Know the One True Threat
Nearly two dozen tiny lifeboats congregated together. Water splashed as the cold, frightened passengers struggled to row their miniature rafts westward—towards a hazy gray line along the horizon.
In the meantime, Chandler's expedition had divided itself into three groups—each congregating on a different steamship. Pegasi and griffons marched across the now-empty decks, minding each station and prepping the vessels for a swift, churning cruise east.
"All stations clear, sir!"
"The other vessels comply!"
"Ready to go on the Minister's signal!"
Keris stood at the stern of the centermost vessel. He took a deep breath, staring out at the distant rafts to the west.
"They... uh..." Starstorm wandered up. "They're going to have to row against a strong current, aren't they?"
"Only the strongest," Windburst murmured. "Tossing them overboard would have just gotten it over with faster."
"They... th-they need an escort!" Raptr exclaimed. He looked at Keris. "Commander, surely two of us can hang back and help them get to dry land! We've got experience! We can help them find a westward stream!"
Keris stood in silence.
"Commander...?"
"Our place is with this expedition," Keris muttered. "And in being there for when the inevitable confrontation happens with Rainbow Dash."
Raptr blinked. He eventually hung his head.
"Well, no doubt Chandler got what he wanted out of this," Starstorm muttered. "The way he must see it—we're ready for battle."
"Are we?" Windburst glanced aside, adjusting the weight of his crossbow. "There's no telling just how many midnighters are out there. If they've truly taken Rainbow Dash's side—"
"Then she'll be the one in charge of them!" Starstorm exclaimed. "She... she would teach them some restraint, don't you think?"
"Sergeant..." Keris sighed, finally turning around to face the bow. "Even we can't afford to be that naive. Even if Rainbow Dash did find a way to pacify the midnighters—for she is gifted—they've been bloodthirsty pirates all of their lives. I doubt they know how to function in a way that isn't outright hostile."
"Rainbow Dash has done the impossible before," Starstorm said.
"We should nevertheless expect the worst," Keris said. "Just like she would. At this point—I'd say a confrontation is inevitable. Now—more than ever—I'd expect no less."
"The... the odds just keep increasing," Raptr muttered. "How can we prevent a bloodbath at this point?
"Maybe it's time to reassess our priorities," Keris said.
Windburst raised an eyecrest. "How so?"
"Chandler wants a fight. Rainbow Dash wants to escape to the Dark Side." Keris glanced at the rest of the Talon. "I don't see why we can't let both happen... in the best interests of Rohbredden."
The Sergeants glanced at one another.
Eventually, Windburst spoke, "Well, either way, I expect a major migraine. One thing's for certain." He gulped. "I don't envy the position that Seraphimus has put you in, Commander."
Keris nodded. "And let's just keep it that way, hmmm?" He signaled the others as he marched off. "Mind the stations. Make sure none of the soldiers hurt themselves with the steam equipment. Their expertise is fighting—not navigation."
"We'll see what you can do."
"What about you, Commander?"
"What else?" Keris made for the bow. "I have to play face."
The leader of the Talon brushed past busy pegasi and griffons. At last, he reached the spot where Chandler's chariot had been parked. The Defense Minister sat on a wooden crate, leaning against the vehicle as he scribbled words onto a piece of parchment.
"We're... uhm..." Keris cleared his throat, standing at attention. "Ready to cast off, sir."
"Do we have plenty of fuel in the hold?"
"Between all three ships? Most definitely, sir." Keris said. "Although, I do suggest you let me send a few squadrons ahead of us to watch the waves and skies for signs of the enemy."
"Make sure you put extra coverage on the waters," Chandler said. "If the midnighters are indeed in possession of submersible craft, I want to know right away."
"I'll have our unicorns posted to detect any errant leylines."
"Well-thought, Commander."
Keris squinted at the letter Chandler was writing. "Arranging a message, sir?"
"Indeed." Chandler nodded, scribbling. "With the most recent developments, I believe it is paramount to inform Frostknife of the involvement of the Seventh Tribe."
