Settling For New Worlds
Jagged mountain peaks swam through the air on either side of the Noble Jury. Their frost-laden shadows broke the dim glow of the stars as they twinkled lazily above. Hours east of Lerris, coasting at gentle drift, the skystone ship had cleared the foggy clouds that dominated most of airspace situated over that part of the continent.
The air was thin, and the breaths shared by those on board was calm, tranquil. The entire crew lingered on the top deck, staring past the skystone suspension to gaze upon the stars above. Even Floydien sat casually with his heavy haunches pressed against the outer doorframe to the cockpit.
"Floydien begins to understand why a group called the 'Lounge' would choose to stab the skies here," the elk muttered. "Is a safe place to be dangerous, yes yes yes?"
"Please, Floydien," Ebon muttered, his upper body slumped against the railing with folded forelimbs. "Can we not think so much about tomorrow? For just one evening?"
"Hmph..." Floydien's muzzle scrunched up. "This is what Floydien gets for trying to spit like the rest of the boomers."
"It can't be helped, handsome," Props said with a melodic sigh. She paced in a dull circle across the deck, her flouncing motions completely gone from her slumped frame. "We're a smaller family, now. Even Nancy's womb feels lighter each time I go inside to check on the engine."
"How's the progress on the skystone?" Roarke asked.
"I've almost got it," Props said with a bored yawn. "Nyup. Hmmm... Just gotta cross one last manifold over a leyline circuit. Figured it'd be best to test the final adjustment once it's daylight. Don't wanna burst us into a mountain by accident. That'd be kind of unsexy."
"So long as you get it banged together before we hit the Frozen Sea," Ebon muttered. "I don't think I've got enough fixings for warm soup to last us the flight to the neighboring continent."
"Don't even joke about that," Josho grumbled.
"Relax, big guy," Rainbow said. She was perched on the railing, her wings spread with blue feathers fluttering in the cold mountain winds. "We'll make it. If necessary, we'll stop along the frozen shore and gather some foodstuffs so we'll be properly stocked up for the voyage."
"But..." Ebon's muzzle scrunched up. "The frozen shore? What if we don't find any edible flora?"
"Then Roarke can drop a bomb in the sea and Zaid and Eagle Eye can pick the waters for dead fish." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I'll fast for a bit while the rest of you crazy ponies have yourselves some meat."
"But—"
"It'll all work out."
"You can't possibly—"
"It'll all work out," Rainbow said, smiling pointedly at Ebon. "Just trust me."
Roarke glanced up from where she sat besides the stairwell, tinkering with a retractable metal blade.
Ebon sighed, his ears drooping. He managed a weak smile. "You're what kept Pilate and Belle going for so long, aren't you?"
"Hmmmm... it worked both ways, but sure."
"I mean, they lost so much." Ebon gulped. "The Council of Ledo took everything from them. Their home, their lives, their future..."
"Pfft..." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad."
"Yes, Rainbow. It was." Eagle Eye stood closely besides Josho. He gazed at Rainbow as he said, "I was there in Foxtaur. I saw how weary and exhausted they were. And yet, they had this... constant spring to their step. We both know it was because of you."
"So...?" Rainbow shrugged. "I just gave them an excuse to run for the hills."
"They owe their lives to you," Eagle Eye said. "They always have." He gulped. "And so do I."
"I can't imagine it came easy," Ebon Mane said.
Eagle glanced over. "How do you mean?"
"Well, let's face it." Ebon turned towards Rainbow and smiled nervously. "Hanging out with you is the best thing a pony could ever do. But it isn't exactly a safe lifestyle."
"Hey, don't rub it in, burgundy," Zaid muttered from where he leaned against a mast.
"No, it's alright," Rainbow Dash said, smirking. "I've only ever wanted to live dangerously. When that wish came true, I was prepared for it, but I didn't get any satisfaction." She gulped. "Until I was lucky enough to have ponies join me for the ride."
"Ponies whose skin you saved, you mean?" Props said with a giggle.
"Well, sure. But they saved my skin as well." Rainbow glanced up at the stars. "And you guys do realize that I'm going to make sure you get to the places where you wanna go, even if you don't know where they are yet."
"I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for that," Ebon Mane stammered.
