Let It All Out
With a streak of dark feathers, Wildcard glided down from a high altitude patrol. His talons scraped the stone earth as he came to a swift stop.
Ariel looked up, a petite pegasus cradled in her forelimbs. "Anything?"
Wildcard shook his head. Not long later, a wyvern touched down at his side.
"Mrmmff!" Kepler caught his breath, stood up, and held his glasses steady as he spoke. "We searrched high and low! Just shorrt of scaling the mesa!" He shuddered. "I'm afrraid we found nothing."
"That goes for us too..." Flynn strolled up with Logan in tow. They stood above the flattened remnants of their tent. "Nothing hiding behind any of the rock structures. My horn couldn't illuminate a single thing."
"I swung my axe at the shadows for good measure," Logan grumbled.
Flynn rolled his good eye. "Point is..." He turned to face Ariel. "...we're just as alone now as we were when we first set camp here."
"This ravine is desolation incarnate!" Logan's brow furrowed. "I mean... no offense... but what's the point in searching? If Rainbow's friends can't sense anything—"
"Big Show...!" Ariel frowned, giving Rainbow's shoulders a squeeze. "Shhhhh..."
"Look... I'm no big fan of her freaking the buck out either," Logan said. "But if there's any making sense of this—shouldn't the ball start in her invisible friends' court?"
Ariel shook her head. "Rainbow Dash is not the one who should be pressured into—"
"They sense nothing," Rainbow Dash stammered.
Wildcard craned his neck to look at her.
Ariel patted Rainbow's shoulder. "Rainbow..."
"They don't..." Rainbow sniffled, strill trembling all over. "But I know what I saw... what I heard." Her eyes darted around in a nonstop cold panic. "He's b-back... I don't know how... but he's back..."
"This crreaturre..." Kepler took a few steps forward, his eyes narrowing. "...this 'Discorrd'... he is the one rresponsible forr yourr chaotic state, yes?"
"I'm responsible for my chaotic state," Rainbow momentarily growled. "All because I killed him. I picked up the Element of Loyalty and s-single-hoofedly turned him into stone. I dashed him into a hundred pieces and... and..." Rainbow clenched her teeth as more tears welled up. "How can he possibly be back? How? I don't understand... how?!"
"Rainbow Dash..." Rarity floated in front of the mare, stealing both her attention and her words. "We've been over this a dozen times! None of us sense anything different!"
"If... if there was a dragonequus nearby... Discord or not..." Fluttershy gulped. "I-I'm sure I could sense him. At least... at least I think I—"
"Maybe her nightmares came back!" Pinkie suggested. She looked directly at their anchor. "Could you just have had a bad dream, Dashie?"
"No, Pinkie..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth as the Herald blinked in response. She shook in Ariel's grip, her ears folding back. "This was real. You don't know because you didn't have to deal with him like I did."
"Heeeeeeeey..." Pinkie pouted, folding her forelimbs. "Being blown to pink smithereens is definitely dealing with it—!"
Applejack placed a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder, silencing her. She turned to look at the others. "Rainbow's tellin' the truth, y'all."
"Or she thinks she's tellin' the truth," Rarity said.
"Our loyalest mare's been battlin' all sorts of epic monsters and heebie-jeebies for over two years now!" Applejack's brow furrowed. "Dun ya think she'd know the difference between what's real and what's a mind spell?"
"With all that chaos in her system, who knows, Applejack?" Rarity said in a sympathetic turn. "And here we are on the Dark Side..."
"Girls!" Twilight hovered squarely next to Applejack. "Aren't we forgetting something? When we tried to get out of the Harmonic state—"
"Vanilla Zoooooone!" Pinkie hoofy-kicked.
Twilight sighed. "The Vanilla Zone. When we heard Rainbow and tried to get out... something was keeping us from exiting!"
Fluttershy shuddered. "Or someone..."
"Right." Twilight nodded.
"Oh dear..." Rarity grimaced. "...you can't possibly be suggesting—"
"This was our very first trip to the Vanilla Zone after crossing over to the Dark Side," Twilight Sparkle said. "It's the first time we—the Elements of Harmony—decided to leave Rainbow Dash and 'recharge.' So... what if there's more to it than just the five of us attached to Rainbow?"
