Darkreach Chronicles, Part Five
"Empathetic statement: There has been an awful lot of pressure placed on the shoulders of he who would be Lieutenant Warhol. While I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort have no doubt that he who would be Lieutenant Warhol posssesses the fortitude and courage to accomplish the tasks given by she who would be Commander Gwen, I fear that his strength will be sapped long before that which would be called the Verdestonian Expedition requires his services in traversing Curveside and the perils beyond.
"Pessimistic aside: I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort have no concerns about accomplishing the tasks that are before me. However, I do not believe that he who would be Lieutenant Warhol or any other potential leaders assigned by that which would be the Twin City Councils can feasibly establish a firm hoofhold beyond the mesa where that which would be called Darkreach has been situated.
"Practical assessment: The task ahead of us requires the utilization of complete armies. A mere expedition simply is not enough to carve a path through the chaos and alien wilderness. I do not believe that I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort is alone in this assessment. I can see it in the face of she who would be Commander Gwen. We who would be the Verdestonian Expedition is severely lacking the sheer numbers necessary to scale that which would be called the Dark Side. This is especially true since they who would be the potential nemeses of this landscape have no less than three armies at their disposal."
"You... uh... you seem distracted," Ariel remarked.
"... ... ..." Rainbow blinked. She gazed aside through Scootaloo's goggles. "Hmmm?" Another blink. "Oh. Sorry, girl."
The two mares flew side by side, following the line of waving, living stalks that dwelled just beyond the drop of the razor-sharp cliffside.
Ariel flew closer. "Wanna share?"
"Not much to share," Rainbow muttered. "For every bit of information Kepler relays to me about Ranort's log... the old engineer's entries just come across as... more and more obscure." He gulped. "The only good thing I gain from it all—if you could call it 'good'—is that the ancient Cylindrimanian tinkerer didn't have high hopes for reaching the Midnight Armory."
"Well, they never did, right?" Ariel smirked slightly. "That's not exactly a spoiler."
"Still. If the Darkside Expedition was such an abject failure, you'd think they would spot it from hundreds of miles away," Rainbow muttered as the two drifted up and down in the cold winds. Twilight and nebulaic colors glinted off their sweat-stained feathers. "I mean... they weren't exactly idiots."
"From what Kepler says, they were sorta underfunded," Ariel said.
"More like undersupplied," Rainbow corrected. "Seems that they all had a go-to guy named 'Lieutenant Warhol.' He was responsible for all of the patrols and mini-expeditions."
Ariel grinned. "Sorta like what we're doing right now!"
"Right. Only a lot more perilous. They had no clue what they were dealing with. Us? We're cheating, really."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We're running on all of my long-winded conversations with Luna, Whitemane, Chrysalis, and Mortuana." Rainbow gulped. "And now we've got Ranort to use as a foundation."
"Maybe he expected this?" Ariel remarked.
"Hmmm?"
"Maybe he knew failure was at hoof," Ariel clarified. "It might explain why he was so densely recording log entries while he was in Darkreach."
"That or he was in a super sappy mood."
"Huh?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Never mind."
"I'd love to see you in a sappy mood," Ariel said, winking.
"Heh. I bet you would."
"Still. No reason to be so glum. Not yet, at least."
"You think?" Rainbow gazed lethargically at the living forest to their right as they flew ever-Alpha. "Sure, we've got a few dozen advantages that the Darkside Expedition didn't. But..." Her brow furrowed. "Is the journey ahead any less impossible?"
"You've faced worse, Rainbow," Ariel said. "Don't you think?"
"Well, I'd like to think," Rainbow replied. "But someday that simplified sort of thinking is going to screw me over. Maybe things can be easy... but pretending it is all the time has messed up with my progress before." She clenched her teeth. "Sometime... I dunno when... but I learned to get serious about being serious."
"That's not entirely true," Ariel said. She stuck her tongue out. "'Zoop.'"
Rainbow rolled her eyes.
Ariel giggled.
A slight smirk crossed Rainbow's fuzzy muzzle. "Still... I keep looking and looking for the obstacle..."
"What obstacle?"
"The obstacle... the one that the Emeraldinians couldn't surpass..." Rainbow gulped. "The sort of obstacle that... that Verlax saw... that she supposedly put me to the test over."
Ariel squinted. "You certain you didn't face that on the way over here?"
"I don't think I have. And even if I did... it wasn't legit."
"How so?"
Rainbow gulped. "Bard and Axan bit it so I didn't have to. It's not the same."
"Oh Rainbow..."
"It's okay..." Rainbow shuddered in mid-flight. "I'm not trying to downplay the sacrifices they made. But... at some point or another... I'm gonna have to face a tough decision... and I can already feel Verlax snickering from beyond the grave."
"I thought you were past her."
"There are some things you are never past." Rainbow looked at a glossy stretch of polished stone beneath her. For a moment she saw—or thought she saw—a reflection of goat hair and grinning teeth. "No matter how far you fly."
"Well, do what you've always done," Ariel said. "Eyes front..."
"...and wings out." Rainbow nodded. "Believe me, girl, I try."
"And no matter how much you whine and moan in your own subtle way..." Ariel winked. "I know you're not a pessimist deep down."
"How do you figure?"
"Well, you've never kept a journal, have you?" Ariel suppressed a giggle. "You're a lonnnnng stone's throw from Ranort in that case."
Silence.
