The Element of Twang
The Herald continued their voyage towards Omega. As they traveled, the rock structures grew more and more erratic. The ravines and granite forests had become a nebulous blur of topographical randomness, and Rainbow refused to ask Kepler where he had "reached" in his journal, for fear that she would discover that far more time had passed than was rationally expected.
While the earth below remained moist and muddy, the sound of trickling water dissipated in the distance. Flynn guessed that the path they were taking through the rocky niches had spread apart from the shallow rapids that they had sensed previously. Rarity confirmed this—more or less. The only way to figure out just how distant the branching paths indeed were involved taking flight and observing the matter from high above. Rainbow wasn't about to risk that anytime soon, no matter how much her stalwart griffin companions insisted.
The Dragon Stone was flickering brighter and brighter. What was more—upon every opportunity Rainbow Dash took to sleep—she felt as if she was being watched. More than twice she woke up with the sensation of something breathing down her neck. Fluttershy couldn't detect any living thing stalking the expedition, and Twilight wasn't sensing any magical spells in proximity of the moving camp.
Rainbow had to accept the fact that—one way or another—they were being tracked by something or somepony. Whoever this entity was, it wasn't harrassing her dreams like it had that one dramatic occasion. Instead, it was holding back... laying low... keeping quiet and observing.
Rainbow wasn't about to keep her mind and imagination horrendously stale in some futile attempt to bore this spy out of keeping watch. Besides, every time she allowed her mind to wander, it came back to the very same obsessive pattern...
The expedition had paused for a meal break. Flynn parked the hovercraft at a distance while Wildcard and Ariel took turns keeping watch of the Omega side of their temporary camp. Logan and Seraphimus huddled closer towards Alpha.
Rainbow sat lonesomely between two stalagmites. The rocky spires pierced the twilight above her, throwing shadows into tranquil blue sheen. Her meal lay in a bowl—half eaten and cold.
Rainbow's appetite had dwindled, replaced instead with a dull and obsessive stupor. Hunched over, she used the tip of an Emeraldinian sword to carve a series of randomly-positioned half-circles into the soft, pliable mud beneath her.
A few meters away, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were obsessing over geological patterns in the nearest canyon wall. This was somehow interesting enough to draw the rest of Rainbow's marefriends away from their anchor. Rainbow briefly pondered how monotonous the current leg of her journey had become for barren rock to produce such a riveting experience for her friends. If nothing else, it gave Pinkie Pie an excuse to giggle and wax poetic over her older sister's past geological anecdotes.
Rainbow—however—was far more enthralled by the curves she was sketching into the muddy earth... even if she couldn't tell where the pattern began or ended... or how it measured up to being a "pattern" in the first place. Every time she added a half-circle with the sword tip, it appeared out of place... and yet it belonged all the same. It bothered her and mesmerized her all the same.
In such a trance was she—wings coiled tight and muzzle agape—that she barely flinched when a tall serpentine figure with antlers slinked in close and bent over her for a good look at the muddy mosaic.
"Hrmmmm..." Discord scratched his hairy chin. "...maybe... just maybe... an ancient race of godlike primates tossed their toenail clippings up into the air and sanctified their fall!" He grinned, his pronounced fang glinting in the twilight. "The progenitors of Urohringr were foot fetishists!"
Rainbow Dash breathed in heavily and exhaled through her nostrils.
"Oh, like your precious hooves are so much cuter." For emphasis, he plucked his one equine limb off and flailed it about dramatically. "I only have one and that's enough clop for my tastes." Discord snapped it back on, did a back-flip, and floated like a lazy feather down onto the earth beside Rainbow's pattern. "So, Sparky, whatchadoinnnnnnn'?"
Rainbow's ears flicked. "... ... ...it's never the same thing twice."
"I knowwwww..." Discord's red-on-yellow eyes shimmered. "...isn't it great? So wild! So chaotic!" He winked. "There's a reason why 'erratic' and 'erotic' are almost honononononononyms."