"Assuming Rainbow Dash is in league with them."
"I presume it's quite obvious at this point, Commander."
"How... do you intend to send the message out?"
"I'll be asking for winged volunteers within the hour," Chandler said. "Just one brave soul should be able to make the delivery." His eyes darted up briefly. Sharply. "Do you want it to be you, Commander?"
Keris' feathered brow furrowed. "My post is here with the expedition, sir."
"Is it?" Chandler raised an eyebrow as he paused in writing. "Because I couldn't help but notice that it took the former Commander of the Talon to make that observation about the coral contraband."
"I'm afraid I don't follow."
"Please, Commander. You're smarter than that. So don't insult my intelligence." Chandler leaned back. "You've never been a firm believer in my authority. And—to be honest—there are times when I wonder just how difficult it was for the Rainbow Rogue to 'pollute your feeble mind' with the dark powers of the Blight."
"An interesting idea," Keris said. "Albeit needlessly paranoid."
"In my position—and with what's at stake—I cannot afford to be otherwise."
"If that's the case, then why didn't you try harder to dispute the Talon's inclusion into this expedition?" Keris calmly said. "Even as we set out from Frostknife, did you hold such distrust?"
"Why else do you think I brought the ever-loyal Seraphimus along?"
Keris was silent.
Chandler took a calm breath and finished his letter. "The Queen will be avenged, Commander. Mark my words. Any force—no matter how esteemed—that tries to interfere with this mission of vengeance will be eliminated. You are being watched closely."
"Is that supposed to be a threat?"
"No." Chandler sealed the letter. "It's Seraphimus who is watching you and your sergeants closely." He pointed. "That's the threat." He held the letter out. "Now... care to make a delivery for me?" He stared at the leader of the Talon.
Keris stared back. His beak opened slowly. "No, sir."
Silence.
Chandler's nostrils flared. "Hmmmff... I've no clue what you're truly planning, Commander. A pity I just can't have the Talon thrown overboard like the drug runners."
"I believe that should be the least of your concerns right now," Keris said.
"Indeed." Chandler stood up and brushed past the griffon. "Funny. I could have told you the same." He approached the crew assigned to the central vessel, whistling. "Soldiers! Gather around! I am in need of a brave messenger to deliver a letter to Frostknife! Fear not... your honor shall not be slighted in the least for performing this noble task! You have my solemn word as Defense Minister of this most righteous venture!"
Sighing, Keris turned about. In so doing—he caught a cold glint in the distance. He stared across the choppy waters to the ship off of port.
Seraphimus perched on the starboard side of the nearest vessel. She had been staring fixedly at Keris the entire time, and she wasn't smiling.
"... ... ..." Keris exhaled. Breaking sight with the former Commander, he shuffled off... pacing thoughtfully along the deck of the ship.
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Aaaaand crud. Keris is already suspected. Hopefully his luck lasts until the inevitable confrontation.
Or until Rainbow and the Herald get to the other side.
This is not gonna end well...
What else would they be thrown overboard like?
Well, of course there was a perspective change. Why wouldn't there be a perspective change? Absolutely nothing of interest was happening on Rainbow's end.
Please don't be thinking what I think you're thinking, Keris. They're nice Batponies and Rainbow wouldn't like you if you threw them under the bus to cover her escape.
Considering we still don't know what Verlax intended the Loyalty Trial to be, this stands out. My hopes for Seraphimus aren't high, unfortunately.
Chandler is unwinding pretty quickly here.
Shell seemed much more stable at this stage of his madness.
Hmmm so it seems this isn't the last we will see of Frostknife most likely. Keris is on very thin ice here, if he slips up anymore then I think they might completely figure him out.
I might, right now, he's probably thinking of defecting back to Dash's side with the rest of the Talon when the expedition catches up to her.
The one true threat, eh?
Dash? or perhaps the zealotry that is in the hearts of Seraphimus and Chandler.
-Companions are abound, frozen spectres hound. Utaan.