"Same here," Eagle Eye added with a nod.
"Good. Then don't try," Rainbow Dash blurted. "Just keep cool, keep your wits about you, and keep your muzzle facing east. That's how it worked for me, and that's how it worked for Belle and Pilate and even Kera."
"Now that you put it that way..." Zaid winced and ran a hoof through his yellow-streaked mane. "I imagine that this is really tough for the three saps."
"Well, duhhhh!" Props rolled her eyes. "They had to part ways with us, didn't they?"
"I mean not just that..." Zaid glanced over, his eyes genuinely vulnerable. "They had to give up a life of flight for... staying in one place." He gulped. "I dunno about you guys, but there's never been a point in my life when I wasn't moving. I've hopped from town to town, airship to airship, group to group, and I can never stay still. Heck, if I did, I'd probably freak out something terrible."
"Well, let's not fret over the ponies who are capable of retiring," Josho grumbled.
With a gulp, Eagle Eye said, "I truly believe that Belle and Pilate were ready for this decision. Kera helped them, sure." He turned and smiled. "But I think you helped them more, Rainbow."
"I don't see how," Rainbow muttered. "If I had to stop moving, I'd explode way bigger than Zaid."
"Not to mention more sexily," Zaid said with a smirk. Roarke groaned in the distance.
"Was it easy for you, then?" Ebon spoke.
"Hmmm?" Rainbow glanced over. "Was what easy?"
Ebon fidgeted slightly before murmuring, "Leaving your home in the first place."
Rainbow was silent. Mountains drifted coldly past her and the ship.
Floydien squinted, his red eyes full of mute curiosity.
"I would have once told you that it was simple," Rainbow muttered. "But... now that I have done it twice..." She grimaced.
Eagle Eye raised an eyebrow at that.
"Because... I have left my home twice," Rainbow said in a breathy tone. "First, I flew away from Ponyville. And just now..." She winced. "I flew from Belle and Pilate's arms."
Props squeaked inwardly, covering her muzzle as her eyes grew moist.
Rainbow instantly looked hat her. "Hey. It's okay."
"Rainbow..." Eagle began.
"Really, it is." Rainbow smirked towards the group. "Months ago, I was told by Princess Luna herself that my life was coming to an end. I dunno how many weeks or days I have left. Between all the ruby flame and the 'Austraeoh' nonsense, it's getting harder and harder to guess. But the truth is, I've been blessed. I've lived several lives in the time I've been given. I've had my life in Ponyville, my life in the air, my life with Belle and Pilate..." She giggled slightly, then said. "And now, my life with you guys."
"We're blessed to have you on board, Rainbow," Ebon said. His eyes grew slightly misty. "I'm so glad to know that you haven't given up on me... on all of us..."
"And when the time comes that I have to part ways with you..." Rainbow lingered, shrugged, and spat forth, "I'll be leaving my home for a new one. That's how this universe works, I guess. Not just one mysterious broken ring, but several of them—circles within circles—and all of them repeating themselves."
"I think the high winds are getting to you," Roarke muttered from a distance.
Rainbow flashed her a look. "Obviously! Because they've brought you out of your cubby hole in the hangar!"
Roarke had nothing to say.
"It's... it's always like my first day of taking flight from Ponyville," Rainbow said as she turned once again towards the core group. "I knew in my gut that there was more out there for me. I had places to be, and I couldn't settle for dying in one place."
"Right," Zaid said with a nod. "Because you're Austraeoh—"
"Not even that!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "Don't you get it? You're not getting the big picture by just sitting in one place. You gotta buck past your fears and be willing to leave and let be that which you've gotten comfortable with. Cuz the reward is super awesome." She smiled tenderly. "There's more than just the countryside around us or the sky over our heads. Just step outside, choose a direction, and take a walk without ever looking back. There are worlds. There... are worlds." She sniffled, shaking her head slightly. "I'm discovering new ones each day, and so are Belle and Pilate... and Kera." She gulped. "In their own little way."
Silence.
"I... I wish what's best for them. And I know that they have it." She clenched her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and produced a soft grin. "And I'm cool with that. I'm glad that they've chosen one of those worlds and are willing to settle for it."
