Once More, Doing the Impossible
“Dammit!” Digiff spat, grunted. He limped up a ramp, joining the jittery stallions standing around the misty exit to the brig. “Stop it! Stop throwing yourselves down there!”
The dredgers looked over, blinking collectively. “Digiff? What the buck—?!”
“It's a trap!” Digiff growled. “Can't you see that?”
“What in muck's name happened to you?”
Digiff spat blood, rubbing his beard and bruises. “Seafoam...”
“Kids?”
“A whole lot of them, okay?! They beat me to the ground and then they scampered off! I'm gonna skin every single one of them alive, I swear to Verlaxion—” He shook his head, hissed, then grumbled: “One of them had the pendant! The monster's pendant, okay?!”
“What...?!”
“No way...”
“Nixkit went down there just now—”
“Yeah, well, the little shit with the pendant shimmied down one of the steam vents long before that!” Digiff gnashed his teeth. “Don't you get it? He's got a filthy hard-on for the Rainbow Rogue! Wanna bet the monster's got her shit together and is taking you all out one by one?!”
The stallions gawked at the steamy entrance.
“Goddess...”
“Nixkit!” One called down. “Hey boss—!”
“Shhhh!” Digiff hobbled the rest of the way towards them. “It's too darn late. I mean, if she's got the place steaming over like that...” His voice cut off, and then he gulped. “You've got dredge dust. Have you tried dumping it?”
“The steam only expels it.”
“Muckin' A...” Digiff pointed at the door. “Lock it up!”
“But Nixkit—”
“You'll be facing Skagra's wrath at this point!” Digiff glared. “Lock the damn brig up already!”
“The bolts! They... they fell down below.”
“Yeah.” Added another stallion with a nod. “Nixkit went with the others to investigate.”
Digiff paled. After rubbing more blood from his chin, he snarled, “Close it anyway. Somepony go... g-go find something heavy to keep it shut.”
“Right!” Two stallions galloped off in opposite directions.
“Welder!” Digiff hollered through the polluted air. “Somepony go find a welder! We're gonna seal this thing for good!”
Down below, Pinkie Pie descended, her bright eyes blinking through the cloudy haze. “Bad news baked beans!” she squeaked. “The baddies above are gonna hammer the lid on this copper coffin!”
“Then there isn't much more time to mess around,” Rainbow Dash said, rummaging through the stallions' things for tools and weapons. The feathers of her left wing brushed against a bulkhead, and she winced. “Mrrrffngh... gotta take the fight out there.”
“Huh?” Keris looked over, blinking. “And exactly how do you intend to do that?”
“Very... very badflankishly.” Rainbow Dash tossed on a vest, winced again as she stretched her left feathers through, and attached as many wrenches and club to the article as she could. “The freakjobs who run this place are both air-headed and violent. It's a very unsexy combination. I intend to teach them a thing or two.”
“Just like you taught the ponies of the Quade?” Keris remarked.
Swab winced in the steam.
Rainbow turned towards him, face deadpan. “The monks of that place never tried skinning me alive.”
“Didn't stop you from leaving the place a disaster area once you made your mistake.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow gathered some more tools and weapons, stuffing them into her vest's pouches. “And who says I'm escaping this place?”
“What?” Keris blinked. “You're a wanted mare, Rainbow Dash. Skagra and the others? All they want is to sell you to the right party for—” He stopped in mid-sentence. His beak hung open. At last, the Lieutenant blinked again. “You... you aren't trying to escape, are you?”
Rainbow continued equipping herself, breathing quietly. Tightly.
Keris' hawkeyes widened. “You're going to try overthrowing Skagra, aren't you?”
Swab looked up at Rainbow Dash.
Keris continued: “Rainbow... 'monsterous rogue' or not—you're outnumbered by over a hundred.” He shook his bloody, feathered head. “It's not only an impossible feat! It's... it's...”
“...stupid?”
“As much as I hate to use the term, absolutely!”
“Then that's how I know it'll work.” She took a deep breath, shaking her head. “Been a while since I've done anything stupid. Even back at the Quade, I was just lame.”
