Eagle Eye finished fastening the saddlebag to Rainbow's flank while the two stood along the floating temple's edge. Tightening it shut, he looked over her shoulder with a compassionate expression. "You sure you don't want to be wearing that leather coat for this flight?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "It's not even remotely cold out there..." She bit her lip. "Er... in here, I guess."
"It could have something to do with rapid convection within the clouds surrounding us!" Elma Boreal said.
"Or maybe it's linked to the fact that we're stuck in the heart of a Spark-forsaken flying city from Hell!" Josho grunted. "Rainbow, wherever you go and whatever you do, could you go about it quickly? I wanna get off this flying vomit stain in the sky."
"What's th' matter, ye ben grease tyke?" Prowse stepped up with a bearded smirk, slapping the unicorn's shoulder with his biological hoof. "Dornt want tae check it th' sights fur fear 'at they micht be checkin' it ye?"
"A unicorn doesn't belong in the air."
Eagle Eye blinked. "But you've been riding with the Jury for months!"
"Yeah, well, the Jury feeds me!" Josho grumbled, leaning back and folding his forelimbs. "I don't see this flying sewer hole shoveling me fresh daisy sandwiches!"
"Hrmmf..." Ebon rolled his eyes as he trotted by. "You're welcome..."
"If ye ask me, lassie, tak' aw th' time 'at ye want!" Prowse pivoted to face Rainbow. "Somewhaur in thes place is likely th' key tae hoo we can gie it ay haur, but there're bigger an' brighter keys tae far mair sparkly opportunities, by aw!"
"What I'm concerned about is the whole group, Prowse," Rainbow Dash said, sliding a pair of goggles down over her eyes. "We've been through a lot, and I owe it to them to get us all out of here."
"Not like you made this city ensnare us to begin with, Rainbow," Eagle Eye said.
"No. But I feel a responsibility, Double-E."
"What for?"
Rainbow sighed. "There're so many nasty things in this world, and all of them felt foreign to me. But this place?" She tilted her head up into a gust of moist wind, squinting against the rain and drizzle. "It's been through Equestria before. And if the images of Commander Hurricane are any indication, then it's carried a piece of who and what my kind are out into the far reaches of the world." She gazed sadly at the unicorn. "It'd be really, really uncool to find out that something pegasi did is responsible for a lot of nasty crap out here in the Frozen Wastes, ya dig?"
"You're doing good stuff with each passing day, Rainbow," Eagle Eye said. "Fly safely, and know that we believe in you."
"Yeah, that's awesome enough." Rainbow flapped her wings and hovered up by a few feet. "For now. Soundstone?"
Josho tossed her one.
She gripped it in the crook of her hoof, slid it between her pendant and her neck, and nodded. "Well, here goes a super wet won." Holding her breath, she valiantly turned tail and soared off into the water-drenched hurricane force winds.
Eagle Eye sat back, shivering slightly. Ebon trotted up and rested a hoof on the young stallion's shoulder.
"She knows what she's doing." Ebon smiled nervously. "She's done the solo thing before."
"Yeah, but still..." Eagle sighed. "It's gotta be lonelier knowing your friends are just a sneeze away..."
A 600 word chapter... and I'm on Staff Duty all night.
Gee, thanks, ):(. How thoughtful of you. Just for that fifty pushups. Knock 'em out!
th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/167/6/0/rainbow_dash_salute_by_atomicgreymon-d3bo0dx.png
God Speed, RD.
Prowse is definitely easier to understand by now.
I'm slightly scared.
Then again, it didn't take long to understand Floydien, so...
Time for the exploration to begin
I swear, soundstones are as common as rocks around here.
Er.
Good luck, RD.
You know.
This sounds like the perfect spot for the start of a super cool Metroidvania game with a crazy awesome setting and an intense feeling of isolation. Lot's of exploration, wandering through the unknown, not knowing what you're going to find next.
Like, I want to play this shit.
less probable for a machine world entrance cuz the city moved from northern Equestria to wherever the heck this is... so... ghoul ponies? or just some boring mummified remains with some backstory/lore on someones logbook/journal.
oh, maybe some dead people who got sucked in here and trapped too (unless it's only trapping RD and the rest just got stuck with her)
Cloudstuff and feather brains.
Good luck with your exploring, Dash.
Wonder if Stratopolis is on Machine World tramlines, pushed along from Obelisk to belisk, depending where control, modification or even shut down is required?
It's exploration time! Let's see some more of Stratopolis!
24
She finds: A mural depicting the founding of
Equestriathe Rainbow Dash Show.Well, that clears that up.
This feels like a nice breather chapter before shit starts going down. Plus, the party split probably means we'll be jumping between Rainbow's explorations and the group trying to fix the ship, or whatever they're going to be doing.
My memory's really escaped me, but maybe the Pegasus "keepers of the flame" could have used Stratopolis as their home/base.
I'm expecting the Lounge or some pegasi to pop out at any moment, but exploring an abandoned place would be a pretty cool change.
I spent 5 minutes staring at IC's new profile pic.
armystrongstories.com/blog-assets/thomas-harper/images/SLJ.jpg
It's probably really sad that I can't figure out whether this is supposed to be a pun.
I wonder if Rainbow Dash will find a journal about what happened to the pegasi in this city. Maybe something like Moria from LotR.
Imagine getting to explore this place in an Uncharted game.
That would be freaking amazing.
Anything can happen in this place. I haven't the faintest idea of what's going on and that's just the way I like it.
"I don't see this flying sewer hole shoveling me fresh daisy sandwiches!"
Oh my! Daisies...
... They're perfectly edible!
And delicious!There's nothing like a yummy spring salad of sugar beet greens, dandelion greens, walnuts, flowering chives, zoysia, fresh parsley, a little star anise, and daisies with a few other seasonal flowers, topped with a fruity vinegarette. Yum yum!
4165613
Pretty sure typos != pun
Let us see, then. Let us see.
Eeee i'm so nervouscited!
I am really hoping to see some more pegasi out here but am extremely doubtful of this. And if not, I'm hoping for a bit more information as to what happened to all of them.
AKA That chapter he throws up just to taunt us
ohh ohh... is it.. a Castle In The Sky
The man from Laputa: he say yes!
wow
-Spirit
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Yeah, I agree with Dash. This area must hit a lot closer to home for her than a lot of the other places that she's been to so far. Not much else.
...
I can't WAIT for this arc...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
4250205 yyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeahhhh BUDDY!!
Into the tempest we go!
Once more into the gray.
Poor Rainbow. It must be a bit of a punch in the gut, having your heritage placed in front of you like this. It was hard enough when she was just thinking about Equestria, but having such a strong connection to what she is, the only pegasus away from her homeland in a place that's not seen a flying horse in centuries...
one
___________
Dashie, Dashie, Dashie ... You never split the party in places like this.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/bd/47/5e/bd475e02a6ddd73e3f5e30bfcb472f63.jpg
Gosh dang, why is Prowse the only one optomistic about this? I mean, ponies lived here there probably was or is food, this seems like it could be a great place to restock. Not to mention they'really going to be probably be stuck here for a bit anyway before they get the NJ ready to face any storm.
Though I guess like the machine world this could be another pretty wasteland that has little to no practical use for the average pony.
Too many times the mother's sins pass to the daughter. Hopefully Rainbow can wipe the slate clean for her ancestors.
09/14/2019
18:48 UTC
Off into the wild cloud yonder!