"Yeah..." Rainbow chuckled breathily. "I guess I am."
"Uhhhhhh... Rainbow?"
"Hmmm?" Rainbow looked behind her shoulder. "You're not gonna suggest I make Flynn build a trapper-keeper, are you?"
Ariel pointed a fetlock towards the right. "Look at that."
"Look at what?" Rainbow craned her neck. Far below them—just beyond the edge of the cliff—there was a section of the living forest that was empty. In the place of the living stalks was a stretch of what looked like impossibly huge plates of glass. They glinted immaculately in the starlight above. "Okay... what the buck...?"
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Nothing from the other girls. Unusual that they are silent even if not all of them are out or Rainbow isn't asking them for their special senses.
Edit: Large plates of grass, delicious.
Edit2: Large plates of glass, deadly.
Dash and the Herald are an even smaller group than the expedition... Will they succeed where Ranort thought it would take an army?
I'm wondering why Onyxius or whatever even left them there. I mean, if they all KNEW it was impossible, why did they just stay there and die? Why not retreat to the Light Side?
Thirty-five wide-arm pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Is that supposed to be plates of glass? Cuz plates of grass doesnt seem like something all too likely out here.
Even though they have all the knowledge that the Darkstinians didn't, this sure as hell won't be a walk in the park
They needed an army, or a very small, very skilled team, that could slip under the radar of the warring factions, like what Rainbow has, though potentially she might be able to get them to work with her.
8353564
Now if only it wasn't for Seraphimus.
Glass plates. Enter Nightshard?
Someone had a hell of a load of power to go Quartz Mulberry on that forest. But one thing about near perfectly flat surfaces. You dont half get speed out a hovercraft.
Given there were materials left and the place was evacuated in a hurry, there were fewer prople
left than the equipment available, which is why at least one craft was left? they did one last
desperate push. noone left behind. Noone left to die waiting for their souls to be sucked out?
zoop
Glassed?
Did one side fire a beam of plasma at the ground or something during a conflict?
I wouldn't put it past the nightshard to have access to tech like that.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Nice to know that after all this time she still has those goggles.
Well that sure is interesting. I wonder what in the world managed to do that. I like that Ariel knows that deep down Dash isn't really as pessimistic as she makes herself out to be. Also yeah were is Pinkie Pie or any of the other girls at this point they should have had something to say.
Well that's certainly peculiar. Seems to be a pretty common trend for the dark side to have some pretty weird stuff going on. Which should be obvious considering it's the convex side of a giant machine planet.
Glass plates? Did someone try to use extreme heat on the deadly lawn kelp? Fire would've been my first guess as a counter to the murder lawn, but to make glass that's a bit more than just standard issue fire.
Hmm, as for whatever "obstacle" Dash is worried about, I'm going to stab a guess that its going to involve having to either kill a lot of people, or somehow destroy souls. It'd have to be something that would be massively against to who she is on a moral level. It probably has to do with that spot where Endrax pyramid stabbed herself. Maybe that's where all the souls are gathering? Verlax's whole deal was to try to crush Dash's sense of harmonic balance and make her willing to be cold and merciless in the pursuit of her mission, so stands to reason there's some barrier in her way that will require doing something unbelievably wrong in order to proceed. Given all she's been through and done already, there's really not a lot of ways for the ante to be upped in that department unless we're talking genocide and/or destroying souls.
Now I just got to trust that Dash is good enough to find away around or through whatever that obstacle is.
8353497
Eh, I think that's a consequence of the mostly third-person montage. We're not really going into Dash's perspective. I suppose you're right that they might chip in anyway through Dash, though.
He who would be Chief Engineer Ranort seems like a good pony. It will be sad reading his reports of the last days of the expedition.
I vote dragon fire. A good long concentration of fire
Glass it from orbit. Only way to be sure.
8355327
*Ripley intensifies*
Plates of glass not shards of glass? I doubt a firestorm created it. Maybe a barrier to slip past the stinger-trees?
"Only in a leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth..."
Bolded verbs should be am and are.
Your disassociative and impersonal speech style for this culture has befuddled your usually quite good grammar. All of your "I who would be x" and "that which would be x" and "they who would be x" do not change the quantity of the subject, as they are effectively appositives. Ergo, the two following sentences are functionally the same:
1: I do not believe that I
who would be Chief Engineer Ranortam alone in this assessment.2: I do not believe that I, who would be x[appositive], am alone in this assessment.
I realize that typing all these "appositives" adds a lot of extra criteria to your mental list, but if you filter them out while you read them, it may help you keep your subjects and subject verbs in agreement.
From East Horse to Alpha Horse.
Well, better an Alpha Horse than a Charley Horse*.
*shamelessly stolen from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYzRbdHvb3s
Ariel is too adorable Skirts, plz nerf.
Well, looks like the Covenant managed to at least start glassing this world. Guess that's why there's no humans on it.
Maybe someone took my earlier advice and nuked the site from orbit?
Have they been glassed? Because if orbital hellfire can't destroy them all, then they are fucked.
Only 90s kids remember?
Rainbow doesn't seem to consider that maybe Verlax was wrong. It is good to be wary, but that should not stop one from doing what is right.
11/13/2019
20:58 UTC
Damn I was kinda hoping the shrooms would be at least a little psychoactive
Sappy? Is that what they're calling it now?
Yeah, sometimes all the time in the world can't fix the deepest wounds.
Confusing forest is confusing.