some wings of the palace stretched so far that they seemingly clung to the mountainside, defying gravity.  Rainbow's eyes traveled up, and soon she spotted enormous balconies lined with epic hanging gardens and old, petrified trees.  At the very top, a rigid rectangular tower pierced the heavens.  An enormouse stone bell hung from within its hollow neck, and a thick iron rod suspended on ropes was rhythmically striking the instrument, filling the skies with glorious thunder.

"It's... it's like a castle in the sky!" Rarity mewled.

"Whew!"  Pinkie exhaled.  "Must be great for parties!"

"Pinkie, I... don't think anypony has parties up there," Twilight said.

"My goodness!"  Fluttershy blinked.  "Have you seen anything so old?"

"I have," Rainbow muttered.  "But this?  This is something else."  Suddenly, she squinted.  "Wait."  The mare leaned forward, her eyes locked on several dark shapes swirling around the topmost level of the palace.  "Those..."  Her pupils twitched, following each furry triangle.  "...are those?"

Swooosh!  A flash of claws and hair.  Th-Thump!  A beastly figure perched on the wooden barrier in front of Rainbow Dash.  The mare found herself staring into a pair of sabre-teeth framed by a white woolie mane.

"Gaaah!"  Rainbow Dash fell back on her haunches.  She curled up into a little blue ball.  "Manticore!"

"Ha HAH!"  The creature roared with a booming laugh.  A grin formed between his pronounced fangs as he lifted a scaled tail ending in a barbed stinger.  "And a fine grreetings to you, oh lithe rrainbow rrogue!"  Something flickered between his nose and his eyes.  Rainbow's eyes opened to see him raise a claw to his face, adjusting a pair of round, thin-framed spectacles resting on his feline muzzle.  "Or, should I have the pleasurre to say, Austrraeoh?"

"Who... how..."  Rainbow wheezed and wheezed, gawking up at him.  "What the buck... what the buck...?!"

"Hmmm!"  The beast tilted his head aside.  A pale lion's mane surrounded his pale lion's face.  The rest of his body was hunched, like a bat's, and was covered in spotted brown fur.  "Currious... most currious indeed," he purred.  FWOOSH!  His limbs spread, attached to each other with a flabby membrane that he used to glide over Rainbow in a blink.  Landing behind her, he drew a paw gently across her skull.  "I see the rrogue... but verry little rrainbow!  Alas, the prrice that must be made for the safety of anonymity, yes?  Ha-HAH!"  He curved his tail around, drawing the scaled appendage along her side.  "Still, she is... a grreat deal smaller than I expected.  Hmmm... I wonderr if the mountain matrron anticipated this."

"Uhhhhh..."  Rainbow squirmed and sweated.  Her shrunken pupils followed the glinting point of his stinger as it neared her skull.  "Uhhhhhhhh..."

"Do not frret, azurre one," the creature purred, examining her hooves through his bifocals.  "Even if I was to prrick you, it has verry little venom left.  Grranted, it's been severral decades since I last tested that.  HAH!"  He grinned through his sabre teeth.  "Oh, what a fine age we live in.  What a fine age indeed."

"Hello, Kepler," Remna said, stepping up.  "It is... agreeable to see you in good health."

"Well met, Rremna!" the wyvern replied.  He raised a claw to his forehead and twirled it in the air, bowing low.  "No doubt you've endurred many trrials just to get to this sanctuarry.  The mountain matrron shall be verry pleased.  Gods know, I am!  Hahah!"  His feline nostrils flared.  "Hrmmmmm..."  The spotted hairs along his curved backside bristled momentarily.  "You have a most strrange smell about you, Rremna.  I trrust these last few yearrs haven't been too unkind to your rresilient health."

"I've done what I can to get by, Kepler," Remna said.  "But that is of little importance now.  Nothing is more important than the journey ahead.  Tell me."  The bounty hunter leaned her head to the side.  "Any sign of Wildcard?"

"Negatorry."  Kepler shook his head with a brief frown.  "But if I know that grriffon as well as you do, then surrely he shall not sleep a wink until his oath is securred.  No doubt he will be rreturning with his collective compatrriots soon.  Then the seven shall be rrejoined!  Hah!  Most glorrious indeed!"

"The..."  Rainbow fidgeted on the floor.  "The seven?"  She blinked.  "Are you referring to the job squad?"

"Hah hah hah hah!"  Kepler's booming laughter nearly threw his bifocals off.  "Oh, what hilarrity!  I see that musical misfit is still colorring the grriffon's claws with all the words of whimsy!  Is that what they chose to call it?"

"Uhhhh..."

"Bah!  No more frritterring!"  Kepler coiled his tail beneath Rainbow and hoisted her onto her hooves.  "The Austrraeoh has arrrived!  This is cause for celebrration!  Come!  Please!"  FWOOSH!  He took off, his limbs stretched out so that his body formed a brown triangle that glided skyward.  "We must celebrrate!  Tonight, a feast for the mind and soul!  For tomorrrow, we set out!  Even unto oblivion!  Hah!"  He lifted higher and higher.  "Brrothers!  Eyes to the earrth and tails to the wind!  The rrainbow grraces the rroof of the world!"

Rainbow shuddered, fidgeting in her leather gear.  "What... j-just happened?"

"I don't know."  Pinkie Pie giggled.  "But I like him."

"Who... is this 'mountain matron?'" Twilight remarked.

"Never mind that!"  Rarity made a face.  "Who are 'the seven?'"

"Hrmmff..."  Remna marched towards the long gravel path leading towards the palace above.  "I'd get moving if I were you.  There's no rest until we're in the sanctum."

Fluttershy glanced at the gawking Snow-Bloods, then over at Rainbow.  "I think it'll be okay to follow her.  Perhaps, soon enough, we'll get our answers."

Rainbow nodded with a gulp.  "Yeah, okay..."  She trotted ahead, looking skyward as the air filled with more and more gliding bodies.  Several booming shouts answered Kepler's call.  "...so long as these dudes mind their stingers..."