"Tw-Twilight...?" Rainbow Dash sat up, her lips quivering. "You... are you meaning to say he's... he's anchored...?"
"Anchored?" Logan belched. "Who's anchored?"
"Discord?" Flynn murmured.
"Hrrmmmm..." Kepler stroked his hairy chin. "Rrainbow Dash..." He looked at her calmly. "You arre am exceptional specimen forr possessing harrmonic enerrgy in its purrest forrm—as embodied by the souls of yourr closest frriends whom you've absorrbed back in Equestrria..." He narrowed his eyes. "But that isn't the only spectacularr thing about you... forr you arre also imbued with chaos. A blessing orr an infection, you werre neverrtheless forreverr changed by the rrift that opened in the hearrt of yourr kingdom. What if—just possibly—the souls of yourr frriends werren't the only things that you absorrbed...?"
Wildcard's goggles rattled at that. He turned and looked nervously at Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash's coat had paled even more. "No... that can't be right..." She shook her head, trembling even harder. "That's bullcrap! I got rid of him for good!"
"Rainbow Dash..." Flynn spoke quietly, carefully. "All this time... you've flown under the lights of the Alicorn Princesses... and the Firmaments placed their harmonically by their forebearers. But none of that is shielding you here on the Dark Side." His ears folded anxiously. "Nothing is around us to shield the chaos within any longer—"
"He..." Rainbow clutched her pendant desperately with quivering fetlocks. "...is dead. It's gotta be some crazy monster impersonating him or something!"
"Rainbow—"
"You just haven't found him yet! You just h-haven't..." Rainbow's voice gave out, replaced instead by pitiful hyperventilation. She lost the strength to sit upright and more or less collapsed to her side.
Ariel easily caught her. "Shhh-shhhh... just breathe. It's okay. You're not alone with this..."
"Don't want him to be back don't want him to be back don't want him to be back..." Rainbow Dash repeated with foalish squeaks. She curled up in Ariel's embrace.
Twilight, Rarity, and the others watched with misty-eyed expressions.
Ariel looked up at the rest of the Herald.
The males exchanged nervous glances. At last, Wildcard nodded and—fwooosh!—resumed flying in a wide orbit of the camp site.
As Kepler joined him, Flynn and Logan shuffled off. "We'll... uh... go looking around the outer fringes of the ravine."
"Stay close together," Ariel said, stroking Rainbow's mane. "No matter what, keep each other safe."
"Roger that."
As the Herald split apart, Ariel remained in place, holding Rainbow close. "They're going to keep looking, Rainbow."
"I'm so scared..." Rainbow cried. Her voice cracked as every defense dissolved completely. "Goddess help me, I h-haven't been this scared in f-forever..." She clenched her eyes shut. "Mmmmmm... Celestiaaaaaa..."
"It's okay..." Ariel smiled gently before nuzzling the mare close. "It's okay, Rainbow. Let it out. It's okay, girl..."
Rainbow sobbed like an infant, even as her friends circled closer. The only one looking remotely composed was Applejack. She hovered higher—like a sentry—gazing around at the darkness surrounding. At long last, her ghostly eyes found the silvery shape of Seraphimus off to the side.
The griffin wouldn't stop staring at the sobbing pegasus.
Applejack's eyes narrowed... and her frown was far from a subtle thing.
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Poor Rainbow.
I hope Seraphimus seeing Rainbow's vulnerable side will help her see that Rainbow isn't the monster she thinks she is.
Dammit Discord you conniving bastard.
Hmm...what better way to observe the truth than when it doesn't know it's being observed?...
'there'
Welp, Dash is neck deep in de Nile. Hope the waters aren't too deep.
On the bright side, it doesn't seem super likely that Discord can actually do anything, much like the other ghost gals. Guess we'll have to wait and see when he decides to pop his head out again.
Yeah, part of why he might be coming out to play may be because they are now on his home turf, though it seems rather mild compared to what Equestria was like under his rule. So far at least.
