"Dear Goddess..." Flynn said, smirking as he drew the wagon up a slow incline of rock. Patches of glowing fungus pockmarked the hillside, illuminating the group sporadically from below. "...I remember feeling so lost the first time the Job Squad ever formed up. What—with Bard and Wildcard leading the charge so often. The way they'd 'talk to each other' in the midst of battle... friggin' threw me for a loop."
"Damn skippy." Logan took a sip from a canteen and looked over at the unicorn. "Didn't Ariel's mom have to take them aside for some coaching?"
"No way..." Ariel did a double-take, glancing down from where she hovered over the vehicle. "Mommy bent their ear?"
Wildcard nodded. His hands flicked in the air. Rainbow Dash looked over in time to catch: "...threaten... off... heads..."
"Ouch." Ariel winced. "Sounds like Mother, alright."
"Of course, she understood every word they said to each other," Logan remarked. "What—with her learning wyvern finger-talk since day one." He paused to burp. "But the two going full Desperado wasn't exactly helping the rest of the group."
"Wow..." Ariel blinked. "She really kept the group straight, didn't she?"
"Ach. That she did." Kepler nodded. "Most cerrtainly filled the disciplinarry rrole in Rremna's absence."
Seraphimus glanced over. Her charcoal brown eyes narrowed.
"The big pony whose skin Axan was magically borrowing," Flynn clarified.
"Hrmmmm..." Seraphimus' headcrest drooped as she stared back down at the top of the wagon. "I wasn't all that curious..."
Logan smirked.
"Hey Wildcard." Flynn looked back. "Remember when you and Bard went ham on those smugglers holed up in the mountains of Dust Prefecture?"
Wildcard gestured. Rainbow caught "Food" and "Manticores" and "Scared."
"Well, served them right," Ariel muttered. "Preying on the wyverns' 'big brothers?' It's a miracle they didn't get carved out of the mountain by an entire damn herd."
"Bard had the dumbest idea ever," Flynn said, trying not to laugh. "He marched into the cave and began growling at the top of his lungs. He expected that the acoustics would amplify his voice... make him sound like a growling manticore."
"That would work in scaring the poachers out!" Logan exclaimed. "If they were—maybe—six years old!"
"Hahaha—well..." Flynn smirked. "...they all rushed his ass. And of course Wildcard wasn't gonna let his buddy duke it out alone. So he broke formation and rushed the group back. Suddenly, it was the two of them fighting an entire band of criminals. By the time the rest of us came to the rescue, they had already slammed five of the crooks to the cave walls."
"The Desperados were always efficient," Logan said. "Sloppy as Hell, but I suppose that's the point."
"Heh..." Rainbow Dash nodded with a smirk. "I saw that first-hoof back in Rust."
"Oh, that's right!" Ariel beamed. "You butted heads with the Desperadoes when you first met, didn't you?"
"Yup!" Rainbow's ears perked above a proud expression. "Totally schooled them too!"
Wildcard exhaled and waved his metal hand from side to side.
"Ariel's mom chewed the Desperadoes out something awful," Flynn said. "From the sound of things, Rainbow, they didn't exactly learn their lesson. Heh..."
"How did they know they picking a fight with the Austraeoh over a coral-huffing sarosian?"
"Ha-hah!" Kepler chuckled.
Ariel floated down low enough to nudge Rainbow's shoulder. "You go girl."
Rainbow rubbed her limb. "You're just looking for excuses to say that."
"So arrest me."
"Nuh uh. The hoofcuffs are for Seraphimus at the moment."
"There was a time..." A certain voice spoke in a cold tone. "...when Jordan wasn't 'sloppy.'"
Wildcard's goggles rattled; Rainbow imagined him rolling his eyes beneath them.
"If you ask me..." Flynn took one glance back. "...his 'sloppifying' was an improvement."
"Hrmmmmff..." Seraphimus' headcrest tightened. "I find that highly unlikely."
"You should have seen him against the Midnighters at Bleak's Plummet," Flynn said. "One griffon army, I swear to Goddess..."
"He and Keris once held off a leviathan attacking the southern coastal villages of Kelp Prefecture," Seraphimus said. "The beast would have devoured dozens of fisherponies if it weren't for their expert coordination."