Eagle Eye stared gently at her. "I would be cool with it too... if you found a place to settle, Rainbow Dash."
"You feel this wind, Eagle?" Rainbow smirked, her feathers rustling. "I'm settling right now."
The group lingered in silence. Just then, a pulse of light emanated from Props' gasp. The mare jumped in place, juggling her soundstone to a stand still.
"Hey..." Rainbow smirked. "Speak of the devil..."
"Things must be boring in that town if they're saying 'Hello' to us already," Josho said with a smirk.
"Who cares!" Eagle Eye swiftly galloped past Ebon Mane and swiped the sound stone from Props' hooves. "Any word from them is a beautiful thing!" He licked his lips, levitated the stone, and channeled some energy into it. "Belle! Bellesmith! Is that you? This is EE! What's goin' on, marefriennnnd?"
Ponies chuckled in the mountain air.
"Scrkkkk—The good doctor cannot hear you, coward of Franzington."
All of the laughter ended.
Eagle Eye's muzzle went pale. The sound stone lurched towards the deck, barely dangling in his levitation field as a ghostly tremble swept through his limbs.
The shard pulsed, carrying with it the cold, cold voice. "I very much doubt that betrayer can hear much of anything at this point. I made certain she heard every scream. If you're quiet enough, I may even allow you to hear hers."
Roarke stood up, her eye-lenses pistoning to full length. Zaid and Josho exchanged worried glances. Ebon held his hooves over his muzzle while Floydien trotted up.
"How curious," the sound stone hissed, twirling in the pallid starlight. "The tears of the unrighteous. I've purged skies, mountains, and valleys, and yet they run thicker than blood." The stone strobed brighter as the voice took on a raspy tone. "Scrkkkk—And no amount of flames or mana will wipe the stains that she has put upon my face, and upon the ashes of my beloveds..."
Everypony looked up at Rainbow Dash, gawking.
The pegasus stared back, mouth agape. Her ruby eyes glossed over. With a swish of her tail, she spun around, galloped to the ship's stern, and took off. Wind blew over the top deck of the Jury as Rainbow rocketed straight west, even while the sound stone continued sputtering.
"Send her, you coward. Scrkkkk—Send your monster on swift demon wings, so that I may purge her tears as well..."
Stats
Page generated in 0.066 seconds
Total duration
961 users online
1,608,203 hits today, 2,571,732 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
OOOHHHH FUUUCKKKKKKKKK
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT. NO. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING. NOOOOOOO. HOW CAN THIS BE THE CRAZY SHITSTORM ENDING
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Shell ... hell is too good for you.
wow this is dumb
Welp, I wasn't just wrong. I was spectacularly wrong. Awesome!
Shell...you REALLY need to die now...this time for GOOD.
Oh Fuck.
I have exhausted all my reserve tanks of unbridled fury for Shell, and he still exists anyway. I dunno what to do anymore, except believe he is fucking immortal. That is the only answer at this point.
Despite my utter rage at Shell and everything he has done, you gotta give him some respect. He always has a plan that in any other situation would work perfectly, then there's the fact that after all the shit he takes, he's still alive. Although, in the opposite effect, he is the perfect exaple of insanity, constantly trying the same type of plan in his vain attempts to best our favorite winged blur, which always fail in the end, with the exeption of the non-Rainbow Dash ponies he killls along the way.
Can someone just euthanize Shell? It's obvious he's insane. Perhaps something other than him is driving him forward...
No really. This isn't good form. You don't put out ten sequences of setup for building a mood that doesn't happen. That's just literary cockblocking. Of course I was whining about them being left behind, yes, of course I was the one talking about them either dying or continuing the journey as the option I would have personally preferred but if you commit like that, you can't just do this! Yes, of course you'd been planning this all along but from a writer's point of view, why purposfully mislead your readers not in terms of a turnaround in storytelling but in purposfully employing literary method to mislead plot conception on a formal level?
Hands down, I'm just mad. Don't even listen to my bullshit right now. I think I'll need to scourge myself in repentance or something.
RD- "How in Celestia's good name are you still alive?"
fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/220/1/8/Dalek___Exterminate___Campaign_by_DegaSpiv.png
Shell, you're going to die. For the twentieth time. Hopefully it'll be real.
