Of Liars and Cowards
Rainbow Dash made no more than four steps when—
Schiiiing!
Bard's staff stretched through the air, blocking her.
Rainbow calmly looked down the length of the metal and at the griffin who was holding it.
"She's not going to peck my eyes out," Rainbow droned. "Let me talk to her."
Wildcard's emotionless goggles reflected the mare's face doubly.
Rainbow furrowed her brow. "Stay nearby if you want. I need to face her."
Wildcard stared back. He exhaled slowly. Cl-Clakka! He retracted the staff, hobbled about on three-and-a-half limbs, then roosted on a rock overshadowing Seraphimus... and just a one-second-leap away.
Rainbow cleared her throat and continued trotting to the sled where Seraphimus lay.
"Rainbowwwwwww..." Twilight wrung her ghostly fetlocks with an anxious expression. "I sure hope you know what you're doinggggg."
"I never do," Rainbow said and plopped down on the ground.
"... ... ..." A pinned-and-restrained griffin glared daggers at her.
"Hi," Rainbow breathed. She placed the three leaves of bleakweed on the ground, pressed her hoof towards them, then shoved them until they were just below Seraphimus' beak. "Here. This is for you. Y'know... to eat and stuff."
"... ... ..."
"You do eat, right?" Rainbow muttered. "I can't imagine that you survived in Rohbredden solely on badassery and snow-huffing."
"... ... ..."
"That wasn't a request, y'know," Rainbow Dash said. "You are going to eat those leaves. You're going to eat them whole." She nibbled on her own leaf, staring at Seraphimus the whole time. Two bites later, she said, "There's no telling how much energy you've wasted thrashing around and shrieking your head off like a moron. You need sustenance to get better."
"... ... ..."
Rainbow nibbled and nibbled and—"Mrmmfff..." She leaned forward. "Don't try and make me hoof-feed it all into that sharp beaky-beak of yours. I'm not that stupid—"
"I would rather starve a thousand deaths then take your offering!" Seraphimus hissed.
Rainbow Dash leaned back, sighing. "Aaaaaaand there it is."
"Poison..." Seraphimus slurred.
"Huh?"
"You'd be trying to poison me anyways," Seraphimus said, more firmly. The obvious traces of exhaustion lingered on her charcoal brown eyes. "Will never... never take food from you..."
"Yo..." Rainbow cocked her blue head to the side. "If I wanted to poison you... don't you think I would have done so hours ago?" She blew out the side of her muzzle. "Tch... heck, I could have tossed you to the stars back in the Gondola. Ever wonder why I didn't bother doing that?"
"I know why."
"Oh yeah?"
"It's because you wish to give me a long and torturous death, Blighted One," Seraphimus spat. "And I shall not give you the pleasure."
Rainbow sat in silence for a bit.
"Egads!" Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack. "You think she really means that?"
Applejack gave her a double-take. "Are ya seriously askin' me?"
The rest of the mares were looking at Pinkie.
Applejack exhaled sharply. "She sure as hay believes it's true. There. Ya happy?"
Rainbow's eyes wandered to Seraphimus again. "I thin we got off on the wrong hoof." A crooked smile. "So how about starting over?"
"... ... ..."
"Cool." Rainbow finished her second leaf, gobbled the morsel down, then dusted her hooves off. "Mrmmmfff... mrhefllo..." She waved with a hoof. "My name... mrmmmff... is Rainbow Dash." A final swallow. "Born in Cloudsdale, raised in Equestria, killed in Aridstone—"
"I do not care for your putrid excuse for a biography, creature."
"Uh huh. Cool." Rainbow flicked her tail like a cat and blinked at the griffin. "So your name's Seraphimus, huh? Is that—like—a common name in Rohbredden?"
Charcoal brown eyes narrowed visciously. "It is my name and my name alone."
"Riiiiiiiiight... so... uh... were you born with it or did you earn it the moment you became the Right Talon of Verlaxion—?"
"What do the names of the foals of Verlaxion mean to a pathetic monster who's forever separated them from their Goddess Supreme?!"
"I didn't kill your Goddess—"
"Bite your tongue!!!" Seraphimus snarled, causing the sled beneath her to rattle. "You boasted about it before the Council of Verlaxion!"
Rarity and Fluttershy winced.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, shut them, then rubbed her forehead. "Thattttttttttt was all for show—"
"You are a vicious and unrepentent murderer—"
"I wasn't given' much of a choice!" Rainbow Dash reopened her eyes, glaring. "Verlax—the Dragon Divine posing as your so-called 'Goddess'—had preordained her death for the very moment I arrived, and she released all of the wendigoes that she had been holding onto for centuries on her own volition!"
"Might wanna slow it down, sugarcube—" Applejack stammered.