7536237 At this point, I think she expects that nothing less will happen.
The Sarosians will stop at nothing to defend the blood of Luna. They would gladly lay down their lives in atonement.
So maybe Dash's loyalty test is similar to the one Discord forced upon her.
Either she remains loyal to those under her, and stays to help the batpons, or she remains loyal to her journey, and leaves them to hold the line.
So now we have what are in effect three aircraft carriers bearing down on the midnighter base. This helps the Guard a lot, but they are still very seriously outnumbered. And if the bleakweed submersibles have a way to use moonstone weapons underwater, the Guard isn't going to have their ships for long.
I have no clue how Rainbow can avert this impending slaughter, but I'm somewhat confident that she will, in the end, pull it off, either by making it to the dark side with all her allies, or by somehow derailing the murderous quest Chandler and Seraphimus are on.
7536277
She's always been the threat.To Dash, to Chandler, to the Talon, and to herself.
I just hope Chandler drowns in his platemail.
Sera can die too, but that one's more of a mercy than anything.
Uhhhh...
- Prism
Still not sure what level of threat Chandler's group could represent to the bat ponies, who have them vastly outnumbered, and the whole "elite troop" notion of Central Guard is quite frankly kind of hard to swallow given the entire Central Guard has limited combat experience, considering the Talon for the longest time did pretty much all the work of bandit busting in the mainland.
On top of that, these three steamships aren't armed, so aside from a ride I'm not sure what they provide in terms of benefit. I can buy Chandler is delusional enough to think his soldiers have a chance, and Seraphimus probably doesn't give a shit who dies in the upcoming conflict, so Keris and the Talon would by the only voice of reason and Keris has already admitted to not having any idea how to stop the upcoming fight.
So ball is basically in Dash's court. She can either try to keep the bat ponies out of the fight, make a run for it and hope Chandler and Co. follow, or engage with Chandler's force in one way or another, either by using the bat ponies to swarm the Central Guard, or make some kind of surgical strike to go after the group's leadership of Seraphimus and Chandler, using the bat ponies as support to make the raid more likely to succeed. Dash's real main aim should be to get the fight as far from Bleak's Plummet as possible, either by leading Chandler and Co. away, or going to them to engage them in the open sea.
Its a shame the time for Luna to speak through the pendant is coming to a close soon, a who knows if she might've been useful for some kind of attempt at diplomacy. The biggest issue is that Chandler's got his head crammed in the sand, Seraphimus has a death wish, and they've handpicked their unit to be filled with zealots. Not ideal circumstances to try and talk it out, but I won't call anything impossible.
Best case scenario might be just to lead them to the edge of the world, and then go over the side and see if Chandler and Co. are really crazy enough to try following over to the Dark Side. Might actually be the most interesting option to see how they handled dealing with the Dark Side of the world, and the shit they'd likely see over there. Might even give Chandler and Seraphimus some new perspective to work with, if they see Dash cutting a swath through the insanity of the Dark Side. I still don't see either character as beyond salvaging, if they can just get their respective heads pulled out of their asses.
7536261 Shell was quite a bit worse. This is maybe comparable to when Shell took over Nightshade Industries, except he tortured the guards for information, killed a bunch of ponies, ruined the facilities by digging up the streets and never used it for anything. By the time he reached this phase, he was outright destroying anything remotely capable of harboring Dash, no questions asked. See 7536213
Chandler "merely" robbed a bunch of opportunists/criminals at gunpoint and left them in a life-threatening situation.
Am I missing something here?
7536319 Oh...
Don't know how I missed that. Pay me no mind, I'm having a stupid day apparently.
7536330
Hopefully the Sarosians will give him a good zap before he falls into the drink. All of that armor should make for a great light show.
It hadn't really occurred to me until now: Even if Chandler & Co are defeated and a good number of bat ponies survive the ordeal, things probably won't turn out too well for the latter, because they'll still have helped "the Rainbow Rogue". As long as Rohbreddon is shackled to their ridiculous lie, bat ponies stand to be even more hated than they already are. The only alternative I can see is if Keris takes some liberties in his account of what happened.