"But... if it's always so crazily different..." Rainbow's lips pursed. "...why am I so fixated on drawing it as if it's a solid image in my head?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Discord stifled a yawn. "You've always had a better half, Sparky. A screwball random half." He rubbed the back of his talon and pretended to examine it up close. "Guess it just took an adrenalized injection of spidery spider-ness to tug it out of you."
"What... does it mean...?"
"Ah yes. The million diaper question." He squinted at her. "Have you ever once stopped to think that maybe—just maybe—life is one big bubbling soda bottle without a giant cork of logic waiting out there somewhere to hold it all in?" He smirked. "To exist is to want. But if you always receive an answer... then what remains the point of existing?"
"It's..." Rainbow sighed, leaning on the weight of the sword as it pierced the soft mud. "...it's just so confusing."
"You want my advice?" Discord spread his forelimbs wide. "Embrace it!" His asymmetrical wings flapped as he did a forward-flip over her. "Bounce everywhere! Explode every second you get! Take it from an immortal, Sparky..." He did a pirouette and struck a very familiar, haughty pose. "...don't spend your days stuck in sense... or else you risk becoming a statue." He squinted down at her with a mischievous grin. "But... then again... we both know what you do to stone statues."
Rainbow Dash bit her lip.
"Is that... guilt I detect?" Discord snorted. "Oh poor... poor Sparky! And to think I almost had hope for you...!"
As he was speaking, one of Rainbow's marefriends floated closer. Discord immediately began dissipating.
"Wuh oh! Something freckled this way comes!" Discord fizzled out of existence. "Zoop!"
Just as he vanished, Applejack floated into speaking distance. "Whew... you could listen to Pinkie go on and on all day!" She straightened her hat, smirking. "Praise Celestia we didn't have her sister Maud stuck with you as well! We'd be hearin' absolutely nothin' but rock-squawkin' for whole weeks! Heheheh... almost makes you wonder why it was Rarity who got the structure-sensin' abilities and such..."
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash nodded, staring listlessly into the series of half-circles carved into the mud.
Applejack blinked at her. She gazed at an empty space beside her anchor. Not long after, the farm mare weathered a breathy sigh. With a flick of her ghostly tail, she hovered around until she face Rainbow Dash directly. "Rainbow... sugarcube... would you terribly mind if I asked you somethin'?"
"Anything, AJ," Rainbow mumbled.
Applejack's eyes hardened. "Why do you keep talkin' to him?"
"...!" Rainbow Dash looked up, eyes snapping to the freckled mare.
Applejack gazed back calmly. Patiently.
Rainbow opened her muzzle... hesitated... and ultimately winced. "How... long h-have you known...?"
"Me?" Applejack almost snorted. "Reckon I've always known. Frankly, I'm plum surprised the rest of the gals haven't figured it out." She floated into a midair "sitting" position and sighed. "Guess I shouldn't be so shocked that he's managed to squirrel his way into your company when the rest of us ain't noticin'. Different sides of the harmonic spectrum and all that nonsense..."
"I can make him leave whenever I want—"
"But ya dun? Do ya?" Applejack's brow furrowed. "Why not? Why even give him the light of day, Rainbow?" She almost rolled her eyes. "Y'know what I mean..."
"I..." Rainbow Dash winced. She avoided the mare's gaze. "...I don't know."
"Come on, Rainbow..." Applejack breathed. "Even Apple Bloom knows she can't get away with that kind of fibbin' when she's around me."
Biting her lip, Rainbow stammered: "He's... he's... a unique... mmmm... perspective on chaos—"
"He's the reason we all died, remember?!"
"No..." Rainbow suddenly frowned, pointing at the pendant around her neck. "This is the reason you all died! This is the frickin' reason for everything!"
Applejack's muzzle hung agape. "Are you actually defendin' him, Rainbow...?!?"
