WEB-Way Pony Mover
Dozens of giant orb weaver spiders descended from the upper heights of the abandoned city above. They lowered via strings of silk with such grace and dance-like precision that Rainbow pondered how long they had been looming above the Herald to even prepare themselves for such an entrance.
Nevertheless, they coordinated beautifully with one another, twirling with pendulous ease and meeting at a deadstop in a patch of air adjacent to the suspended courtyard where Rainbow Dash, Seraphimus, and Wildcard were waiting.
The Herald watched as the orb weavers made contact with their spindly limbs, then proceeded to form a round base with their bodies. Within seconds, hundreds if not thousands of baby hatchlings skittered down the strings that the orb-weavers were suspended on. They crawled inside the enclosed space formed by the weavers' limbs and began producing silk from their tiny spinnerets. Rainbow and her friends watched as—within the span of two minutes—the hatchlings and orb weavers constructed a trio of perfectly round silken "vehicles." When the hatchlings were done, the orb weavers parted ways, revealing a hollow space for a pony-sized mortal to rest in, including a seat fashioned out of pliable biomatter.
As the hatchlings receded, the orb weavers ascended slightly. Four of them latched onto a gondola from multiple angles, bracing it with their many-many legs. This—Rainbow assumed—was the Spindlers' way of providing extra structural integrity to the impending descent. The multiple arachnids were all attached to some unseen anchor in the urbanscape above, and it was clear that they'd be utilizing their spinnerets in manually lowering the three guests down into the nebulous chamber of Abaddon.
"Yeah, no." Flynn turned his back on the scene and fast-trotted towards the distant wagon. "Call me when they've returned, alive and well. I'll be off tinkering."
"More like piddling!" Logan called after him.
"Cram it, fatso!"
A sigh, and Logan trotted closer to Rainbow Dash. "Guess there's no backing out now." His brow furrowed. "You sure you're down for the creepy-crawling convention?"
"Nope." Rainbow took a breath. "But—all things considered—this is the high point of the Dark Side romp. It'd be a shame to wuss-out now."
"Couldn't have put it better myself." Logan trotted over and stopped before a certain former Commander. "You... uh... you try any funny business down there in the presence of Austraeoh's long-lost pen pal..." His eyes took on a steely glint. "...and you and me and my axe are gonna have a little conversation once you get back."
Seraphimus merely stared back at him. "We're still at the point of threats?"
"Girl, we never left." He smirked slightly as he trotted off. "Hell, you think I'm that easy?"
Seraphimus clenched her beak. "Hrmmmmmm..."
"Keep an eye on the death turkey, Double-Yoo," Logan said in passing.
Wildcard nodded, then glanced at Ariel as she hovered nearby.
"Make sure she doesn't get... y'know... totally wasted or killed by anything down there in spider kindergarten," Ariel insisted. A gulp, and she smiled nervously. "You're super good at protecting Rainbow Dash, right?"
The Desperado smiled. He drew Ariel into a metal-limb'd hug and ruffled her mane.
"Heeheehee..." Ariel squirmed out of his embrace, shook her mane straight, and sighed. "I really hope the Dark Side doesn't get much ickier than this."
Wildcard gestured a response.
"Yeah, you're right..." Ariel sighed and nodded. "Still, just a passing thought."
"Ohhhhhhhhh how I envy you rright now, Rrainbow One," Kepler said as he lingered beside the edge of the courtyard. "You are embarrking upon a mission to close a song that has been composed countless eons and epochs ago."
"Uhhhh... which, Keps?" Rainbow asked.
"I beg yourr parrdon?"
"Eons or epochs? Those are two different words. You gotta pick one, bud."
"Ach!" Kepler adjusted his spectacles above a tusk'd smile. "We arre assembling in a lairr maintained by benevolent sapient overr-sized arrachnids, and you arre prreparring to lecturre me on prrecise vocabularry?"
Rainbow winked. "Somepony's gotta lecture you on something, Keps. It's on the friggin' bucket list."
"I shall take yourr worrd forr it." He bowed low. "Safe trravels, sisterr. Come back and we can discuss morre of this 'bucket list' togetherr."
