After the group had gathered their supplies, there were just enough loose pieces of the Gondola left to form two separate piles of compact golden shards. The bars and lengths of shrapnel were arranged to look as geometrically perfect as possible. They stood out amidst the dead flat desolation of the World's Edge, and the nebulaic starlight from beyond the firmaments glittered off the metallic surfaces so that they were visible for hundreds of meters in all directions.
Kepler was putting on the finishing touches to a series of words etched across a round chunk of stone. The chunk of granite rested on the top of the rightmost "monument," and in the dim twilight it read: "In memory of Johnny "Bard" – friend, husband, father, hero."
The two sleds—including the one Seraphimus lay on—had been assembled and rested a few meters away from the pair of monuments. Rainbow Dash, Ariel, Logan, Flynn, and Wildcard all stood in a neat line. Rainbow's ghostly companions hovered around their anchor—somber and silent.
At last, Kepler finished carving the words. He stepped back from the golden piles and wiped his brow. "Haaaa... therre, my frriends." He pointed at his work. "Surrely, those who might happen upon this arrrangement in the futurre will know that therre has been a divine purrpose to it all..."
"It's very nice, Kepler," Rainbow said with a nod.
The wyvern turned around, his spectacles reflecting her deadpan expression. "I am sorrry that we could not find a larrge enough stone to place upon Axan's 'monument.' If you would allow me some time to scourr the nearrby landscape, I'm cerrtain that I could find—"
"No, Kepler," Rainbow exclaimed through a sigh. "We can't stay out here forever. Besides..." She gazed forlornly in the direction of Axan's large, unmoving corpse between there and the gondola. "...she was never one for words... or any sort of ceremony."
"Unless stomping on poor defenseless blue pegasi is her idea of a ceremony—" Pinkie began, but then received an orange slap to the top of her ghostly head. She shifted gears, immediately smiling. "But that was several novels ago! So who's counting?!"
Rarity cleared her throat, then smiled at Rainbow. "I think—in Axan's case—her actions speak for her."
"Yes, Rainbow," Twilight Sparkle added. "If she ever wanted a monument... you're it."
"Hoo boy..." Rainbow's wings drooped as she mumbled: "No pressure there."
Ariel craned her neck, speaking to Kepler. "I think this is a marvelous job you've accomplished here, Kepler. Bard would appreciate it."
"Yeah, way to go, Keps," Logan said, leaning on his axe. "Sure as Hell a better grave than he ever would have gotten back at Blue's Ranch."
"Tchyaa..." Flynn nodded. "Too bad we couldn't bury him here to. I think he'd be super happy to be as far away from that place as possible."
"There you have it!" Ariel smiled. "In a way, he got his wish."
Dead silence.
Ariel sighed. "Okay... it still sucks..."
Flynn cleared his throat. "A modicum of sanctity, please. Is that so much to ask for?"
"I dunno, baldy." Logan smirked. "Bard believed in doing things smoothly, but he rarely ever accomplished it."
"Big Show..."
"What? You're going to tell me he wasn't ever a total clusterbuck at times?!" Logan swung a hoof in the air. "Remember that one time he defeated the arsonists in Pine Prefecture by burning down half the town?"
"It was an abandoned town—"
"And then when chasing pirates off the gulf of Silt Prefecture, he got the bright idea of sitting Ariel on a rock and playing music from behind a shipwreck and convincing them that she was an intoxicating siren..."
Wildcard exhaled sharply. A smile formed beneath his beak.
"See?!" Logan pointed, smiling brilliantly. "Hah! He remembers!"
Ariel folded her forelimbs with a pout. "It wasn't so funny at the time..."
"Well, it sure as Hell worked, didn't it?"
"I swear... I've never kicked so much pirate groin in my life..."
"And don't get me started on that Rust Syndicate crap." Logan looked over at Rainbow. "Tell me—how many dozens of ways did you nearly screw up the raid of the Northern Hoof's vault?"
Rainbow fought the urge to chuckle. "You can't put that all on Bard. A lot of Rust was me half-assing it."
Wildcard conducted an invisible melody in the air with his right talon.
"Wildcard has a point, darling," Rarity said. "If it weren't for Bard distracting Revan with his handsome charm, you and Wildcard wouldn't have been able to make any progress whatsoever."
