All That Glimmers Is Gold
"Rainbow Dash?" Princess Luna's voice calmly entreated.
Rainbow stood at the bow of the Stardust. Muzzle agape, she slowly peered around and around. The bodies of her friends glowed faintly with fuzzy gold auras. Behind them—to the east—the same light rippled through the waters, bright and intense. Rainbow calmly weathered the turbulence of the waves while her ghostly friends looked on in concern. Even they had a faint glow to them, and the gold trailed after their spectral figures as they floated around their anchor.
"Rainbow Dash," Princess Luna repeated. "Perhaps now you might be able to explain to us precisely what it is that you are experiencing?"
"Yeah, Rainbow," Ariel said, nodding from where she hovered above Logan, Wildcard, and Bard. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
"I... I'm not sure..." She gulped, looking at Twilight, Applejack, and the rest of her friends. "Everypony's... leaving a faint gold trail..."
"Gold?" Bard remarked.
Rainbow nodded. "You. My friends. Even the sarosians." She glanced west at where Enix and the others led the procession by air. "I... I think I even sense the fish in the sea." She turned to face Remna. Her eyes relaxed... and soon she realized how dim the air around the violet mare was. "You... on the other hoof... have almost no aura about you."
Remna merely nodded. "Perhaps I should take that as a compliment."
"Did anything in your most recent vision explain what this extra-sensory-perception might mean?"
Rainbow clenched her jaw. "I'm afraid not, Your Highness. Only..." She gazed east. "I can see the path to the edge."
"The edge crosses a lot of distance, Rainbow Dash," Princess Celestia's voice said.
"Yeah, but, I see the path that I'm supposed to take."
"How do you mean?"
"I..." Rainbow grimaced, gazing east at the particular narrow beam. "I'm not sure... but I just know that it's the past we should be following."
"Perrhaps it is a surrrogate forr Yaerrfaerrda," Kepler said from behind.
Rainbow glanced up at the wyvern at the rudder wheel. "Huh?"
"Forr the past few Seeds, Yaerrfaerrda has dirrected you to the entrrance to the machine worrld, yes?" Kepler adjusted his glasses. "Maybe this is the next phase forr the Austrraeoh. Much like yourr invisible companions arre capable of sensing things, you have now been exposed to yourr sensorry perrception..."
"Oh my..." Fluttershy looked at Rainbow. "Wouldn't that be amazing?"
"Yes, but you guys' senses are obvious," Rainbow said. "Well... except for maybe Pinkie's."
"Yaaaay! I'm unique!"
"Perhaps... what you're witnessing is harmonic sensitivity," Twilight Sparkle said.
"I beg yer pardon?" Applejack remarked.
"Think about it." Twilight gestured. "She says she's been seeing a faint 'aura' about us and her companions. We are all vessels of harmony, in a way... so long as we're living things."
"And the path to the edge of the world?" Rarity remarked.
"It could be energy within Urohringr reaching out to Austraeoh," Twilight said. "Whatever happened inside the Sixth Seed, I think it's opened up a channel of communication between Rainbow Dash and the machine world itself."
"So... the world is talking to Dashie?" Pinkie Pie remarked.
"That sounds..." Fluttershy gulped. "...unnecessarily creepy."
"I wonder what's up with Remna, then," Applejack said.
Rainbow Dash glanced at the draconian mare. "She ain't exactly a normal pony."
"Yes, but didn't she get that way 'cuz of alicorn powers?" Applejack said. "And that's harmonic, ain't it?"
"Maybe the essence of Axan... cancels it out somehow?" Twilight Sparkle remarked.
"Grnnngh..." Rainbow Dash rubbed her head. "This is nuts."
"Mmmm..." Remna trotted closer. "I've got an idea."
"Should I be scared?"
"You sense where the gold aura is the strongest?" Remna asked.
"Uhhhh... yeah? Due east of us."
"Trace an opposite path," Remna suggested. "Starting from the edge towards the west."
"But... like... what's the point of—?"
"Humor me, Austraeoh."
Rainbow Dash sighed. She squinted at the bright gold light to the east. Then, with trailing eyes, she stared down at the waves, through the hull of the Stardust, past the hooves of many of her friends, then past the bow and into the waters where they last left Bleak's Plummet.
"See anything of note?" Remna asked.
"Okays..." Pinkie Pie made a face. "Even she is being too random for my taste. Can someone yank the dragon malarkey alarm?"
"Pinkie, just relax," Fluttershy insisted, then floated close to their anchor. "Rainbow? Do you sense anything?"
