Ofolrodi

by Imploding Colon

You Must Go Serpentine

For the next twelve hours, the journey of the Herald was delightfully uneventful. This didn't necessarily count as "easy."

Gone were the living stalks of carnivorous tentacles. If there were any further signs of the immense wyrm, none were to be found for miles and miles in all directions. It appeared as though the collossal beast occupied a length of the plane's territory safely behind them, between the group and and Edgeside. If the burrowing entity had any brothers or sisters—the Herald thankfully didn't run into them.

Instead, Rainbow and her friends had a vomitous topographical mess of sporadic rock formations, uneven plateaus, and random fissures to scale. It was as though a forest of living membranes had been immediately replaced by a forest of petrified stone structures. Some of the earthen barbs stretched so long and so thin that they resembled gigantic needles—fallen from a great height and fused at random angles to the arid floor (and to each other). Rainbow Dash and Ariel could fly over these formations with the greatest of ease. Ferrying the hover craft through the mess—however—turned a simple glide into a perilous journey that took ten times as long for each kilometer traversed.

More than once, the group contemplated how feasible it would be to simply ditch the "Hover Plank" and go about the rest of the trip on hoof. But then there would be occasions where the ponies found a miraculously flat stretch of land that the vehicle could cross at great speed, unimpeded. In addition, there was the constant reminder that Rainbow Dash got—when glancing towards the harmonically highlighted objective in the distant center of the plane—that the Herald as a whole had a terribly, unimaginably, depressingly long way to go before even remotely arriving at the fringes of the Midnight Armory. After swift and poignant consideration, the group decided—once again—to ease their travels as feasibly as possible. In short, they protected the wagon with their very livelihoods. They would deal with each detour as they arrived.

And deal with them, the Herald did. The earthen terrain would constantly dip up and down—sometime opening up to a dead flat drop into an incalculably deep ravine. Three hours alone were consumed with the annoying process of backtracking, for Rainbow and her other airborne companions were at a loss to find a more efficient way to cross the inexplicable dips in the landscape. Thankfully, Ariel discovered what she assumed to be an ancient, dried-up river bed, and once the group aligned the wagon with that they were able to continue a great length of the trip without mishap—although it was a wild, serpentine, winding trip at best.

Needless to say, the shamelessly alien topography gave Rarity a virtual migraine. She was brooding and quiet for most of the trip, squinting her eyes into the uneven horizon, concentrating hard on the next length of rock, stone, and peaks—so as to provide her anchor the best navigation possible. Even that had to change on the fly, as she became aware of weak fractures in the stone and signs of dangerous subsidence. Twilight Sparkle broke into a lecture—no doubt addressed to the naked stars above—in which she speculated the cause for such wildly dense rock formations. In her mind, the Light Side—being the harmonic half of the plane—was undoubtedly shaped by predictable physical elements and persistent climate. Here, this wasn't even remotely the case, so the landscape was left as jagged and "broken" as it must have originally been right after the Sundering.

The ghostly earth ponies among the group—however—disagreed. Pinkie Pie, in a moment of logical clarity, suggested that they had barely seen a "cake slice" of the Dark Side. As a result, it was ill-advised to think that what they were presently witnessing was indicative of the entire Plane as a whole.

Then it was Applejack who stated that she was observing an abject difference in the landscape compared to what they had witnessed around the Darkreach mesa. Here—amongst all of the rock shapes and jagged stalagmites—there was an obvious presence of dust, even sand. This—Applejack surmised—was an obvious sign of the presence of soil somewhere nearby. And where there was soil, there was undoubtedly going to be vegetation of some sort.

When Twilight Sparkle found herself having a hard time agreeing with this hypothesis, it was Fluttershy who reminded the group that—according to Chief Engineer Ranort's records—the "Bloodwings" had once planted a "natural" forest along the Omega Side from Darkreach. That meant that transplanted vegetation could have once grown on the Edgeside section of the immense wyrm that they had all just encountered. There was no telling how much of the soil the wyrm had forcefully relocated in its countless eons of burrowing, but it was quite likely that wind and erosion simply pushed the available soil closer Curveside over the ages.

