“Esteemed opinion: It would most certainly look like it,” Desert Light said. He stood across from Rainbow Dash and Cold Canter as he leaned over the table in the middle of the shack and examined the excavated skeleton up close. “There are no signs of structural fractures on the limbs of he who would be the earth pony signaler from ten years ago.” He pointed at the smoothed ends of the legbones. “Discreet analysis: these show signs of exposure to extreme heat. Be it an elemental or accidental, this body was exposed to extreme temperature, to the point that it undoubtedly amputated his rear limbs.”
“You can tell all of that?” Rainbow Dash remarked with a suspicious squint. “I mean, no offense and all, but this skeleton is pretty dang old. What if—I dunno—the earth pony was born without fully developed legs and this is all we got for his remains?”
Desert Light frowned. “Obligatory defense: I who would be a Darkstinian citizen studied in forensics and unicorn anatomy as a minor before enrolling in the national guard. If the state of this skeleton was a matter of natural deformity, the entire build of the legbones would be different. What's more...” He leaned towards the upper half of the equine structure and pointed at the forelimbs. “While there were no signs of extreme stress on the rear legs, the front hooves show extreme wear and tear, as if a great deal of weight and labor was exerted on them.”
“He may be full of himself, but the kid's bright,” Cold Canter remarked. He looked at Rainbow Dash, then over at Desert Light. “Does this mean what I think it means?”
Desert Light nodded gravely. “Solemn conclusion: whatever had injured this poor soul, it did not kill him. I believe that he used his forelimbs to bring his sundered self to the edge of the canyon.”
“Whoah, hand on a sec...” Rainbow Dash raised a hoof, her face blank. “You mean to tell me that this poor sap somehow got burnt in half... and then crawled halfway across the desert before giving CC here and the guard before you a signal?”
Desert Light merely shrugged. “Obligatory digression: I who would be a learned pony of science cannot pretend to know anything save for what evidence suggests to me.” He brushed his way past Rainbow Dash and made for the front entrance of the shack. “If you who would be an outtrotter would excuse me, I have a patrol to perform. Good industry be upon you.” And he was gone.
Rainbow Dash leaned back against a wall, rubbing a hoof over her chin and gazing forlornly at the skeleton.
Cold Canter's shuffling hooves brought him limply across the room as he drew a dark sheet over the dusty bones. After a spell, he took a deep breath and murmured her way, “You said that he had some things on him?”
“Hmmm?” She looked up at him, blinked, then snapped out of it. “Oh! Uhm. Yeah. But... not much to go on...”
“Humor an old stallion.”
“Uhhh...” Rainbow Dash shuddered. “He had a bunch of old journal pages, too burnt to read well. A leather saddlebag, charred at the edges. And... uhm... some sort of medallion.”
“Let me guess,” Cold Canter sighed. “Also burnt?”
Rainbow Dash gulped. “Yeah.”
Cold Canter turned to look at her. “Could I see it?”
She reached towards a side table, pulled the coin out of the bag, and flipped it towards him.
Cold Canter caught it in a field of magic. He calmly floated the thing before him in a telekinetic grasp. “Hmmm...” His eyes narrowed. “I've seen this symbol before: the one with the circle and the curves. I do recall seeing it on the belongings of the haggard earth ponies who had made it to the west side of the ravine decades ago.” He turned it around again. “I don't recognize the buildings in this engraving, though. It looks almost like pegasus architecture, strangely enough. And the pegasi—as far as history is concerned—based their architecture on the alicorns of ancient times.”
“Yeah, well, you can make a lot of big, snazzy buildings with clouds,” Rainbow Dash said with a light smirk.
“One thing's for sure...”
“What's that?”
“This coin is old,” he said.
“How old?”
“Really old,” Cold Canter emphasized with a grunt. “I may have lost the funky Darkstinian speech, but I'll always have a certain skill in metallurgy in my blood. Comes with the horn, you see.”
“Righto...”
“This couldn't have possibly been minted in recent times.”
“Like, how long ago are we talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Decades? Fifty years?”
“Try centuries, filly.” Cold Canter gazed up at her. “Now what pony in their right mind would be carrying this around as a means of practical currency in our day?” He twirled the medallion one last time in his magical grip. “No. I suspect the only reason a pony would possess something this old would be if it was looted from someplace.”
“You think that earth pony who died on the ridge was a robber?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Heh. You're still not getting it. This obviously held a great deal of meaning to his culture, or whatever may have become of it.” He tossed the coin back at Rainbow Dash. “If anything, it's a time capsule.”