Rainbow fumed... fumed... then drooped with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Applejack. He just shows up when he wants to and... and the things he has to say... at times it's almost—"
"He's a dag-blame'd trouble-maker, Rainbow," Applejack said. "He did nothin' but torment ponies and spit in the face of harmony! When Luna and Celestia turned him into stone, that no-good varmint got what was comin' to him! That's on account of how selfish and crazy and full-of-himself he is!" She waved a hoof. "And he always will be! Games and deceit—it's in his blood!"
"And it's in my blood too," Rainbow Dash muttered.
"Yeah? So? You ain't like him!" Applejack smiled tightly. "Yer stronger than that! At least... I thought you was..." She raised a sharp eyebrow. "After all you've been through... after all you've struggled with... you finally got us all back, Rainbow!"
"You're still friggin' spirits—"
"But the fact of the matter is you're not alone no more. You've got us to help you! To take care of you! To give you heaps of wisdom and good advice!" She slowly shook her head. "Why do you gotta listen to him even once? Huh? What's the one dastardly creep who done split us apart in the first place got to give you that we haven't got? Us! Yer friends..."
Rainbow's woesome eyes fell upon the muddy sea of half-circles. "...every step I take, Applejack, I only gain more and more questions. And in a place like this..." She gulped. "...harmony hasn't been providing many answers. Maybe... just maybe... I should be looking at other sources."
Applejack slowly shook her head. "T'ain't the 'Chaotic Prism' that we're moseyin' into the Midnight Armory to fetch... now is it?"
Rainbow Dash winced. Hard. She leaned over, burying her muzzle in her forelimbs. A heavy sigh, and she muttered: "I'm sorry, AJ..."
Applejack slowly nodded. "I know." She leaned her head to the side. "More than anythang, sugarcube, I want you to get through this whole mess safe and sound. Savin' the rest of us to boot would be mighty fine—of course—but you've gone for so long and done so much to throw it all away on some lousy dragonequus' shenanigans. You just... you just got to be careful." Her ears folded above a sympathetic face. "And please... for the lurve of Celestia... don't become a stranger to us. Not after all this time."
"I won't be, AJ." Rainbow Dash looked up. "I promise."
"And I'm sorry to get all mother hen on ya, sugarcube..."
"No. I... I-I needed it." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. She threw a nervous look at Pinkie Pie and the rest of the girls in the distance. "You... uh..." She looked worriedly at Applejack. "Have you told the rest of the gals?"
Applejack shook her head. "Nope."
Rainbow breathed with relief.
"Though, reckon it'd be best not to leave 'em in the dark about it." Applejack sat tall and proud. "I won't say anythin' until after you decide to do so... if you do."
"Yeah. Thanks..." Rainbow ran a hoof through her own mane, smiling sheepishly at her friend. "Honest Applejack. What would I ever do without you?"
"Heh... depends..." Applejack smiled pleasantly. "You've got anythin' else to get off yer chest, darlin'?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..."
Applejack blinked. Her bright emerald eyes reflected a frozen pegasus. At long last, she stirred curiously.
"... ... ... ... ... ...ahem..." Rainbow swallowed a lump down her throat. Using the sword like a cane, she stood up and made for the furthest end of the camp. "I'd better go check on how the others are doing."
Applejack stared after her, ears twitching. "Right. Not a bad idea, sugarcube..." Her lips pursed in thought...
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Do I smell an OT3?
Appledoarke?
so Apple pon can see Discord?
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Destinies.
It's been so long - I forgot about the original ship.
Dot dot dot? It’s been a while since we’ve had a chapter end like that.
It’d be nice for Rainbow to just come clean soon. It’s lretty clear from her conversations with Fluttershy and Ariel that she moved on from Applejack a while ago. Sure, seeing her in the
fleshspirit must bring back some feelings, but still.8813950
Not sure if she sees him or just inferred what's happening. But I can't remember when Discord started appearing when the girls were outside the "vanilla zone." Is his appearance (or lack thereof) actually just by his choice? Could he talk to them if he wanted? Been thinking for a while that she's going to NEED Discord to finish the journey.