The fact of the matter was that the group could only make wild postulations. Discovering the truth would take an immense amount of time and miles traveled—and Rainbow and the Herald were forced to crawl along their route with all of the detours that the uneven terrain forced them down. Their frustration—to say the least—was thick as blood.

If there was any single constant to the rough uphill/downhill trip, it was the reliable manapower of the rocks that empowered the hovering vehicle. Flynn had done his job immeasurably well, and the Herald rewarded the stallion by tending to his aching skull, giving him lots of water, and allowing him to rest for the extent of the journey. He spent most of the time resting his brain (and the horn attached to it); all waking moments were blissfully spent staring up at the stars.

With each mile that Rainbow and her friends traversed into the great curved unknown, the cosmos overhead remained as bright and glimmering as ever. No veil was cast over the distant, galactic swirls. No shadow stretched over them or obscured the infinite expanse. Rainbow had almost expected the sky above to grow dimmer and the darkness around them to become something impenetrable. Thankfully, despite her fears, they never ran out of light to see with... although it was a faint light. Twilight Sparkle reminded the rest that it was likely because the Alicorns did not construct a Firmament to protect that half of the Plane from otherworldly elements. Besides, there was no Sun and Moon to raise or lower. Thus, there was no Harmonic system for controlling light and temperature on a repetitive basis. All the Dark Side knew was the perpetual squint of illumination from beyond. Rainbow, on the other hoof, had the constant outline of the Midnight Armory taunting her from the distance. Aside from that, there was the occasional flicker of light from the dragon stone she had recovered from Axan. But—even still—it was next to impossible to find a pattern to it. Perhaps if Rainbow had been granted the luxury of flying in a straight line once again...

Alas, that was not the case. Rainbow—along with all of her companions—were forced into threading an ever-evolving labyrinth of stone and rock. As they pressed forward, the quantity of dust increased in the sporadic wind. There was a stale smell to the air—not rotten or gross—but resembling rust and old metals. Rainbow had the gnawing sense that they were perpetually on the cusp of discovering something, but Rarity's senses couldn't wrap around it, and every bend in the narrow path revealed yet another needle-eye leading into more and more chaos. It became so mindlessly random that the group found themselves staring upwards so that they could actually achieve solace from the sight of the far end of the plane jutting rigidly into the cosmos above.

It boggled the mind that anything could possibly live out there. It mesmerized them even more to think that someone—anyone—would actually go to war over it.

Comments

[Vermaak]

Pure narration. No need for dialogue.

Increíble...

[IceKitsune]

Hmmm, I have to agree with Pinkie and AJ here it's unlikely they have seen really anything that the Darkside has to offer them. Tons of speculation in this chapter I have a feeling that quite a few more chapters are going to be like this one.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

Like a small boat on the night ocean, nothing but the stars to keep those on board company.

[Crochettail]

For some reason, this chapter reminds me of Ranort's monologues. Not a good sign.

[Boersencrash]

8465185
8465205

And it's almost like a second jury. A small band of individuals who are far away from home and travel towards a common destination.

Perhaps a bit smaller and without a fancy airship, but the feeling is the same.

[Merula]

Now this is Austraeoh.

[Leftover of Saikano]

It boggled the mind that anything could possibly live out there. It mesmerized them even more to think that someone—anyone—would actually go to war over it.

Just like Jerusalem.

[Hawattie]

there was an obvious presence of dust, even sand. This—Applejack surmised—was an obvious sign of the presence of soil somewhere nearby.

I disagree with AJ. Dust and sand indicate erosion, not soil. Sure they're a part of soil, but without organic material it's just a bunch of sand and dust.
I think Twilight has the best idea for how this geology happened. The sundering probably acted like some crazy-chaotic uplift event which tossed the rocks near the edge every which way. Since then, the wind (carrying dust and sand) has eroded the landscape further. It probably channeled through cracks and openings to make them wider, eventually forming the tilted needles we see here. The already broken landscape would make the wind chaotic too, further adding to the labyrinthine confusion of the landscape.
This is all just a guess, though. Probably it was actually formed by chinchillas with pickaxes.