"I... uh..." Rainbow Dash was frozen in place, squinting. "It's h-hard to say..."
"What?" Twilight blinked. "What is it?"
Rainbow's lips pursed. She was staring through the deck of the Stardust, towards the stern. Somewhere... far beyond the boat... far beyond the surf and the depths of the ocean beneath...
...she saw a faint, concentrated hub of gold light.
"Rainbow Dash?" Princess Luna's voice echoed. "I sense that something has captured your attention."
Rainbow nodded. "And how." She pointed a petite forelimb forward. "I... see something... something golden..." She gulped. "It's hard to explain."
"Maybe..." Ariel fidgeted in mid-hover. "Maybe it is Bleak's Plummet?"
"No way..." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "If I was sensing the bodies of the ponies in that place—knowing how many that are there—I'd be seeing a whole lot of gold. But this?" She gulped. "This is far... far away..."
"Like how far?" Bard blinked. "Like... are we talkin' the bottom of the ocean?"
"I... it... m-maybe...?" Rainbow stammered. "Or... perhaps it's something inside the machine world itself."
Remna droned: "How about on the other side of the plane?"
Rainbow threw Remna a glance.
Remna calmy stared back.
Silence.
Rainbow's ears folded.
"No way..." She glanced back at the waves, wincing. "I... I'm seeing the Midnight Armory?"
"Considering the size and curvature of this plane..." Remna calmly gestured at the choppy waters. "...it would not be too wild a possibility."
"How remarrkable," Kepler hummed.
"Yeah..." Logan grunted. "I call bullshit."
"I do believe Axan may be onto something," Princess Celestia's voice said. "If whatever force that empowers Urohringr is requiring the Harmonic Prism to restore energy and purpose to this piece of the ring, then it would stand to reason that the beacons that are granting the Austraeoh these visions would then direct her towards the Midnight Armory—where the Prism is located."
Wildcard whistled.
"Whoah dayum," Bard remarked.
"If that's true..." Fluttershy blinked at Rainbow. "...it could be very useful on the Dark Side."
"It's not like you would have Yaerfaerda to guide you there, darling," Rarity said. "But if you had a 'beam' pointing you to the Midnight Armory..."
"Fluttershy and Rarity are right," Twilight said. "On the Dark Side of the Plain, there is no conventional 'east' or 'west'... at least not like we know it here."
"Ugh..." Rainbow Dash rubbed her head, grimacing. "We haven't even gone over the edge. I'm n-not sure my skull is ready for all this brain drilling..."
Enix let loose several shrieks. The Bleakweed vessels escorting the Stardust slowed to a stop.
Wildcard gestured to the others.
"Dun look now," Bard remarked. "But I think we've just arrived back at the Plummet."
Sure enough, the waters due west of the Stardust began bubbling as the massive structure resurfaced.
"Perhaps it is for the best," Luna's voice said. "There isn't much time left in our communication. Let us see if Xarchellus has deliberated with her council."
"Yeah..." Rainbow nodded with a gulp. "No better way to ease the stress of an apocalyptic voyage than by dealing with the entire fate of yet another civilization..."
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Geez...if that is what happened, that's one heckuva superpower.
So Rainbow Dash's quest marker got updated, and on top of that she can sense... what, lifeforce? Harmonic force? Could be useful, if she figures out how to hone it and pay attention to it. Might notice things coming before they get there, like, say, a small army of Central Guard.
So she can see harmony. If Axan is a very faint glow, just what would Discord be? Would he have no aura at all, or some other color? Does it even matter? Probably not. Wonder if Seraphimus would glow. She seems pretty disharmonious at this point.
This is quite the upgrade that is for sure. Basically a direct line to the Midnight Armory, and it should be useful to sense the approach of anyone with harmony in them like a better version of Fluttershy's powers really.
Just another Wednesday.
Well that's dope.
Poor Seraphimus' aura is probably going to dark as night.
7546966 Hmm.. I don't think so, Fluttershy has a life sense in a complete 360 radius out to quite a distance.
Dash seems to be more aura sense, which would be more limited to A. a shorter range, and B. the direction she's facing.
If I had to equate it to anything, Shy is a heartbeat sensor and Dash has a combination of Lucario's aura sight, and the glowy trail from Fable.
----
...and there's uh... not much else to say on the matter really.
Just speculating that maybe Axan's aura is so weak because she's not in harmony with her equine body.
-Companions are abound, frozen spectres hound. Utaan.
7546967 But it's Thursday...
If she is being lead straight to the midnight armory, will she still be able to find the ruby flames?