Rainbow Dash caught it in two hooves. “So, he was delivering a message.”
“One that never got across the canyon.”
“Until now...” Rainbow Dash stared at the soot-stained engraving. “But just what was he trying to tell you guys?”
“I think the coin speaks for itself,” Cold Canter murmured, pointing. “Whatever is left of his society, it's in ashes... perhaps from the same thing that burned half of him to a crisp.”
“What kind of determination would it take to endure so much pain and agony just to reach the canyon's edge?” Rainbow Dash thought out loud.
“What else?” Cold Canter's eyes were narrow. “It's a warning.”
Rainbow Dash looked up at him.
He was slowly shaking his head. “Don't do it, kid. Don't cross the ravine. Don't go into those lands.”
She took a deep breath and placed the coin back on the table. “Look. I know you're used to minding this post and believing that it's the end of the world and all—”
“That's my job,” Cold Canter said bluntly. “I'm telling you this as a pony, a fellow spirit. You're only asking for trouble.”
“Heh...” Rainbow Dash chuckled dryly, running a hoof through her mane. “If I didn't want trouble from life, I would never have set out for the east to begin with.”
“That's just what I don't understand...” He shuffled a few steps towards her. “What's so important a destination that it necessitates you flying in a straight line, no matter what unknown dangers lie in wait?”
Rainbow Dash's eyebrows rose. “I didn't tell you that yet?”
He slowly shook his head.
She cleared her throat and shifted where she stood. “Uhm... the... th-the Midnight Armory,” she eventually said with a glint of pride in her ruby eyes.
His eyes blinked. He sat down on his haunches as he exhaled. “The... dark side of the world...”
“So you know about it?”
“I know that you'll only kill yourself trying to get to it, filly!”
“No you don't,” she said calmly, shaking her head with a soft expression. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Kid, the odds of you even crossing the edge of the world to reach the dark side is—”
“That's the funny thing about odds...” She paced towards him, scraping the wooden floor with her hooves. “Limits, barriers, barricades... all that sort of stuff...” She strolled limply around the table, her eyes gazing at the form beneath the somber shroud. “They only exist when we let them stop us. You think it stopped this dude?” She brushed a hoof over the edge of the blanket so as to cover an exposed length of bone. “I'm not one to brag, but, I just came from a place that had a huge wall. And if I let that wall stand in the way of things that I needed to do, a lot of ponies would be in a bad place right now.”
“You...” He narrowed his eyes on her. “You speak of New Ring?”
She kept on pacing and talking, “I don't know how long it will take me to get to the Midnight Armory, or just what crap I might run into along the way. As much as I care, that hardly matters, cuz it's neither here nor there. Now this crazy desert is staring at me and I don't like the look in its ugly face.” She smirked at Cold Canter and came to a stop. “So I intend to force it to blink.”
Cold Canter's nostrils flared. “You're mad.”
“No, I'm alive,” she said, pacing back towards the front door of the shack. “And unlike some ponies, I think that the best living can be done while on the move. Cuz the only excuse I have for not going any further is when my body refuses to move. Until then, fire or no fire, ashes or no ashes, I'm going to see what the landscape to the east has in store for me. Cuz at this point, I'm not sure I could live proudly with myself if I just let such a mystery go to waste. What's the point in crossing the ends of the earth if you know nothing about it, ya feel me?”
“There are more ways to live than dangerously, filly.”
“Goddess help me if I ever settle for any one of those boring reasons.” She paused at the door and winked at him. “And don't pretend that there isn't a curious bone inside you either... uh...” She curtsied apologetically towards the shrouded figure atop the table. “Present company excluded...”
“You know...” Cold Canter ran a hoof through his gray mane as he murmured aloud, “There could possibly be a way for you to make this next leg of your journey an advantage for the likes of Desert Light and myself.”
“Oh? How's that?”
He looked fixedly at her. “Tell me, pegasus, have you ever utilized sound stones before?”
Her eyes briefly crossed. “Buh?”
Obligatory comment: He who would be Zaponator is greatly pleased with the dialogue in this chapter.
Also,
Objective Added: Get a sound stone from Cold Canter, and learn to use it.
Sound stones? That could be interesting.
Title Obtained: "The Somber"
-Minty
WALKIE TALKIES!
Achievement Unlocked: "A Madmare by Any Other Name"
Sound stones? Background Pony crossover?
Sound stone? A stone that elicits much sound.......... Oh! A kidney stone!