"I became the monster you wanted to hate because it would give your stupid country solidarity!" Rainbow swung a hoof towards the nebulous twilight above. "If I didn't—those idiots in the Council would still be turning on each other! How would you hold off against a bunch of frozen banshee horses then?!"
"A great deal better than if a lying, selfish abomination like you hadn't murdered our Queen in cold blood!!!" Seraphimus' enraged voice echoed against the nearby rocks before dissipating into the shadows beyond.
Rainbow Dash fumed and fumed. She opened her muzzle to say something... lingered... then looked over her shoulder.
The rest of the Herald were all standing in a straight line, staring. Upon seeing Rainbow's angry glance, they all shuddered... spread apart... and trotted off to random destinations around the camp.
Wildcard glanced at them, then continued acting as faithful sentry over the scene. He adjusted the limbs beneath his muscular figure and kept his goggled gaze locked on Seraphimus.
Rainbow turned towards Seraphimus again. "Would... it give you... any sort of inner peace to know that I never wanted your Queen to die?"
"None whatsoever." Seraphimus stared icily at her. "I would wish—more than anything in this world—for you to die... horribly... painfully... and at the end of my claws, if possible."
The mares looked at Applejack.
Applejack looked back, rolled her eyes, then nodded.
"Yeah, well..." Rainbow sat up straight. "That's not happening. And as much as I'd like to throw you over the edge of the world so that you landed back home in Rohbredden, that can't happen either. Right now, I'm on a super crazy important mission... the same mission I was on before Verlax got stuck in my craw—"
"I wish you nothing but failure and disappointment, infidel."
"Yeah. Uh huh. And letting you go isn't really an option either. One—you'd be dead meat on your own. Two—I'd be dead meat with you out there plotting my untimely demise."
"Then you should kill me."
"That's not happening either—"
"If you had an ounce of bloody commitment, creature, then you would—"
"It's not friggin' happening, you Celestia-forsaken melon fudge, so you can just buck up and take life up your ungrateful tailpipe!" Rainbow snarled.
For once, Seraphimus was silence.
Wildcard glanced quietly between them.
At last, Seraphimus exhaled. "You're worse than I thought." A hiss. "You're a coward."
"No—a coward would have murdered you on both opportunities that I had to," Rainbow said, glaring back. "First at Starkiss... then at the World's End."
"Instead, you wait for time to do the dirty work for you." Seraphimus' headcrest straightened. "You are a coward."
"Yeah, well, keep saying that," Rainbow replied, turning her last leaf around. "We're on the Dark Side of the World. We're all going to need our little happy places."
"Dark Side... of the World...?" Seraphimus muttered with sudden confusion.
Rainbow glanced at her.
Seraphimus looked back, and her frown returned. "You lie."
Rainbow turned and turned the leaf around in her hooves. At last, she sported a nerdy grin. "How about a history lesson...?"
Twilight perked up.
Both Seraphimus and Wildcard cocked their heads with identical, avian motions. "Buh?" one of them exhaled.
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Mhhmm...yeah, this is going about as constructively as I expected it to go. At least she seems to be listening right now. Also, I have the distinct feeling that Rainbow is about to blow her mind...
...Dangit...wish this part wasn't suffering from chapter cliffhanger-itis. I really want to see this conversation continue.
At least they're exchanging coherent sentences. It's a start.
You absolutely sure of that, Dash? Really, 100% certain that the Rohbreddenites couldn't have pulled their shit together without you deciding to act like a super villain? Because honestly, I still think you were shooting purely in the dark there, and making some seriously crazy guesswork. And ultimately, with you gone over the edge, no more Rainbow Rogue for Rohbredden to focus on, was there really any difference your play acting as the Big Bad really made? Just saying that you really did play that card purely on guesswork, and not exactly hard evidence.
Yeah, murder is pretty cowardly... no matter what justifications one wants to bring to bear on it.
Haven't exactly been paying attention to your surroundings, have you Seraphimus?
This gonna be good ........maybe
I so want that vocalisation to be Wildcard.
Seriously though Dash, maybe don't lose your cool if you want to try and get through to her. Maybe you shouldn't have opened with trying to tell her the truth about Verlax.
Perhaps invoking a sort of "We can kill each other later, just help me save the world first." Gambit would have worked better.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Huh, maybe Sera will actually listen for a bit and take in some of the info Dash is about to drop on her!
....oh, who am I kidding?
Yay it's story time! *Sits and pulls out popcorn.*
Takes far more courage to let your enemies live than it does to kill them. Killing is easy, especially in the heat of the moment. I doubt Seraphimus would know that, she has only ever truly feared one thing, which came to pass earlier. She also doesn't realize that the real monster is her, willing to destroy anything to get her obsession. I have no idea what Rainbow could say to get her to start asking herself some difficult questions, but I have to give her props for trying.