[Hazard]

Twists and turns...
Surprised discord isn't reminding Rainbow​ of a certain hedge maze.

[arancaytar]

Rainbow had the gnawing sense that they were perpetually on the cusp of discovering something

I hope it's nothing bad

[Cynderfall]

Boring times between VERY exciting times. *Curls up for a much needed rest.*

[The_K_Man]

As they pressed forward, the quantity of dust increased in the sporadic wind. There was a stale smell to the air—not rotten or gross—but resembling rust and old metals. Rainbow had the gnawing sense that they were perpetually on the cusp of discovering something, but Rarity's senses couldn't wrap around it, and every bend in the narrow path revealed yet another needle-eye leading into more and more chaos.

That's the smell of old blood spill millennia ago with no rain to wash out the fissures and crevices. Rarity doesn't work with organics. Something happened here, something dark.

[durandana]

[Revan]

Grand Choke 2: Electric Bugaboo?

[The 24th Pegasus]

Serpentine! Serpentine!

[General Lemarc]

Gone were the living stalks of carnivorous tentacles. If there were any further signs of the immense wyrm, none were to be found for miles and miles in all directions.

Well hello there scenery porn. Its been awhile, hasn't it?

 Pinkie Pie, in a moment of logical clarity, suggested that they had barely seen a "cake slice" of the Dark Side. As a result, it was ill-advised to think that what they were presently witnessing was indicative of the entire Plane as a whole.

Best Pony is smarter than she looks.

And not a word was spoken.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

You know, this was a fantastic return to form, but I think it is still interesting to see the difference in how you handle no dialogue chapters as compared to when Rainbow was the only pony we had to worry about.

[Nevlamas]

Sterile soil will harden.
Wasted world, my garden.

Then it was Applejack who stated that she was observing an abject difference in the landscape compared to what they had witnessed around the Darkreach mesa. Here—amongst all of the rock shapes and jagged stalagmites—there was an obvious presence of dust, even sand. This—Applejack surmised—was an obvious sign of the presence of soil somewhere nearby. And where there was soil, there was undoubtedly going to be vegetation of some sort.

"Ah smell appuls! There's gotta be appuls! ...please?"

[Lamplighter]

Something that I've noticed is that Rainbow Dash doesn't have an internal monologue anymore. Her Five Ghost friends Act in a narrative since as her internal voice. Leaving her a creature of pure action.

[Swan Song]

It boggled the mind that anything could possibly live out there. It mesmerized them even more to think that someone—anyone—would actually go to war over it.

I don’t know why I love lines like these so much. They say so much in so little, and do wonders to set the mood.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

It boggled the mind that anything could possibly live out there. It mesmerized them even more to think that someone—anyone—would actually go to war over it.

Yeah, it seems that most of the factions lost most of their sense to fight in such a place, unless the place they are fighting doesn't have such hostile terrain as what Rainbow and co. have gone through. I hope Rainbow manages to put an end to their conflict, but we will see.
11/08/2017
16:16 UTC

[mongoosegoose]

Nice breather episode. And onward we go...

[Cold Bolt]

8537942
I mean, after a fashion? When she swoops in to retrieve the Prism, there won't be any reason for the three factions to keep fighting over the Armory. Unfortunately, what they'll instead be prompted to fight over is her...

[Prism Break]

If the sun and moon raise and lower on the light side, where do they go? The twilight lands are always at dusk, so I’m not sure where the sun and moon go other than the dark side, which we know isn’t the answer. If they raised north to south then everywhere but Equestria would have constant amount of the same light. So...?

[M M]

Ah, a nice, peaceful no-dialogue chapter.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

[insert travel music here]

11/14/2019
23:35 UTC

[Sypher]

Getting major Austraeoh vibes and I'm loving it.

[Alchemik]

The return of the travel chapters! Let's hope things remain relatively peaceful for a while.

[hypervelocity]

insert Pokemon Route 1 BGM here