“Mmmmhmmm,” Rarity and Pinkie hummed at once.
“Rainbow Dash...” Keris winced, hobbling closer on three limbs. “Although I may not precisely be in the condition to do it, I must protest—”
“Shriek, if you want to,” Rainbow grumbled. She gazed at the spectral marefriends to her side. “But I'll be darned if I continue this journey leaving another tragic mess on the waters of this world.”
Fluttershy smiled, eyes moist.
Keris asked, “Is... this your way of making spiritual amends with your sinful mistakes?”
“Nope.”
“Because if you end up dying from this venture, then what precisely has been accomplished?”
“I won't die, dude.”
“Rainbow Dash, that is most unreali—”
“I've got my friends at my side.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. “More importantly, we're all on the same page. For the first time since Val Roa, stuff feels right. And that's when I last accomplished the impossible.”
Swab blinked. A smile crossed his tiny face while his good ear flicked.
Pinkie Pie flew up through the ceiling, then ducked back down. “They're coming, Dashie!”
Twilight rubbed her horn. “Mrmfffngh... I'm detecting several sources of crystalline energy on the approach.” She gulped. “They're probably welding devices.”
“Okay.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. She trotted towards the ramp. “Gotta make this fast... short... and simple.” She shook her head as she came to a stop before the path leading up to the brig's exit. “Beat 'em up... hide... rinse and repeat.”
“I suggest you put some distance between yourself and the exit,” Keris said. On scuffling limbs, he hobbled over to Rainbow's side and stood next to her, muscles coiled. “Make a splash. Once the rest of the thugs rush in to gang up on you, I'll tackle them from the rear, halt their retaliation.”
Rainbow did a double-take. “Huh?!” She squinted. “You're in no condition to do anything, dude!”
“Mmmm... a most stupid situation, yes?”
Rainbow sighed. “Lieutenant Dude—”
“It is my sworn duty to protect the souls of this world,” he said. “So long as creatures like Skagra are in charge, it's an affront to everything I believe in and fight for.” He turned towards her with a tired smile. “You just confirmed my supicions that you wish to bring him down.”
“I'm the criminal whom you've been sent to arrest.”
“That may be so.” He nodded. “But as of this very second, you're a key element in accomplishing my greatest aspiration here in the barges.”
“What will your boss think?”
“She can think many things,” Keris said. He half-shrugged. “That's the luxury of being alive. I intend to share that luxury with the mares and foals living here.”
“... ... ...”
“After you, Miss Dash,” Keris remarked.
Rainbow Dash shuddered, staring ahead with a smirk. “Guess I wouldn't mind having a wingpony again.”
“Alright, you two.” Swab suddenly trotted in front of the pair, scuffling his hoof across the ground as he faced up the ramp. “After me.”
“What?!” Rarity gasped.
“What?!” Rainbow Dash mimicked. She frowned, reaching a hoof out to yank Swab back. “Oh no you don't, Kiddo. You've already fought your fight—”
He spun around, frowning at her. “Your job isn't done here. And that means neither is mine.”
“Kid, if I recall, your job has been to scrub decks and earn... rice bags—”
“My job, since foaling, has been to help all of Verlaxion's children... to be the absolute best that I can be. Because of Red Barge, I've not been able to.” He sniffled, eyes blinking. “Until now.”
Rainbow's brow furrowed.
“I... I-I know where all of the steam valves above deck are,” Swab said. He gulped. “I-I can flush the steam vents super quick! Make this part of the Southern Strut super cloudy... just like the brig we're in!”
“Kid—”
“I'm tiny and I'm fast and I know my way around!” Swab gestured with a hoof. “None of the dredgers will be fast enough to catch me! I promise!”
“He has a point,” Keris remarked in a dry tone. “After all, if it weren't for his cunning and agility, both of us would have perished by now—”
“Don't friggin' rub it in, turkey!” Rainbow grumbled.
“Rainbow Dash...” Fluttershy chided.