?
Man, I was hoping that the Sixth Seed would have given Dash something to resolve the situation cleanly, but it looks like that's not going to be the case.
What did she get at the Sixth Seed, anyway? Every other one came with +1 ghostly companion and +1 magical ability, so I don't believe that the last one would have given her nothing when this is the time she needs it the most...
Well it is pretty clear at this point that this can't go on like that. One way or the other, someone has to die.
Given the light, was teh sith seed, the sixth seed? Theres enough distance to have two points out of view of each other to be at teh effective same place?
I always thought that the first thing you do when searching, is to check the obvious hiding places, such as cargo, before you check the hidden hiding places?
Three cargo ships? The Sarosians wont even nhave to use mines. An anchor or ripping hook will strip the entire keel and half the ribs like deboning a fish, with a single pass.
7536364 I don't know what got into me but I was far too proud of that pun.
7536643
Now now, we haven't seen Discord yet...
7536386 I think the best case scenario would be if the Sarosians start migrating west by submersible towards Equestria to meet Luna, and Chandler and co arrive at Bleaks Plummet to find it empty.
7536689
That might work, if they actually had time to get such a migration going before the Central Guard shows up. It's unclear just how long it took Dash and company to arrive there after leaving the coast, but I'm guessing at least one day. Not sure how fast the steamships are, but if they're anything like real world steampowered ships, then we're talking anywhere between 10-20 knots, so basically somewhere around 11-23 mph. Not super fast, but we don't really know how far out Bleak's Plummet is from the shoreline.
7536482 The current would roll around in his body, then exit through the top of his head, setting his mane and fur on fire, and potentially making his head explode if the shock was strong enough.
That's the issue with armour like his, you aren't grounded, so the only way the charge can leave, is through the only unprotected part of his body.... his head.
I'm surprised they didn't gangpress the traders into running the ships for them. Now they have no lifeboats for when the ships inevitably sink.
Seraphimus needs a good shanking.
7536312 I wouldn't be so sure about the Guard being vulnerable. It was mentioned earlier how poorly defended Bleak's Plummet is: It seems they simply rely on hiding away underwater.
Has Seraphimus ever smiled?
I doubt that he knows what HE is planning. His plan seems like
1. Find Rainbow
2. Chase Rainbow
3.???
4.
ProfitKill RainbowA few missing steps there.
I see Keris took acting lessons from Theanim. Neither of them are very convincing. At this rate, all of Rohbredden's gonna know about their charade.
7536495
And we all know what will happen to Keris and the rest of the Talon if he speaks the truth...
And, just like that, I'm caught up after a two month pause again. Just in time for a showdown, too.
7536867 Everyone keeps forgetting that this isn't the entire central guard, but merely a small part of it.
I have a strong feeling that Sera and Keris are going to end up coming to blows when they catch Rainbow. Let's hope they're not lethal...
7536702 According to the Herald, the edge is less than 200 miles from shore, and we know the Sixth Seed is between Bleak's Plummet and there, and Chandler likely had been flying for at least a while before he found the ships. The Central Guard is practically right on top of Bleak's Plummet.
7536873 It's like they're subconsciously trying to get themselves killed
7536941 In her very first chapter, for one.
Across that chapter and the next, she smiles a total of seven times, mostly at foals and Keris. More after that, though they get rarer as time passes.
7537545
I know that feel
7536878 pff, haha
my bad
Big griffon is watching you.
Keris is playing a very dangerous game here. I really hope it doesn't turn out to bite him.
Sera is going to have a very rude awakening when vengeance won't be served in Verlax's death and the deaths of her family.
Keris and Seraphimus are going to fight soon. I'd say that plot-wise, he's the most likely one to strike the killing blow - or Jordan. More likely than Rainbow, at least.
(Also, a whole bunch of Sarosians are going to die, and I'm afraid Nicole and/or Echo may well be among them.)
....uh....that was the creepiest thing I've read in this story....