Ariel squinted at her. "How do you know all of this...?"
"I taught both Keris and Jordan everything I know."
"I mean... about the leviathan part."
Seraphimus calmly blinked at her. "I came in at the last second and slashed the creature's carotid artery. It died within minutes."
Flynn exhaled. "Uh huh..."
"It had to be done. Ponies were in trouble. What's more..." Seraphimus calmly sat back in her manacles. "...the flesh and blubber gave the local populace ample meat to sell into the next winter."
Ariel leaned towards Rainbow Dash, whispering: "Just when I think it's okay to stop being scared of her..."
"Really?" Rainbow blinked back at her. "I never stopped."
"Bullshit. You're just saying that—"
Th-Thudddd! The hovercraft suddenly struck dead rock.
The group jolted, blinking in surprise.
Scrkkkkkkkkkkkk! The vehicle grinded against the edge of the mountaintop, coming to a jagged stop.
"... ... ..." Flynn's natural eye blinked. "Oh no."
The glow of the stones beneath the carriage flickered.
"Oh no oh no...!" Flynn hopped off the wagon and squatted low to examine the chassis. "Dammit dammit dammit!"
"What's the matter, baldy?" Logan asked, craning his neck.
"It would appear your mana-charge has dwindled," Seraphimus began.
"Shut up!" Flynn gnashed his teeth. He aimed his horn at the base of the craft. "Grnnngh... come on! Don't lose the entanglement! Don't lose it!"
"Flynn, for realsies..." Rainbow Dash took off and hovered above him along with Ariel and Wildcard. "Are we out of juice?"
"It... it makes no sense!" Flynn stammered, sweat running visibly down his scalp. He fired multiple bursts of bright energy into the carriage. Nothing happened. "There should have been months of charge left in the thing! We could be going on for half-a-year! But now... now it's—"
"Could something have triggerred a magical cascade failurre?" Kepler remarked. "Perrhaps a sourrce of localized leylines? Naturrally occurring?!"
"Do you honestly think I would have steered us into shit like that?!?" Flynn hollered.
"Calm the buck down, dude," Logan grunted. "Nopony's blaming you... even if you did totally screw things up."
"Big Show, will you shove it?!" Flynn stamped his hoof, frowning. "Don't you realize what this means?! The stones are completely dead! I can't reenchant it unless I replace the entire damn array!" He spun and flung his hoof towards the dark curve looming forever above them. "We're stuck here!"
Tense silence fell over the group.
"This does not surprise me," Seraphimus droned.
"Rrnrnnngh!" Flynn rushed towards her, having to be held back by Wildcard and Ariel. "I'm gonna kill her! I mean it! Skin her alive and turn her beak into a codpiece!"
"Hoooooooo boyo..." Rainbow Dash turned and squinted up the rest of the rocky hillside. "Road trips, am I right...?"
leylines of chaos wouldnt be properly visible i think
Of course a rush job from just found components is not going to last very long. I am surprised it didn't wear out beforehand. Whelp, back to walking, they are going to have to find another ride it looks like.
Just like a Supermarket Trolly kill line? Maybe with notification of region boundary violation, outpost security?
Engine problems.
Things were going a little too well the last couple chapters.
They're totally gonna get ambushed while they're stuck.
Looks like they are going to be walking from here on out I guess. Unless someone can figure out how to get it running again.
I guess Ariel's not too much like her mom — after all, "keeping the group straight" is the last thing she's here to do.
Well, after a lot of fast travel, now we get to the part where it is Enter the Shard?
I'm willing to bet that the firing of the Mana RPG against the Wyrm caused an overload/feedback effect on the propulsion array, which is why it suddenly gave out.
8488295
Ba dum tsh!
...is it possible they stumbled into some sort of anti-magical field, kinda like the one in the Grand Choke?
I read that well over a year ago... Dang.
That sentiment hits me hard, today was the last day of a two week long cross country roadtrip I took with two friends... and one of their moms.
Yeah, none of them are psychopathic gryphons, but we all felt like them towards the end.