You know, the more I think about this the more it becomes glaringly obvious that we should have seen this coming. When Dash killed Discord oh so long ago, all that chaotic energy had to go somewhere (As well as into reality), so it went into Dash's body, same as the souls of her friends.
Although why Discord picked now of all times to finally wake up still bugs me. Could be that, once Dash crossed onto the Dark Side some sort of trigger was activated, but with the amount of chaos inside of her she probably would notice a trigger or the like, so thats extremely unlikely.
This is going to be super hard for Rainbow to accept, this honestly might be the hardest thing she has ever done. This is going to be the most interesting part of the journey IMO.
As for Seraphimus, I have no idea if she now sees Rainbow as less of a monster for being vulnerable or just even crazier than before.
Edit: Fixed my silly spelling mistake thanks to Phoenix Kitten.
So... freeing AJ was like the final lock, the dizzy spells did start happening with less frequency after Twilight was freed.
It's possible the dizzy spells were Discord trying to break out by force, and with each of the ghost 5 freed, a part of the lock keeping him in weakened.
She had... like 1 or 2 dizzy spells in all of Rohbredden, after being plauged by them in Luxmare, Xona and Val Roa.
Discord might have noticed the lock weakening and started biding his time.
And after freeing AJ, all of the elements never went to the vanilla zone at once, there was always a sentry keeping watch.
So Discord's lock is two fold, the ghost 5 had to be free.. and they have to be in the vanilla zone at the same time for him to manifest.
What's on your mind Applepon?
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
I think discord being back has more to do with them being on the dark side (an environment of chaos) than anything else.
He said he got glimpses of the journey before, I think it was when dash took off the element and become "feral discord". He knew what happened and was seeing everything at these times but didn't control it.
8273732
vulnerable, is probably the word you were looking at there, not valuable.
Just realized that Discord actually didn't kill anybody(pretty sure he didn't expect the vaporization to happen), and I'm pretty sure he'll be bringing that up next time we see him.
Man...the next chapters are gonna be incredibly hard for Rainbow. And I hope Seraphimus isn't trying to find Rainbows weak point cause that can end up pretty bad.
8273757
Yes, that is what I get for watching SGDQ at the same time as writing a comment.
8273689
I find myself wondering if Discord has a chaotic sense like the others do, and if he might wind up proving useful by the time the adventure is over... after all, it is possible that if his vessel passes from this world, he will be meeting his true end as well.
Considering that her eyes flash red-on-yellow during her dizzy spells, and that she turns to a freaking draconequus-like thing when the pendant is removed, is it really that hard for her to believe that she adsorbed some of Discord into herself? I mean, I can understand her being appalled by the idea, but you'd think she might've seen it coming, or something.
Still though, I feel for her.
And I, too, wonder how all this will affect Seraphimus' view of her.
8273822
Chaos sense would probably seem the most logical, but then again Discord, so logic may not apply. It could be that he might have some small capacity to affect the world physically with some kind of chance manipulation. Regardless of what he can or can't do in his ghostly state, I don't doubt he'll be both a giant pain in the ass for Dash but also... well not an "ally" per se, but it is in his best interest to help her out. Or at least see to it she doesn't bite it, and take him with her as a result.
...Then again, Discord being Discord, and also now being on a part of the plane seeped in chaos, he might not even care what happens as long as he gets to enjoy the ride, even if the ride leads to nothing but a massive crash and burn.
sunova bitch
The idea that Discord is in the same boat as the GhostGals, is pretty nice, cause it means at some point, the idea that in order to resurrect them, she'll have to bring him back as well, will at least occur to them.
Wonder what Seraphimus is going to take from all this. Besides "Dashie's insane, yo".
8273734
If that still applies, then the answer is easy enough - just continue to have at least one of them standing watch the whole time.
Unless Discord is now able to manifest by force...
8273734
Perhaps a third lock, that being that he can only manifest hmself in places with enough chaotic energy around. I believe that he is still too weak to fully impact the world, and needs to have enough stray chaos energy around (like in the Dark sde) before he can actually do anything
Damn, never seen Rainbow Dash have a full on breakdown quite like this. Seeing the one who started this massive, horrible, fantastic journey must truly be hard to bear.