Whoooo. Kawii!
So close, but not yet!
8814006
Moved on?
Poor Rainbow.
The FIRST thing she said to Roark when she looked into her eyes -after they finally rolled around the forest floor- was "I see honesty", she's still into both mares, I believe, and now she's just holding back because she can't bring herself to love a ghost any more than she can a mare she may never see again.
I'm making myself sad thinking about the NJ. The end of Yaerfaerda...
8813991
Rainbow Petals?
And so, our multitude heroine finds herself pulled between two different perspectives on two different issues.
Don't miss our next chaotic episode " Love On the Rocks," or "Zoop of the Day!"
Have a pretty good feeling that Discord will also be revived along with the other elements of harmony once RD gets the Harmonic Prism back to Ponyville.
I suppose there's always got to be a balance between the force of harmony and the force of chaos on this plane.
While trying to talk philosophy with Discord is probably the rough equivalent of attempting to solve calculus problems by randomly slinging chocolate pudding in the air and hoping it lands in the pattern of a correct answer, I wouldn't say its a entire waste of time. Yeah, sure, the guy doesn't talk straight and being who and what he is he's got a chaos-boner roughly the length and breadth of Urohringr, but Dash is right that he's got a perspective she nor the ghost gals have and its one that could be useful in the right place and time.
The problem with ignoring him like AJ says is that its still focusing on the issue like its a binary thing. One or the other. Harmony or Chaos. Chances are getting through the Dark Side is going to involve problems you can't solve with binary thinking. There's never just two solutions to an problem. There's an infinite number of possibilities, all along a vast palette of harmonic, chaotic, moral, and amoral thinking. The trick is finding the spectrum of solutions on that palette with swift, critical thinking, that allows Dash to move forward without going so far towards any given edge of the palette that she crosses the line. In that sense AJ's concerns are valid, as it'd be entirely too easy for Dash to face such a seeming insurmountable problem that she'd be tempted to skew too far towards a chaotic and amoral solution for the sake of moving forward. However just ignoring Discord entirely would be just as much a mistake, as while he's filled with nonsensical and pretentious double-speak, there's a few kernels of wisdom to be found in his ramblings too.
Seraphimus x Longan Ship Confirmation Chapter Counter: 23
Ahem.
So these limestone pillars they're traveling through, (unless dark side shenanigans interfere with regular geology,) they got that way because water dissolves limestone. A river running over limestone can cut right down into the rock and "disappear" into the ground. We've already seen evidence for this a couple chapters ago.
Also, as rain (or the dark side equivalent) passes through air, it picks up a bit of carbon dioxide and makes a weak carbonic acid. When this acidic rainwater percolates down to the water table (the water already in the ground,) the mixing of the two different pH waters causes the limestone to erode a bit faster. This will cause caves to form right at the top of the water table over thousands of years.
Eventually the caves will get so big they cave in, leaving a landscape that looks like someone knocked a bunch of dents in it. These sinkholes will get bigger and connect with each other. This process continues until, eventually, nothing's left except for some isolated limestone towers, like we see here. If left for another few thousand years even these towers will erode away.
The fact that there's even limestone here in the first place suggests that thousands to millions of years ago (depending on how fast water moves around on the dark side) this area was under an ocean with life in it. This could, given ):('s uncertain timescale, mean that this area was under an ocean before the sundering.
Of course, this being the dark side, for all I know it could have been shaped by a bunch of pygmies with nail files and nothing better to do.
As an aside, there's almost certainly an extensive cave network below the party right now.
Is it finally happening?