Rainbow face-hoofed. “Flutters...” She sighed.
“Rainbow Dash,” Swab reached forward, scraping his tiny hooves across her fetlocks. “Please.” He sniffled—but with an earnest smile. “Let me be awesome for once in my life. Just like you are.”
“... ... ...” Rainbow Dash sighed, glaring up the misty ramp. “...alright.”
Swab bit his bottom lip, beaming. He spun around, hind quarters wriggling at the ready, his tail flicking.
“But wait for my signal.” Rainbow looked over her shoulder at Keris. “Make your entrance delayed. Your tactic sounds super smart... too smart for me to buck up.”
“Mmmmm...” Keris cracked his neck joints and smirked. “I'll take that as a compliment.”
Pinkie flew down again. “They're right at the door, Dashie! It's now or never!”
“I'll buck the door open,” Rainbow said. “Right after that, Swab, you run out and do your thing.”
The foal nodded breathily. “Okay...!”
“But make yourself friggin' scarce once everything's all misty! Got it?” Rainbow frowned. “Leave the tough stuff to me and Lieutenant Dude here.”
“Sure thing, Rainbow.”
“Alright...” Rainbow bent her legs, hunching down. “Get ready...”
Twilight fluttered in. “Rainbow Dash...”
“Almost game time, egghead,” Rainbow whispered aside. “I'm going to need all of you gals' help.”
“And you'll have it, Rainbow,” Twilight said, nodding. “But on one condition?”
“Yeah...?”
Twilight's eyes hardened. “We don't want you killing a single one of these stallions.”
“... ... ...”
“No matter how mean they might have been.”
“... ... ...”
Twilight blinked. “Are you on board with us?”
“Of course,” Rainbow said. She exhaled. “After all...” A dumb smile. “...you just made it a million times more challenging.” A beat, and then she frowned as she spat: “Now!”
Thwoooosh! She and Swab both galloped up the ramp with Keris shuffling behind.
“Grnnngh!” The stallions grunted as they swung the heavy grate back over the brig.
“There! You got it!” Digiff turned towards a group of stallions trotting up. “Hurry up with those welding torches—!”
“Something's coming up!”
Digiff spun, jaw agape. “Huh—?!”
CLAAAANG! A blue shape soared out, knocking the grate wide open. Dredgers went flying back, collapsing across the bulkheads.
“The monster!” A thug shouted, raising his shark prod. “She's—” WHUD! A tooth or two flew from a hoof to the chin.
“Rrrrrgh—!” Rainbow spun around, ducked a swing of two pole-arms, then unsheathed two wrenches from her vest's pockets. Cl-Clang! She knocked the staves aside, then slammed both tools into the guts of the stallions entangled with her. She twirled and kicked one body into another cluster of guards—then backflipped to dodge their taser blasts before kicking the second body towards them, tripping more.
“Dammit dammit dammit!” Digiff backtrotted, seething as he struggled to grab his own wrench. “Everypony rush in! Kick her brains out before she—”
Just then, a brown body shot past him, panting with tiny breaths.
“Huh...?!” Digiff turned to see Swab make a mad dash for an array of steam pipes. The foal's hooves sped over the valves, turning them in the space of three blinks. “Hey!” He pointed at the scampy youth, then turned towards the group once again. “Look out! They're trying to blind us—”
Digiff soon realized that there was nopony to shout at... at least nopony conscious. Those attempting to flank Rainbow's rear were suddenly being pounced on by a body with brown and red plumage from behind. Keris made short business of the hapless thugs, knocking them out with key punches and kicks to the stomach. The rest were dealing with Rainbow Dash, and it was a pitiful, losing war.
“Get her!”
“Rip her ears off—” WHACK! “Ooomf!”
“Dammit! Don't—” Th-Thwap! “Gaaah!”
“Go! Go!”
“Get out! She's too—” SMACK! “—unghh.” Th-Thwump!
Thump!
Thwap!
Digiff could only hear the bodies dropping. Seeing them was another matter—something made impossible by the sheer opaqueness overcoming him.