8488402
Unlikely. Pretty sure their flyers would've noticed an increased difficulty in staying airborne. More likely the lunar runes didn't take too kindly to all the work they've been put through over the weeks.
Awful Road Trip.
Butting heads is a bit generous.
More like Dash single hoofedly demolished them 3 times in a row.
And was ready to do it a 4th time with a ceiling fan she ripped apart.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
This is why you need some proper skystone for your flying contraptions.
Rest in peace Old Friend. You lived as few even dare to dream.
8488402 I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Dark Side was antimagical to a point; ambient resonant Harmony is remarkably low after all. It might have caused the charge to run out far quicker than expected.
8488688 That's an interesting point, actually. Even if the Night Shard crystal should turn out to not be proper skystone, it should still well be worth the time it would take them to make a detour to the northern edge and harvest some of the real stuff. With Kepler and Flynn in their group engineering a proper skystone-powered craft should be easy enough, no?
8488551
Maybe the jump and glide stunts required more energy than they anticipated. I assume that the gliding sequence was the most taxing action for the enchanted vehicle. The engine uses magic energy to create a certain distance to the ground under normal circumstances, similar to a hovercraft. But while the machine was airborne during the jump, the distance to the ground was significantly higher and the enchantment tried to compensate for that with the usage of even more power. It really depends on how exactly the enchantment works.
8488551
Then again, this is the Dark Side. If the area they stumbled into has an anti-magical field, it is probably amplified because...well, it's the Dark Side. A lack of harmonic energy is probably the answer as to why it ran out even faster than if it had been in the Grand Choke
8489265
Flynn uses blasts of magic to try to get the hovercraft working again when it first starts to malfunction. If this is indeed an anti-harmonic magic field stronger than the Grand Choke, then he wouldn't be able to use magic at all.
This line... Right here made my week!
Well time to start walking..
I'm sure you can find a spare rope somewhere if you need one for whatever reason.
Well then. It's a few tens of thousands of miles to the Armory, they've got an empty tank of mana, one restrained griffon, it's dark, and Wildcard is wearing sunglasses. Hit it.
8488581
At least it's not an awful rodeo.
Alright, after taking a two week break I'm back at the cutting edge. With a chapter a day, you can fall behind really fast in this story.
Now for the Dashing Apples.
Found this today which seemed appropriate for Dark Side descriptions thus far, and kinda both hoping the team does and doesn't run into one.. https://guthrieartwork.deviantart.com/art/COW-Lanceacephalous-maculates-174059784
Okay if its been weeks, or potentially longer as Twilight's expert counting indicates, I really am getting more curious as to where they're getting water from. Because I don't think its possible to carry enough to keep the group going that long without a source of water to take from the environment. Are they recycleing their pee? Is there enough moisture in the air at this point for them to get water from cloud vapor? Does drinking the blood of random glow lizards count? Or did I just miss an explaination somewhere?
8491345
They might be doing something like koalas, and getting all their moisture from their food.
Bleakweed would have a high water content I imagine, just sucking on a leaf might be enough to sustain them.
Okay, who siphoned all the gas?
8491545
Hmm, I'll admit I'm far from anything resembling an expert on the subject, but it seems hard to believe they could get enough hydration out of the Bleakweed alone to keep going effectively for... what, two months now in story? Just how much of that stuff did they manage to bring with them? I don't know, just seems like a bit of a stretch to me. If edible animals are showing up, stands to reason those animals are getting their water from somewhere. Seems a simple enough solution to the problem to have the group discover how this critters are staying hydrated.
Hmm... Maybe they can fashion a battery out of the native creatures?
Relevant
Good things only last for boss fights only. And, I guess, weeks and weeks of journeying, but in terms of chapters, the boss fight wasn't too long ago.
8491210
What in the Sam Hill is that thing? Ugh...
And this is why you use wheels.
8490296
I appreciate the reference.
Yup, should have stocked some wheels in that cart.
11/15/2019
02:06 UTC
Well. That's not ideal.
Loved these last few chapters, makes me dream about having Old Right Talon of Verlaxion side stories..mmm...
...UH HUUUUUH
Yeah, I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier with how bad our luck is.
I highly doubt a beak meant to rip and tear apart prey would make a comfortable codpiece.