Catbird's been squawking so long she hasn't noticed its been eternally night. Or completely barren for that matter.
That went about as well as I expected it too, a bit better actually. I wonder how this story time is going to go; I love story times!
8260968
I don't want to get into a huge debate about it, however: I still maintain that the whole choice Verlax gave Dash was nothing more than a catch 22. The outcome is virtually the same regardless of what Dash did. (which by the way is not a good and happy outcome) Rohbredden's whole purpose for existing was to mess with Rainbow Dash and test her, it has accomplished that.
8261028
Can't say you're wrong. Verlax pretty much screwed over the entire country just to get at Dash, and Dash's overall options sucked all around.
8261009
Is she going to tell Sera the tale of Shell?
Using "infidels" and "righteous" in repeated sentences and dagger glaring obviously takes too much brainpower to notice the passage of time and lack of sunlight.
Do the girls really need AJ to tell she means those...?
8260956
But will she truly listen?
> Rainbow uses Confusion!
It's mildly effective!
She should tell her the story of the Austraeoh in song form, that way it can all fit into one
episodechapter.Seraphimus has gone full Nero. Never go full Nero. You may get stuck in a
blackhole."I thought not. It’s not a story Verlaxion would tell you. It’s an Equestrian legend...."
discogenie.dyndns.org/imgur/dptw.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6Bw5_Re2U
8260979
Give it 15 chapters and a few fight scenes.
8261211
Raimbow Dash was an Element of Harmony, so powerful and so wise she could use her Awesomeness to influence the plane to stay alive... She had such a knowledge of the dark side that she could even keep the ones she cared about from dying. The dark side of the plane is a pathway to many things some consider to be unnatural. She became so powerful... the only thing she was afraid of was having to kill, which eventually, of course, she did.
I apologise for this.
"...baka!"
I've seen enough Roarkbow to know where this is going.
... you just said that you were going to deliberately starve to death. That was a few seconds ago.
Where does she think they are?
Celestia on a bicycle, she literally went right up to the edge of the world and into the elevator. Where did she think it was going?
8260968
Ultimately, the only way they could've actually put their shit together in a sort-of reasonable period of time, was if every single, and I mean every single religious fanatic in Rohbredden heard what happened with Verlax, and they were like "I guess everything I thought I knew about this world is wrong and I've been living a lie my entire life, oh well!"
Otherwise, the whole bunch of self-righteous power-hungry dudes in the government would've ended up with entirely different views on what the fuck actually happened, which wouldn't exactly end well.
8261287
She let her friends stay behind in a village while she was running from the Big Bad, then the Big Bad killed everyone in the village. Ironic! She could save her friends from dying, but not her friends' friends.
8261047
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of..."
Oh wait, we already did that joke just now.
8261299
There's no way to prove that Rohbredden would have collapsed in on itself like that, especially given the dire nature of the crisis it faced. To say that its a sure thing that its leadership would have splintered and the country descend into chaos just isn't accurate, as nobody, least of all Dash, could really know for certain what the outcome would have been. She made a snap decision based largely on the fear of what might happen, but with little to no proof. In fact all she had to go on was pure conjecture. Perhaps calmer, steadier hearts would have prevailed. Perhaps Rohbredden, when faced with such incredible circumstances and danger, would have pulled together as a nation without any need at all for a villain to focus their anger on. Perhaps the windigoes themselves would have served as villain enough to focus upon.
The issue is that Dash didn't know for sure, and made a hasty decision that might not have been remotely needed for Rohbredden to survive. Her choice could have saved Rohbredden, or maybe it wasn't neccessary at all. She really has no way to prove the former, any we'll never know for certain if the latter is true. All that is certain is that Dash's choice to play the villain is what directly led to many good, otherwise innocent Rohbredden soldiers to chase her for a lie she created, and die as a result of that falsehood alongside many sarosians. It was a lie Verlax pushed Dash towards choosing, and the true fault is with the Divine, but I don't like the idea of Dash trying to pass her actions off as somehow the only move she could have made.
For the life of me, I can't see where this is gonna end. I highly doubt Sera is going to "join the party," as it were, But it's becoming a bit more clear that she isn't going to go Full Shell...
Thirty wide-arm push-ups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
8261011
I thought so too, but after thinking about it some more: She might have thought she was either blindfolded (and thus not being able to see), or that she was being carried during night which wouldn't have really tipped her off. The dark side does seem to mess with ones sense of time. That, and her going on a hate fueled test of vocal fortitude probably provided a good distraction.
i.imgur.com/ViY7j.gif
I expected Seraphimus to be a bit more out of it after spouting that much nonsense and hate for so long. That said, it's nice to see her and Rainbow having an actual conversation that's not yet resulting in an epic fight to the death.