7547048 I presume this means there are no beacons on the Dark Side.
Since Rainbow got herself a sense, it seems there's not going to be a Discord after all! I do wonder what will happen with this harmony detection when Dash is inevitably forced to be chaotic again, though. And it remains to be seen what's become of her dizzy spells.
Man, this feels surreal now. Yaerfaerda is over, and now Rainbow can actually see (in a sense) her final destination. We've been following her as she hunted down the beacons for so long that to have this little bit of a tease of the end is exciting. I can't wait until we finally get to the dark side, but at this rate, that'll take another 50 chapters. We still have to deal with Chandler and his army, and then finally make the jump.
I don't know how Skirts thought he was going to do all this before 200 chapters were up. I don't see this ending in fewer than 300.
7547030
Honestly, dealing with the fate of an entire civilization is more of a Tuesday thing.
what did utaan mean again? ._.
srsly
7546967 Hey, it's Hump Day! After this you've just got to fight off a league of bloddthirsty ponies and cross over to a side of your world that's never seen light. No biggie.
7547028 As I recall, dragons were stated as beings that were at least partially if not mostly chaotic in nature. Makes me wonder how Discord would register: no aura, or anti aura?
Hey, completely unrelated to the story, but can someone answer a question real quick? (For some reason, the chat has never worked for me, so i'm just gonna ask here.)
I know It used to be possible to search with tags, but i can't figure out how to do it now. Has that feature been removed?
Like, if i wanted a Octascratch fic, i could choose the "Octavia", "Vinyl Scratch" and "romance" tags. I haven't used it in ages, but i know it used to be a thing.
plz help
7546949 7547193 Pure chaos would be a relative void compared to these harmonic auras. A void is not like a dark spot on a painting's canvas, but a part where the canvas doesn't reach. Warps around. Can't reach. Shouldn't reach. Feels wrongness to even think reach. ... Paint that is not paint that exists orthogonal to the canvas and is expected to make an image. An image that can make sense when not facing it, and absolutely enervating to face directly, if even possible to see now that the canvas doesn't exist as a painting, but as mirror to thoughts that the canvas shouldn't have about the paint.
What others haven't yet prepared themselves for, is that Seraphimus is only an echo of a force of nature. Comparatively, what we'll be dealing with is a reality of unnature, beyond labelings of pushes, pulls, motivations, force.
7547182
Utaan, it's been given as 'beyond' or more specifically: "Beyond Purpose, There Is Only Want"
Dash will need to exist in a direction beyond the standard understandings. Orthogonal to her physical constraints. Orthogonal to her harmonic constraints. Perhaps orthogonal to her existential constraints.
I'm not the only one preparing to embrace a full lovecraftian shift in the story.
Also, sleep deprivation is no joke.
Well, that's nifty. It'll be nice to have a guide to the Armory once she gets to the Dark Side. I'm not sure what to make/expect of its uses with regards to sensing other ponies. I guess it might help her find potential allies in the whole Trinary War thing.
Also, Chandler's probably due to show up any chapter now, and I have no idea what to expect. Ostensibly, having the batpony army at hand will give them an advantage, but no way in hell will it be bloodless.
So there are cool powers like magic and lie detection, sensing souls, etc., and Dash's power ends up being ponies kinda sorta glow... that mare deserves a refund!
I'm curious if it's only skin deep (ponies being vessels of harmony and all that jazz) or if it actually takes into account the character of the individual pony. Would Chandler glow? Would Rainbow?
I guess at the very least it could come in handy as a changeling detection system on the dark side.
7547209 Dude, sleep deprivation is a hell of a drug. At any rate, WOW. I can tell you're ready for the deep stuff on the other side.
It honestly never occurred to me that Rainbow might receive some kind of sensory gift also. Even so, it's a pretty cool power to have.
Sometimes you have to wonder just how deeply IC has been planning and thinking about all this.
Well that's neat, wonder how much rainbow will use this new "sense" or how useful it'll be going forward. I remember awhile back someone in the comments suggested rainbow would get a "power" from the last seed, you were totally right dude. And lol at the smash mouth reference.
7547193 Forget dragons, Dash now has a Changeling detector! It's been established that they're chaotic lifeforms, Nevlamas' serpents from the end of Urohringr couldn't see them, ergo they won't glow for Dash even when transformed. And we all know she's about to see a lot of Changelings...
Remember that one tidbit we got in Stratopolis that Changelings can make their blood red if they want to? At the time, the info turned out to be Checkhov's Red Herring (to draw attention away from Changeling AJ) and never was used.
It sure would be awesome if ):( went and used it now, four books later.