1259895 HEY HEY HEY... FUCK MAGIC.
(I'm kidding ;P)
Thank you for writing this. I just discovered it two days ago, and though I still have around 50 more chapters to go till I'm caught up up, I'm already convinced that this is one of the best fanfictions I have ever read, definitely in my top 3 all time favorites, even if I judge it based solely on your diction. I love your diction and imagery! I swear you write better diction than most of the published authors I have read. You aren't a professional writer are you?
Ancient civilisations? A mysterious, malevolent force? A bad-ass, world-wise, desert guard?
Ohohoh, this is gonna be soo good
1263954
Uhhh...not sure what site you're on, dude, but My Little Caboose is currently at 208 chapters as of this post.
Look.
And Dark makes an effort to add 1 chapter a day, so my message you responded to was 3 weeks, 4 days ago, so that was about 25 chapters back, marking it at about 183 chapters.
1257195
Wait....
Waaaiiiiit.....
Zap Nator...
Zaponator...
EPIPHANY!
Also with the "Alicorn Architecture" coin I'm shifting my guess from dragons to anciet evil.
Possibly an Alicorn (demi or otherwise) whose gone kookookachoo...
This is why I love this story (one of the reasons, anyway) your portrayal of Rainbow Dash is my favorite. She's just so dang awesome! Oh, and listening to the Lord of the Rings music makes this even more epic. I see a lot of similarities between Rainbow's journey and Frodo's (I just finished watching the third movie, extended edition, for the zillionth time with my room mates ) and the line that sticks in my head is "We won't have enough for the return journey..." "I don't think there's going to be a return journey, Mr. Frodo..." Anywho, still loving this, as always. Keep it up Onward!
IIIIIt's Dashie's Thanksgiving Day Marathon Evaluation Time Special!
Argh...the lack of knowledge is killing me. Where the heck did this guy come from? There isn't enough evidence to properly support any theory I have made made so far. Please, Imploding! Give me something to go on here! These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Halfway there! Also, now it's time for my breakfast break.
P.S.S. Did Mintelle miss this chapter?!
1663338 God damn.
Phones FTW.
Is it the second or a third time I see a Background Pony reference? If it is one at all.
1977689 Well, Background Pony is written by Imploding Colon, so I'm not suprised he'd put a few little references in there.
2007654
I thought Background Pony was written by Shortskirtsandexplosions?
*looks at ICs profile page*
*looks at SSAEs profile page*
oooooooooooooh...
Huh. I wonder why this old guard has heard of the dark side of the world and the midnight armory? SO MUCH EPICNESS THANK YOU SS&EXPLOSIONS!!! <3
This is how phones are made.
I feel so bad just now getting juju to read this and its sequels.
The only thing missing is Applejack, but she and the others are probably dead.
What could be on the other side? Tellmetellmetellme! Now let's see what these sound stones are.
Yeah, I'm feeling BgP vibes with the sound stones. Let's just hope Her realm isn't what's on the other side of the firmaments.
This is it. This is how you write something amazingly eerie that isn't a horror story.
Shivers. This just imparts such a fantastic sense of dread, and its well deserved for the chapters to come.
4195607 Are you pulling a Triptych?
7581327 I don't remember.
Not for Dash there aren't.
Not for someone who has nothing to lose, and here, Rainbow clearly has nothing to lose.
03/22/2017 02:50 UTC
This chapter was so Background Pony, even before "sound stones". The way Dash spoke was a little off. It's the first time in the whole book it's felt that way for me, though, so good on you.
I'm eager to know what happened. There's some tasty intrigue here.
I really liked this chapter.
Soundstones immediately make me think of that one story I couldn't bear to finish... Background Pony
Btw, it seems that the further east you go, more and more ponies are aware of the Midnight Armory and the edge of the world. Could Rainbow be getting close?
Sound stones? Those sound strange.
Also, I'm surprised that there's a random tag on this story when it does in fact have zero random antics beyond some fourth wall things here and there, a more serious tone, and a coherent narrative and plot. So, why on earth does the tag still remain on this and the sequels when it's just misleading at this point?
And there's your answer
07/22/2019
23:41 UTC
9061721
Could you have predicted darkstine or how they talk?
9061721
honestly i think the absolute sheer scope of this narrative and the ambition it's trying to accomplish is so anomalous that it can only truly be considered random in a meta sense
Sound Stones as in Sending Stones? Hell yeah, some of my favorite D&D magic items! Super easy to come across or enchant, less situational than Message, and can be lovingly referred to as Rocky Talkies!