Twilight squinted at the ghostly fashionista. "The way you say it makes it sound like Bard was seducing the leader of the Northern Hoof."
"And who says it wasn't, hmmmm?" Rarity batted her eyelashes.
"Eugh..."
"Ahem..." Rainbow looked up. "I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if it weren't for Bard." She caught sight of Wildcard's goggles shifting in her direction. "I mean—yeah—we all know who can really clear a room and take names, but—no offense Wildcard—Bard's charisma and swagger and big-brother-ness is what actually caught my attention and made me listen to the Desperados' case to begin with—" Her words dissipated as a pained expression overwhelmed her muzzle. Her ears drooped hard as she whimpered: "He was my brother. A shuddering breath. "The big brother I never had..."
Sniffling, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie hovered close to Rainbow. They couldn't hug her, but their proximity was the next best thing.
Rainbow rubbed her cheek dry and sighed. "Nicole's lucky. And... and it's a good thing..." She nodded to the stars. "...it's a very good thing that she got to meet him for one last time. And now... she's heading towards a better place." A swallow. "As are we."
Flynn looked up at that—but he said nothing.
Logan cleared his throat. "I know I'm probably the last person to suggest this sort of a thing... but I'm guessing a moment of silence would be pretty damn appropriate. Huh?" He looked at the others. "For both Bard and the dragon matriarch?"
"Capital choice, brrotherr," Kepler said... and proceeded to hang his head.
There was sudden movement. The group observed Wildcard shuffling forward. Gripping Bard's staff in his good talon, the remaining Desperado knelt before the rightmost pile of alicorn metal. The blood on the rod had long lost its glow by now.
Soon, Ariel fluttered forward and landed at Wildcard's side. She engulfed the griffin in a soft hug from behind, and together the two paid their silent respects to their dear friend.
Rainbow Dash looked on. She knew that she should have been hanging her head and giving the entire moment to Bard. But—for whatever reason—she couldn't. After all, neither did Bard.
Rainbow's vision swam across her surroundings—or more specifically the faces of those lingering around her. Logan was the most serious and deadpan she had ever seen him. Kepler—of course—composed himself with the usual grace and well-practiced dignity. Flynn looked anxious and more than a little bit sad. Wildcard—as always—was frighteningly unreadable. Rainbow felt her heartbeat growing heavier as her vision dwelled on him. But then all it took was the comforting image of Ariel hugging the Desperado to put her at ease. The pegasus was emotional as always, tearing over a bittersweet smile as she nuzzled Wildcard's neck. Off in the distance—still aside from steady breathing—was Seraphimus' bound figure. A cold shudder ran through Rainbow Dash, and it was around that point that the moment of silence ended.
Wildcard stood up with aid of Bard's staff. Silently—with mute grace—he collapsed the weapon entirely... then stuck it into a pouch of his bandolier. The one closest to his heart. He turned to look at Ariel and waggled a few of his talon's claws.
Ariel looked over him at Kepler. "Wildcard's wondering how sturdy these monuments are."
"Oh! They'll last quite the long time, most assurrredly!" Kepler said.
Ariel exhaled while Wildcard breathed with relief. "That's nice, Kepler," the pegasus said.
"I mean... surrely not forreverr," Kepler digressed, staring at the Edge of the World and the lightning brimming beyond. "This close to the Firrmaments, a tempestuous gale is bound to blow some of the golden sharrds off theirr foundation within a few centurries, and of courrse therre's the crreeping rravenous hand of entrropy—"
"That's nice, Kepler," Flynn growled.
Kepler froze in place, smiling nervously. "They'll last severral lifetimes! Ha-Hah! No worrries!"
Logan sighed long and hard, although it was through a smile. "What did I tell ya?" Pivoting on the handle of his axe, he turned to look at Rainbow. "Any final words you wanna say in Remn—erm... in Axan's memory?"
Rainbow gulped. "I... think I've said all that needs to be said."
"You won't get another opportunity like this, Rainbow," Flynn added.
"Don't think like yer doin' it for Axan, sugarcube," Applejack suggested. "Think of it like yer doin' it for yerself."