Hisssssss!
Soon, the bearded dredger was swimming in milk-thick steam on all sides. His flesh paled, itching... tingling in the extremities. Hyperventilating breaths escaped his aching lungs. A bottle of shivers, Digiff backtrotted nervously across the bulkheads, then galloped in a random direction—stumbling more than once against random structures.
All the while, a blue shape blurred in and out of the mists... slowly and icily trailing him.
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Trying to overthrow Skagra? This is stupid on a whole other level.
Perfect.
orig10.deviantart.net/39db/f/2012/363/2/f/clapping_pony_icon___rainbow_dash_by_taritoons-d5pkzrg.gif
Looking forward to this.
Welcome to Alien Isolation, Digiff. Have fun trying not to take several wrenches to the cranium.
Sweet Celestia, Twilight, one of these days you're just going to have to get over it. Your insistence on being a goodie goodie twoshoes is going to get RD badly hurt eventually.
Ha! Smoke 'em girls! So happy seeing them working together. I just hope that the talon will be preoccupied long enough for RD to sort out red barge with keris.
Well, it's stupid to take on a hundred armed ones, but it's just too bad they have to against a mare that gets more powerful the more stupid the idea works, especially since she has her friends with her.
This will be interesting hen we finally get AJ too.
6670079 I give her until next MoonTalk
Aww yisss wrench hacking time.
Also, I'm getting a vibe that likens RD to Toph going full-on Blind Bandit
Twilight... Buck off.
Dash only killed once Twi, once, and only because it was necessary.
All you're doing now, is guiding her back to the path of the harmonious mare she once was.
You're her morality chain, you and the rest of the girls, and Swift and Keris too.
If she falls again, it's on you as well now...
Remember that.
...now go kick some ass.. all of you.
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
Overthrowing Skagra? Then who's going to be the next top dredger, Swab?
It's a good thing Rainbow likes a challenge; also she didn't say what condition they must be in other than alive, that does leave a lot of possibility for disabling them.
6670124
There is this, Rainbow, when in her right mind, has a body count of 1 as far as I recall.
It's nice to see some righteous ass-whooping again. It's been a while.
Also, speaking of wingponies: I wonder where Bard and WC are. You know they're going to show up again eventually.
Ponies die. It's what they do
6670124
missing a key word here. She only intentionaly killed once.
Doesn't overthrowing imply new leadership? Or is it more of just a swift deconstruction of the command chain and then leaving? Because then the next meanest Dredger will take his place through a bloody succession war, and nothing will have improved.
Rainbow doesn't have any Roarkes to set up as regents for filthy mafia types this time around.
So, just like the good ol' days.
Have I mentioned how much I like Keris? Because I like Keris. A lot.
I'm also diggin' the compromise Twilight's laid out here. Yeah, there's been and likely going to be scenarios where anything absolute is going to get Rainbow hurt, but this one isn't: Red Barge just isn't lethal enough. It took Rainbow a hell of a long time to psych herself up to killing, and its just silly to expect Twilight to make the same leap without a similar string of atrocities to crush her optimism and hope. As it stands, it provides a firm boundary for their interaction, and a safety net for both Rainbow, who we all know would strongly prefer not to kill anyway, and the ghosties. Better, it's communication--and that's been lacking for far too long.
I want to see if this boundary is going to move as we get closer to AJ. Because things . . . are not going to be getting any easier, once we finally make it to Rohbredden proper.
Rainbow Dash is back in the air after 47 long chapters.
Music to my ears.
Rainbow never did tell her the whole truth about Shell, did she?
Bard? WC? We could really use your help right about now.
6670175
6670124
Austraeoh Fact Checker, can we get some help here?
How many ponies has Rainbow killed directly, intentionally/unintentionally?
6670124
....just sayin, fighting? Not harmonious. Sometimes you gotta be a little chaotic to get things done. But I would agree that she is in a predominantly harmonic mindset now.
Now, more than ever, I feel we have Dashie back.