Don't you dare, IC. This will not all end up being a dream Rainbow was dreaming the first night after leaving Ponyville on her quest.
For the sake of the story I hope Belle isn't dead...
Oh, you sonuvamoose.
Murder. End Shell. Give him mercy and rest.
Oh hell no
DIE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SEAGULL SHIT!
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
A Message from MASH-
Tomorrow I'm marathon into the last ten chapters. No excuses. This is my first priority.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Thirteenth Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I...I...I don't have anything else to say about Shell anymore. At this point, he honestly should not exist. He has seriously overstayed his welcome as an antagonist. Not only have I used up all of my hate for him, but I almost don't even feel threatened by him anymore. Additionally, I'm almost positive that, like always, Dash will come at the laaaast minute to save Pilate and Belle. However, this IS the finale AND written by Imploding. So anything really could happen. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. I chose to do this on an inconvenient day! But I suppose any day would have an excuse...UUOOHHHH!! Thirteenth Marathon start!
-Spirit
no words.....
Kick his ass!
...
He needs to die.
Slowly.
Painfully.
All I can say is I hope he's bullshitting currently....but I see no reason why/how he would get their communicator otherwise...
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8181-1348961216188.gif
DIE ALREADY YOU BASTARD HORSE!
Maybe Odrsjot is the final resting place for Shell, at long last.
Don't know what we'd do without our big baddie, though.
Shit. Keeps. HAPPENING!!!!!
And by shit I mean Shell. Seriously dude you need to stop happening like this.
…
…
For real. Stop.
Aww sheeet. You gonna get it now, Shell.
I am not kidding you, my heart literally started pounding when I read those lines. I mean, I predicted that one of the three new villagers would eventually radio and be like, "Help, Shell just landed!", but your instant mood whiplash was far more horrifying.
4005789
Even without the tropes page spoiling the moment, I would have seen this coming though.
I mean Shell always goes after Belle and uses her a tool to get Dash to come to him. Every-freaking-time. Then there was the bit where he put Imre's horn on his head. Which he ripped off of Belle when she was still connected to Imre's layline consciousness. Which'd give a degree of entanglement.
So she and her hopes of a happy future were doomed the second Shell ripped Imre's horn off Belle's head. That and she'll always be bait to dangle to fish for Dashies. Heck even the fact that they're still on the Noble Jury was dooming their happiness since Shell spent weeks if not months fine tuning hunting ships that ran off of skystone.
Shell is hated for good reason, and yes he needs to die. But honestly everyone here has to admit, Shell is a damn good villain. He doesn't give up and sticks to what he believes in (even if it's as distorted as this) and will do whatever means he could to get it done.
He would trick and lie, kill and frame... Just about anything. And when I think of how many villains did that "Set bomb into room and walks out" other then just stabbing the hero while he's down just makes me like Shell as a villain even more because hes, as the Elk says "A stabby stab horse."
But yes, Shell needs to die though.
Oh my god. You took their happy ending back.
I think this is literally the worst I've felt reading this entire series, and that includes the previous fake-out character deaths...
Destroy him!!.
*Inhales*
*Exhales*
IF I COULD GET MY HANDS ON THAT BASTARD...
July 29, 2017
9:10 PM
I'm so done with Shell by now. His trope is just so overplayed. He has two modes. Either everything is going bad and you think it can't get any worse, then oh shit, here's Shell making things worse. Or you think everything is fine, you've finally got a handle on the whole situation, then oh shit, here's Shell to ruin it all. It's become predictable and boring and I hope to everything that he dies and something NEW happens.
Everyone else: "It's Shell again! Kill him! I hate him!
Me:
Are you kidding me?? They BETTER NOT be dead
4.bp.blogspot.com/-eZlVXhLZ_PM/VdCyvhX7SdI/AAAAAAAATPA/j9qeE48IF4w/s1600/Kevin-Hart.gif
This was pretty much my original reaction to reading this. I had to go back and say out of all the plot twists IC has given us, this one might take the cake.
Major Tom to Ground Control.
...skkrrrt...Incoming Fire.
Braec brace brace, motherfucker
GOD. DAMMIT.
Shell vs Rainbow's battle theme.