8273734
A good, solid hoof to Seraphimus's high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou, ugly mug.
At awesome velocity.
There, there Dash, let it all out.
Hey Seraph. You dont beleive anything thats happening?
Hold This.
She's really taking this as hard as one could expect - especially considering she does not have confirmation that Discord is most certainly rather powerless in this state.
Or would have to be, unless this entire story is going to end rather unexpectedly and rather soon.
8273886 Rainbow has stated as a fact before that Discord's personality is gone, what remains within her is his draconequuic essence - hence she turns into a psychotic monster, not a prank-playing dandy. The fact that at least now that belief is quite incorrect must be quite the shock for her.
Yeah, this is a pretty demoralizing hit to everybody right now. Not just because of Discord, but because of Rainbow Dash's reaction to him. How are you supposed to feel when your fearless leader suddenly is rendered to a foalish state, trembling at shadows? The Herald is obviously feeling it.
They can't afford to have Discord show up and rattle Dash. That's just bad news on every front.
"Discord is dead. I turned him to stone, then ate his head with one bite. I crushed his body and inhaled it with a straw."
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It'd be real interesting if there are no actual monsters on the Dark Side, with Dash and the Herald just fighting Rainbow's subconscious.
It's official: the sh!t hit the fan. Rainbow's trauma is back and potentially getting worse than ever before.
As bad as this development is, the irony is quite thick here. Rainbow fought, lost friends and even had to kill in the past, yet she is shaken to the core during a moment when nothing of the former occured. Instead, the exact opposite bites her. And the timing could not be much worse.
8274402
That's completely possible, but won't help in the long run. There is still a full-scale war in process and the Herald needs Rainbow to get through the ordeal alive.
I'm starting to think that the idea that only the mane five or Discord can be out at the same time is erroneous. She was having flashes of him hearing his laughter at certain situations and seeing glimpses of him ever since they got to the dark side. Perhaps he had manifested and was simply hiding himself maybe he only waited to show himself fully to Rainbow Dash until the mane five were gone.
The only reason we have to believe this theory is that the mane 5 couldn't get out to help Rainbow Dash when she was calling for them until Discord had gone back inside the vanilla Zone. But this could have simply been him enforcing his will, and denying them access. That could be a thing.
8274280
Yeah the possible effects that this could have on their state of mind might be even greater than his effects brought about by his own actions.
And now we have potentially massive complications because of Seraphimus seeing RD's breakdown. Good thing Applejack senses it...
This complicates things.
Hey, I'm cool with discord coming back if we get chocolate rain... Just saying.
But perhaps he, like the ghost ponies, cannot directly influence the world. Perhaps, in time, he can be... encouraged to aid rainbow. Probably very far off, though....
"I trumped though the pumpkin patch."
If all the little flashes that Rainbow's seen on the Dark Side are Discord, then did he just wait until Rainbow fell asleep to make his appearance just because he's a dick?
8273669
I have a bad feeling that will happen but in the worst way. The Herald is used to her speaking to herself because they believe Rainbow has spirits that only she can hear based on what the Herald has witnessed her do. However, Sera has not been around for any of that. I think Sera might consider Rainbow far too mad to really have been able to kill Verlax, and therefore, she will most likely think Rainbow's supposedly "supernatural" powers are also a part of her madness. She is just a very lucky mare with massive delusions.
However, there's is no telling how she will feel. Only time will tell, and I am very curious myself.
Now I really wonder what would happen if Rainbow took off her pendant. I don't know why . . .
Makes sense. I wonder if if discord has an interest in undoing the sundering
8298491
Probably >.<
10309934
That, or he can't appear when the girls are outside
Some goddess-slaughtering monster, huh Seraphimus? Yeah, definitely looks like one, sobbing on the ground like that. Pretty scary stuff.
Pretty much yeah.
Great. We're kinda back to square one with this. Poor Rainbow.
This could mean a whole lot of things, from good to bad. ...I'm gonna guess bad.
It’s pretty heart-wrenching to see Rainbow like this