"Applejack's right, Rainbow." Fluttershy nodded. "If there's anything to get off your chest, then now's the time. It's okay."
Rainbow stood up straight. "Well then... okay." She trotted towards the leftmost monument and stiffened her muscles. "Just... I hadn't prepared anything..."
"Speak from the gut, Dashie!" Pinkie chirped. "You can do it!"
"Very well." Rainbow took on a proud stance. "Axan, the Divine Matriarch of Flame, was nothing short of the very paragon of—"
Just then... there was a grotesque, blood-curdling shifting sound echoing from the location of Axan's corpse.
"... ... ..." Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "...the crap?"
Pinkie Pie's nose scrunched. "Well, that wasn't a very nice eulogy."
"Pinkie, you dolt!" Rarity hissed. "Something amidst Axan's remains is moving."
"Oh gosh!" Fluttershy hid behind Applejack. "What could it be?"
"Rainbow?" Ariel hovered over. "What's the matter?"
"Guh..." Twilight winced, her horn suddenly glowing. "I'm sensing a sudden energy surge! Ancient... ancient magic!"
"What in tarnation?" Applejack offered.
There was a final shifting of movement. Rainbow and her friends looked over to see something small rolling out of a bloody pocket within Axan's corpse.
"Uhhhhhh..." Rainbow moved away from the monument and towards Axan's body. "...something just rolled out of her..."
The Herald followed cautiously behind.
DRAGON EGG?
OH MAN I HOPE IT'S A DRAGON EGG THAT WOULD BE THE LITERAL BEST PLEASE BE A DRAGON EGG.
I DON'T EVEN CARE IF IT'S LIKE HER REINCARNATING OR JUST ONE LAST EGG. JUST. BABY DRAGON ON THE DARK SIDE. PLEASE. BABY DRAGON PLEASE.
Uhhh....wait...what?
Is...is that supposed to be an egg or something?
What the fuck
....so lemme guess...
Axan, and her body died.
But now Remna's alive again, the real Remna, somehow cured by the Divine's power as she transformed back to her draconic state.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Uhhh ok then, this should be interesting.
durandal.dnsalias.net/imgur/WIzsFJA.jpg
E: IF IT'S AN EGG THEN I WILL EAT 10 EGGS
Is it an egg? Or what I'm seriously confused....
It's Roarke, she fired herself out of a cannon at Axan way back and was trapped in her true body. Now she is free!
Oh, well, that's only horrifying.
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When your chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
and this'll
Help things turn out for the best
And
Always look on the bright side of life
(whistle)
Always look on the liiight side of life
(whistle).........
(Monty Python, Life of Brian)
And then Axan's corpse just had to ruin the moment
*deep breath* Alright, so instead of complaining about the things that hacked me off about Bard's death and his actions leading up to it, out of respect I'll say what I remember liking about the guy. He was usually the one to actually bring to levity to things, and while he was the first to come down on Dash about the Quade and took longer than Wildcard to forgive her for it, once he did there wasn't any question of him backing Dash up. I could question a lot of things about Bard, but loyalty wasn't one of them. So fuck it, rest in peace dammit, but I'm still going to stay mad at you for awhile.
And while we're doing this while shtick, rest in peace to all of the characters, nameless Central Guard and sarosians, who also ended up dead due to Verlax's bullshit. You all might be nameless to the readers, but that doesn't mean you didn't matter. And fuck it, rest in peace Chandler, because you got screwed over as much as any other Rohbreddenite caught up in Verlax's scheming and I'm not going to be a hypocrite and act like folk like Chrysalis and Seraphimus deserve second chances but you didn't.
And yeah, Axan, would've liked to see you stick around a while longer. You had a special talent for pissing me off, but you really did seem to be getting better towards the end there.
So that all said, what the hell just popped out of you? People are already saying 'egg', and hey, crazier things have happened. That would probably complicate the journey having to carrying around a helpless dragonegg, but Dash with her own Spike sounds interesting too. But seriously, when did Axan boink anyone?
discogenie.dyndns.org/Austraeoh/8703921956_5465835a22_z.jpg
Born from a dragon on the far darkside.
Congratulations Rainbow.
You're a mother.
GUYS ITS NOT an 🍳 it's a chaos Emerald
8226528
When you've said it right, you've said it right.
well then...