Whelp, yet another beacon to follow and encounter IC-knows-what...
Also, Dashie with powers is awesome!
7546967
7547030
Given that the east coast of the US is about 4 hours behind the UK (where I find myself), given also that the west coast is some 3 to 4 hours behind the east coast, if someone in North America posts a comment wednesday night, I can read it almost immediately, except for me it will be early on thursday morning.
Some might say that we have fooled foaled yesterday.
Hey, I've noticed Johnny Guitar hasn't been all that bardley lately. I thought he was always strumming those strings in his downtime.
7547363 It was 3pm when I posted that.
So...I guess I'm in the furthest forward timezone.
Yay for Australia.
7546936 I wonder how much like aura reading that force is. If everybody but Axan holds the same level of a glow it certainly doesn't stand for Harmonic attunement - not if a Spirit of Harmony glows no brighter than a pirate. I suppose it'd be Harmonic energy in the most base sense, the vital essence of living beings, their magic in the Equestrian setting.
Oh the choices to fight are going to be so much more worse now that she can see what might be harmonic energy.....
Gets very difficult to see Anything when Everything glows.
So much to do, so much to see
So what's wrong with taking the back streets?
You'll never know if you don't go
You'll never shine if you don't glow
7547384 I'm also from Australia if it helps any.
7547193 Dragons were referred to as being both chaotic and harmonic. So Axan's lack of an aura isn't surprising. Although that does beg up the question of whether or not Dash has a specific aura she sees for chaotic lifeforms.
Makes sense that she would have some kind of guidance, given the distances involved (I calculated about 500000 miles at one point) if she is off by even a single degree she could bypass the armory entirely and never know it. That this sense can detect every living thing however
, yikes, but also makes sense.
This is getting back to the roots of what Austraeoh always felt like to me. Mystery, exploration, and danger. Other words I can't come up with.
I am excited for the future.
7547140 Ironically, my original instinct was to use Tuesday, as that sounds funnier, but then I'd figured everyone would complain that it was Wednesday. Sigh... To be strictly accurate, this chapter was posted on Wednesday (barely) in the timezone of the author.
And IC once again pulls a surprise.
Rainbow's way into the Midnight Armory is possible now. If the magic trail enables her to gain access, that is.
It would make some sense. The machine world has always glowed gold in response to the Austraeoh's presence. She has unlocked the path of loyalty. Now she just needs to follow the posted speed limit.
(At the end of the world, make a left turn.)
That life-sense is probably what'll let her find a path through the Warp-infused madness that will likely be the dark side
7547387 7547567 I presume the reason Axan doesn't glow isn't that she's a Dragon, but that she's technically a corpse.
Cool! Everypony is home now!
Well this is a bit of a twist, a good one of course, but still a twist. Rainbow's got harmonic senses now to help her on the dark side, that's pretty cool. I'm hoping she'll realize how useful it will be to counter Chandler's army, or at least give them a leg up on them. She'll be able to see them coming and hopefully be able to avoid them.
...or it's going to distract her and Chandler's army will still get the element of surprise.
It's lines like these that I enjoy far more than I probably should.
7547209
#keanuwoah #mindblown #howtocleanbrainsoutofelectronics
I think you and Discord would have some fun conversations.
How could I be so blind! The last seed gave RD the element of x-Ray vision. Now we just need no-clip enabled to make it to the dark side of the plane/lense/diskworld.
I did it! I finally caught up, A second time!
Now that I got a 'Second ticket for discount' deal going, I would like to take this moment to say that..
Holy danky dipulated Popsicles Lemur-Man! Do you craft a story for the ages!
And now that we are edging to the uh, edge, We got ourselves a big 'ol gold sign 'YA GOTTA BE HERE GURL' to guide us Upside-down-eastwise?
Well, still got ourselves Butthead battallion to contend with...
Man.
7547028>>7547193>>7547567 I'd like to point out another possible reason.
Axan is in a dead body. Which isn't exactly living, thought that can be argued since Remna's body isn't decaying. In fact it can regenerate. But I wouldn't say the body is 100% alive either.
Maybe it is due to her draconic nature that there is less glimmer, but it could also be related to her current... status of being.
Just an observation.
EDIT: 7548692 What this smart guy said basically.
7549420
~
tcl
7547524
Excellently played.
Dang, I got a little behind over the last couple weeks. These have been good chapters thus far though. Nice to see Echo healing and Nicole getting to spend time with her wayward kin. Now Dash is figuring out a little more about her own new ability. Next up... what the batpony leader decides.
~SolidFire