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash stepped daintily into the swaying silken gondola. "...although I might censor a few bits." She shuddered as she sat down. "Eughhh... it's still warm."
"How charming," Seraphimus said as she sat down in her own silken seat, surrounded by giant spiders who were grasping it with their narrow limbs. "Are there refreshments for the journey? Undoubtedly they would be warm too."
"Sera... please leave the catch phrases to me," Rainbow Dash droned. "Especially during our field trip into Spiderwood Studios."
Wildcard whistled shrilly. He gestured something swift and deliberate to Seraphimus before hopping nimbly—and fearlessly—into his own gondola.
"Yeah, you tell 'em, Jordan." Rainbow Dash looked up at a set of black eyes belonging to one of the multiple orb weavers grasping her silk seat. "Sooooooo... uh... any chance we can stop by for some hay burgers and fries along the way?"
The orb weaver said nothing. Its pedipalps shifted, but nothing more.
"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah..." Rainbow Dash scrunched back into her seat. "Maybe I should go easy on the catch phrases too." She let out a light, girlish squeak as the gondola spontaneously lowered—and with a great deal more swiftness than she had expected. "Okay. Okay okay okay okay..." She looked over the side—through spider limbs—as she saw the spires and platforms of the ancient city rushing by. "We are doing this. We are soooooooooooo doing this."
A shuddering gulp, and Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw.
"It's like a one-way-ticket to beneath the shower drain..."
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Nice use of the comment section. I too want to see the rest of this bucket list! Should be interesting.
please leave?
8598684
Well, I never. I can't even. I accidentally the catch phrase.
It's weird how much use we get out of incomplete sentences
📢
I hope it'd be warm. But why, Austraeoh, would you sit in it?!
Uh, Rainbow? Having some problems there? No wonder it's warm!
durandal.dnsalias.net/imgur/Fb5OmPT.jpg
Yes... IC shall fill the story with my geologic pedantry!
My secret plan is all coming together...
...Now it's time to figure out what my secret plan is.
Probably something to do with rocks.
Randomness °L_°
if Abaddon ends up being bigger than the other spiders by an exponential amount, then holy crap is she going to be a massive bitch.
What did WC say?
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
If Rainbow's bucket list doesn't involve doing the nasty with Roarke some more, I'm gonna eat my non-existent hat
Props to Rainbow for still dealing with all this, by the way! I would've killed myself a couple hours ago.
8598908 You do have a hat. It's pretty lewd, too.
I'm all sorts of ready for the Song Spider!
Unless it involves another certain Pegasus, right?
Well....once more unto the breach, I guess.
Ok more proof that Skirts is a Disney parks fan.
Well, once more into the abyss, hopefully this abyss is not liable to end those who jump into it.
Hmm, wonder if Skirts has read any Alan Dean Foster:Spellsinger series.
Hey look, its the Weavers.
They ain't t'Houghton Weavers, lad.
These eat the whole cow.
Will Dash get to keep her new hammock? find out next chapter.
Down came the rain
bowand heard the spider out.8598818
Ask Maud, she could probably help you out.
Here we go..
Spiderwood studios was a pretty nice place, never went on the gondola of terror tho
That feels... odd. But nice.
I've had to clean there. It ain't pretty.
The Moist Gondola is on the move!
Kepler would have an interesting bucket list to be sure.
01/13/2017
00:13 UTC
I mean... you kinda were that easy.
I don’t like how it felt like we were saying a long goodbye to the Herald. It almost sounded like a final goodbye.
9087360
Clearly you don't remember just how loooooooong final goodbyes are in this series
Translation, of course, they will be downstairs next to the soda fountain
11/16/2019
21:52 UTC
Mmmrmeghph....I know they're just going to visit an ancient spider God, but yeesh, the imagery is already throwing me for a loop.
Also I can't say I wouldn't be acting like Flynn right now. Dignity means nothing when all you feel is pure terror at Kaiju sized spiders watching you.
Checked what an epoch was on Wikipedia, found "Saros" in the See Also section. Turns out a saros is an obscure astronomical unit of time.
Etymology is a wonderful thing.