I think that this best describes Rainbows situation regarding her mistakes
Now granted Rainbow has never done anything NEAR on the level that Teal'c has, but the same principles apply. The punishments inflicted by others, are nowhere near comparable to the terrors we inflict on ourselves.
Sometimes killing is the correct choice, but not the right choice. Thankfully, this is not one of those time.
6670259 This is often confused, but the opposite of chaos is NOT Harmony, otherwise Discord would not have to distinguish himself as the antithesis of both (i.e. Spirit of Chaos AND Disharmony.)
Mean might be just a tad of an understatement. It's still a noble goal I guess.
So how long until they start calling themselves Rogue Squadron?
Ah yes... the stupid plans... those are the ones we like the best
I think Rainbow Dash killed more than once. It's just that most only remember Shell because he was far more memorable. I seem to recall the cyborg spider mare from Searo and the chaos dragon.
6670066 Exactly! It can't possibly fail!
Without me, they didn't stand a chance.
Move in for the kill.
And cue the rest of the Right Talon. Rainbow is awesome, but Seraphimus seems to have godlike speed if she can take ponies out while they blink. I can't imagine the effect her arrival is going to have to this chaos.
So is Rainbow's wing still injured? It seems like it's still hurt, but I was under the impression that animorphing into a draconequus healed her.
I guess that you could say RD is gonna... *puts on glasses* ...throw a wrench into things.
If Skagra doesn't die, there's a very good chance he'll be the next Shell. And even if not, there's no way someone like him wouldn't be able to find his way back to power. I'm thinking a steam-based death would be appropriate for him. Given that the next motif would logically be Honesty, I suppose Rainbow promising not to kill anyone suggests that she'll find an alternative solution.
I find Twilight's attitude so annoying that I can't help but wonder if I'm suffering from confirmation bias. I really don't want Twilight's pacifism to prove to be the right approach. Maybe I should give her a bit more credit...
Naw, Twi's an idiot. Kill 'em all, Dash.
6670314
6670249
Actually, I've checked this before. There's probably many deaths you could attribute to her by way of collateral damage, but the only named character she has killed was Shell.
Hmm, well, she caused the death of Zapp Nator (she intended to kill him, regardless of how he actually died), helped greatly with Pestiferous, killed several Ledomaritan guards scattered throughout, basically killed Nevlamas, Shell, and offed a few changelings in Stratopolis.
6670156
Sounds like a plan.
serves him right....as long as those are bad tingles
6670466 Yeah, you never really know with Skirts. I have no clue whether the theme will be that harmony trumps all, or that sometimes you need to kill the few to save the many. We've seen bits of each, I guess.
I suppose the question hinges on whether or not the renewal of the world requires Austraeoh to exemplify harmony throughout her journey. I can't remember if any caveat of that nature has been confirmed by a credible source. If that is important, then I once again have no idea what kind of game Verlax is playing. Surely she wants the renewal; why would she actively try to sabotage its vehicle?
6670156
YES.
6670354
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!
6670522
immortality tend to make peoples a little bit bored, and when you're chaos stained too, entertaining yourself can be a little bit dangerous for the rest of the world.
Holy crap! we really are back to kicking flank again! Woot! Although I'm dreading the commanders reactions to all of this.
Seraphimus inbound soon. That will be the really interesting thing.
6670354 Looks like Digriff is in...put on shades hot water.
...y'know, cause steam is... and... well...
Ah screw you guys, it was funny to me.
It's flank clobbering time!
Time to extend this bloody soup outside.
6670079
6670442
Meh, RD can go chaos-y and have plausible deniability. Extreme trauma on RD is the only time she can't suppress chaos while wearing the pendant. There are several examples of this.
6670442
Keris doesn't need to keep that promise, you know...
Come on, Skagra, show up so Rainbow can kick your butt already.
6670442 While I agree that Twilight is being kind of obstinate about this whole thing, it seems more like she's just trying to reach a situation where she can be comfortable with what Rainbow is doing. She will have to get over it eventually, but for now, all she can do is try. She's just not ready yet.