Maybe she is like a phoenix, and she becomes reborn after she dies. To be honest, we have no idea how death works with the divines other than that they die eventually normally and that they can be killed. We have never stuck around very long after the death of a divine, and Nevlamas doesn't count because of how messed up she was. She was hardly dragon at that point.
But I am going to be honest, I am completely, utterly clueless. I cannot even begin to guess what this is or is supposed to mean. Nice job throwing a curve ball at us, ):(.
Omg!
What the buck just...
😱
It's the real Remna! She was imprinted against Axan for her form!
All these feels and mysterious happenings, and all I can think about is that Rarity can apparently understand Wildcard's sign language.
...It's an egg isn't it?
So... Axan is a Digimon. She reverts to an egg when she dies.
Find out tomorrow what this is...
8226528
Your comment and avatar are perfect for what happened
8226824
Yeah, my thoughts exactly! Though I guess if you're a ghost, you'd probably have plenty of time to observe and learn talon sign language...
Cmon guys, this the communication stone, remember? (At least, I think it is).
If it is, I wonder what happened to Endrax's one? Either it didn't come out of her body, she deactivated it somehow, or there's been someone with it listening to dragon conversations the whole time...
Anyway, it's nice that they won't be cut off completely from the light side - I guess they'll be talking to Sturke.
I gotta say, this kinda reminds me of Eragon, what with rocks being inside dragons and all.
8226612
Upvoted just for that.
True to herself, Axan disrupts any eulogies even after death.
Um. Wtf?
Huh... even in death Axan's a buzzkill.
Wat
8226967
At first I thought this was an egg too, but this makes a lot more sense.
So finally we can learn a bit more about the west expedition and they might start to prepare a return path for Rainbow somehow. This is gonna be interesting.
Sadly no baby dragons :( But it would have been the worst time and place to raise a baby dragon anyway.
Axan, dragon divine, paragon of the crap. Could be worse for a grave.
No idea about the object, but Twilight's line about ancient magic sounds important here.
.... huh.
well this is interesting
Facehugger time!!
The communication stone make more sense, but I still want a cute baby dragon !
Ow.
I suppose I'll also guess that whatever came out of Axan is an egg, cause I'm not sure what the heck else it could be.
RIP Bard and Axan. I'll miss Axan's deadpan and Bard's... everything. God damn...
8226967
Wait, was the communication stone just a really powerfully enchanted crystal, or something inherent to the Divines? Because the former, at least, wouldn't really explain Twilight saying this:
That doesn't really sound like a simple sound stone, even if it is powerful enough to reach all the way across the plane. If it's directly tied to being a Divine, then that would make sense, but I think the egg theory's plausible too. That, or some other kind of Weird Magic Stuff involving Divine Dragons and/or the Dark Side.
To the Bard! To Ember.
Whatever it is, IC clearly has plans for it, otherwise it wouldn't have been mentioned.
SHE'S ALIVE!!!!
...I think...?
Damnit, Ponk!
A Monument to all her Sins..
........
There is a thing!!!
Well, this is definitely a bit of a surprise. Hopefully it ends up important and... not trying to kill them all. Maybe it's another dragon? Being pregnant is a hell of a twist.
~SolidFire
Uh oh...
I love Kepler.
Also, what in the fresh hell is going on with Axan? Egg? 🥚
8226852
Well. Somber and melancholy to be certain, but very well done. This feels natural, and given the nature of what's to come, its good to see this type of thing handled well. Now we just have to hope that-
Wait wat?
8226595
I'd kill to make that real.
8226967
That...would actually be great. Here's hoping.
Phew, finally caught back up! I'm glad we're back in business.
So, I'm assuming this is Axan's Dragonstone... which is pretty spiffy, because apparently those things work across sides of the plane. If Rainbow can use it, it'll probably let her talk with Sturke and Cadance... or possibly even act as some sort of buffer for her Luna enchantment, like how Cadance rebuilt her crown that let her communicate with Equestria using her own alicorn powers.
If RD could get Luna to talk here, on the Dark Side... that would be really, really incredible. She'd actually be able to make friends with the sarosians. Maybe. I hope.
Rarity learned to translate Wildcard? This could be remarkably useful.