Rainbow talking history? Did somebody put something in my drink?
Well that went just about as well as could be expected.
Hopefully Sera will start opening up and... Oh what am I saying it's gonna be a looooooooooong time.
8260241
Hehe, yeah, I guess technically I am both a new and old member now or something?
I actually started reading Austreaoh back in February of 2014. I started commenting every so often beginning in June 2014, and I've quietly lurked ever since, getting constantly distracted as I eventually journeyed my way to the front. Just took me almost as long as it's taken Rainbow herself to get here, heh.
It's funny to me that Seraphimus is sorta what the story is focusing on now in these chapters that I caught up in, because when I started reading it was Sera and Regidar's comments that I was closely following for a few books. Kind-of a funny book-end (
) to my reading journey.
Here you go Seraph. Dash is going to feed you what you deservve.
So lift your tail and beg for it like a good little acknowledger.
Let me tell you a story bout a man named Shell.
A Psychopath that turned everything hell.
When one day while carving up some dude.
Along came Dash and gave him somthin ta brood.
Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A reading rainbow
A reading rainbow
Rainbow Dash pulls out a mana iPad and reads Austraeoh Abridged.
I doubt Rainbow is going to have much luck convincing Seraphimus she's didn't kill Verlax and she's not the bad guy and whatnot. But being on the Dark Side of the World is a fact, and an indisputable one. While Seraphimus hasn't been particularly rational in the great righteous screaming at infidels session, it's going to be hard for her to deny what she can percieve for herself. I'm not really aware of how much she can see from that position she's in, they might have to tilt her cage around a bit, but she could probably see the curvature of the ring, the Trinary War, and the barren landscape around them. She's a smart catbird, she'll work it out.
Well, if she just stops screaming it'll be an improvement. They're conspicuous enough as it is.
Well, we've got the conversation started, at least. Here's hoping Sera's gonna (at least partially) believe her, instead of just going back into "My Righteous Fury Sees Through Your Infidelic Lies" Mode. Or both. I could settle for both.
8261560
Don't mention him too often, he might come back, you know. His soul was probably absorbed by the big whatever that causes the soul drift, which then may be able to reanimate him or turn his soul into some kind of spectre to haunt Rainbow. The same could be true for Discord or anypony else.
Knowing the twists in this story, it can totally happen!
Aha! You have Seraphimus's attention! All according to plan. Forceful conversion to the light side by friendship is a tentative practice, but Rainbow is a known master of turning her enemies into friends.
Might also be worth pointing out that actually Dash can't die anyway.
Well, this actually gives me a small measure of hope. Seraphimus is speaking in coherent sentences, and she's actually having something of a conversation with Rainbow. As someone who would like to see Seraphimus redeemed, even if it's a long, staggering, arduous process, I'll choose to look at this as the first step in a journey of however-many miles.
She is silence. Very loud silence.
8261693
Not though any normal means, to be sure, but we're off the edge of the map now. Here, there be monsters.
Way to pass up the chance to tell Sera that this is the Spring Havens she's long sought after, and that blighted infidels make up the majority.
Dictated by Bill Wurtz.
She really does have no idea what she's doing, now has she?
Yes, more! Dang I hate waiting. Wouldn't mind if there was a way to sleep for 6 months and come back to a lot more chapters to read.
8261840
If the batponies can eat them, assuming they haven't developed any mutations and assuming they've retained any herbivorous tendencies at all, and you know what good point.
8261296
She didn't think about the elevator. She merely knew that Rainbow Dash was in it, and so she went to it.
Seraphimus has lived in a bubble, planetarily speaking. A tumultuous bubble, but a bubble nonetheless. She probably doesn't have any idea that anything exists on the other side.
And there's a wedge in the door of Seraphimus's mind. Will it hold, or will it splinter?
At last, something that catches her off guard. Seraphimus definitely needs a further evaluation of the position she is in. Maybe that will help her realize that Rainbow isn't cowardly in not killing her. I honestly doubt this will all happen at once, though.
8294455
Shes so blinded by hate shes ignorant of the truths in front of her. But finally something has been knocked loose enough to stagger her. Mayb this is a start
Odds are if she gets home, she is going to be dragged (or at least ponies will attempt to drag) to every college, university, and academy that can get their hooves on her to lecture everyone about the things she has seen and learned while on her amazing journey. At least until the Princesses start screaming at them to let her enjoy the life she struggled so hard to get back together.
10/12/2017
16:23 UTC
Is it weird that I thought that was kinda cute?
Oh this just got worlds more interesting.
Seraphimus is about to be in for a hell of a surprise when she learns where she’s at.