Oh, man, we are bringing this up again. I honestly thought this aspect of the story was long settled. Not that it's bad that it's back of course
static1.e926.net/data/b8/2d/b82db1c00b14aada045e25dd507f07b9.gif
8814061
iirc, Discord mentioned being trapped inside Dash's head, and iirc, he mentioned that the spooder venom was his ticket to "get out" of Dash's mind prison. Also, the chapter where Dash finally woke up inside the tent after the spooder venom, Discord was talking a little too loudly that Fluttery and (another ghost friend I can't remember)—sitting by the tent's entrance—should be able to hear him, but they didn't. So I guess it's safe to assume that the girls can't hear nor see him, but if that were the case, why did Discord (need to?) disappear when Applejack approached her in this chapter?
Goddamnit IC.8814208
Fluttershy and Twilight, he joked about attempting to punt them, for distance, and said Twilight would get further because of all the weight in her "egg head".
The Truth can hurt like a falling linotype press thats on fire.
Better get your potato.
Yeah Applejack, I've been crushing on you for the last three million words or so. Nothing crazy or anything, I just based my actions on a "What Would Applejack Do" plastic bracelet and hoped for the best. Great work IC, you're great as always.
8813950
Nope Applepon is still unaware of Chaosburger. He just likes to let us readers know who's coming.
Oh, man, the ride never ends. And it's not even april fool yet.
Applejack doesn't yet realize that sometimes even enemies can be useful to you. Discord, for all of his flaws, is the closest thing they have to an 'expert' on Chaos and the Dark Side of the Plane. He also is willing to sometimes be helpful, as always being harmful becomes quite boring after a while. Apple pony also needs to learn to let go of some things, hate only eats you alive inside, not to mention is likely exactly what Discord wants.
I on the other hand have to wonder if this
Is describing our dear author and his efforts to make the next symbol
Is that some Appledashery I see?
Ofolrodi comes closer.
8812032
Oh, I've read the whole series till here. It's just been a long, long while since I've read Austraeoh. There are a few skirmishes that I just completely forget about, but such is human memory. Thanks for the memory jolt!
With that, I keep seeing more and more parallels to when Dash left Equestria. Scenery after scenery, an Alicorn monarch (or the memories of), a giant explanation of the world. The main difference is: she's not alone this time, and that's nice to see
For a moment I thought this was a chapter of Appledashery.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/855/340/23b.jpg
Bro, hooves are the only true answer.
8814130
This best not turn into The Cave.
Perhaps Rainbow should try to ward her sleep simply by having an actual nightmare.
Just imagine how much a dark sider would be fucked up by that.
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/710/389/a79.png
Now this is the happening we've been waiting for!
Roarke.
8815499
funny thing about that, is that my biggest fetish is "discovering that ancient precursors engineered species-X or world-Y explicitly because they were massive perverts and trait-Z was their fetish"
8816088
Almost autometalogolex.
8816146
dammit you made me look that up.
8816233
Are you agonizing over whether to say a certain sequence of six words, Dashie?
T H E R E I S O N L Y R A I N B O A R K E
8817690
Why not ship them all?
On a quest for harmony, but questioning harmony.
8817690 yes, it is known. Blood for Searo!!
8820729
HERETIC!
Well dang. Guess nothing gets past her.
...one of these days, Skirts. One of these days you're going to have to let Rainbow tell her.
881769
Y O U N E E D E M S P A C E S
B E T W E E N T H E W O R D S
🎶She's getting closer to finding ouuuut!🎶
8820729
how dare you even mention such a evil notion.
8875035
Because I'm evil like that.
8813950
I think it's less that she can see Discord than it is that she's remarkably astute, knows Rainbow Dash better than the other girls, and also now has a supernatural lie detecting ability, though it's not like she couldn't already do that. She could have easily noticed when they all vanished and would just as easily have noticed how contemplative RD was after they all reappeared. Two and two is four.
And here we have more proof the Author reads the comments of their story
05/10/2018
19:22 UTC
Honestly, I love the comment section of this story, especially chapters like this. It's a good part of the fun. I'm almost caught up! I'm excited to comment in real time... Not so excited to wait for updates, though...