Into Darkness
"Nnnngh..."
Rainbow Dash twitched.
Ranbow Dash winced.
She stirred, her limbs shuffling one by one, feeling for broken bones.
For as much as she could tell, she was in one piece. There were several scrapes marring her coat, and a bloody gash on her side, but she was anything but shattered.
A pair of ruby eyes fluttered open, and she gazed up to see a series of dangling vines entangling her limbs.
The pegasus was dangling from a wide stretch of branches, a good forty feet above the forest floor of Foxtaur. The sky above was clouded by a thick column of smoke wafting overhead. Rainbow couldn't determine where it was coming from, only that there was a loud rumbling nearby.
Tilting her head back, Rainbow Dash peered through the many thick trunks of trees beyond. She saw—or thought she saw—a big black body of a manacraft lowering down to the earth, its thrusters and hydraulics hissing to a stand-still. The world shook, then went still. Birds flapped through the leaves, skirting past her, blowing hot wind in her face.
"Nnngh... Don't..." She stirred, still dizzy, still numb all over. A blue hoof reached up and rested on her ruby pendant. "Don't leave... don't leave me..." She hissed, coughed, and sputtered. "Don't leave them..."
The dizziness took over once again. Rainbow fell into the sway of her vines, the spinning madness of the world lulling her, and she slid into dark, dark slumber.
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Updates just kept appearing as I was done with each chapter.
That was really intense.
Woop! Crazy android bounty hunter to the rescue/kidnapping!
......
):(, you must be bored, or have excess energy on hand, or maybe you just have a dam,n death wish for laying this kind of Celestia-damned cliffhanger... again!! 50 push-ups! Knock 'em out!
Well that was unexpected/
Hello Roarke, what are you gonna do now?
One of the biggest takeaways with this section is the parallel to the bout with Axan. Where as Dash was never quite "selfish" in a colloquial sense, even her selfless actions in trying to save what was left of Silvadel ended with her lamenting being alone. In this situation, has the same motives, but concludes her distaste for loneliness is as much to do with her own self as it is the well-being of her friends. It's an interesting psychological transition. Dash always was loyal, but now others have entered the forefront of her mind as opposed to lingering behind her own self-pity and emotional train wreck.
Interestingly, this jives a bit with Shell's actions over the course of the past few chapters. Where Shell is still hyper-focused, he's letting a cool sort of logic keep him from going too far over the edge. That translates into a sort of loyalty to others above himself that echos what Rainbow espouses. This loyalty, however, is still more of a guise as he seems to be simply not letting tactics be sacrificed in the name of blind rage, preferring instead to let two enemies fight it out and then take on the weakened victor. His change of heart to fuax-selflessness is also marred by his devotion to Queen and Country, a tertiary motive behind government and vengeance.
Enter Roarke.
Please, let her be like Aloysius in Scarecrow. That guy is just freakin' awesome. Appears as a bounty hunter, ends up as a bodyguard.
Scarecrow is a book by Matthew Reilly, if you're interested.
This is Australia...
2075312
I wonder how she views her current crop of friends. She has to know that they are temporary. Whether she dies soon or crosses over to the chaotic side of the world, she will leave them behind in the near future. Not only that, but the reason she met them in the first place was a quest to find the Midnight Armory, whose nebulous purpose clearly has something to do with her friends from Ponyville. Dash probably thinks that the rest of the Mane 6 are gone forever, but there has to be a small flicker of hope deep down that tells her the Armory can revive them.
Given that, does she have the same devotion to Belle and Pilate as she did to AJ and the others? The parallel with her fight against Axan is clear here, but is the underlying emotion the same? Undoubtedly, her innate loyalty drives her to think of her friends first, but in this case, does she want them around because she cares about them or because they are assisting her primary objective?
DEUS EX MACHINA
I'm apparently either a tribe or a race, I don't quite know, I also don't thinks its too good that I'm trying to figure my part in the story still...
2075378
The distinction is just that, all her previous encounters and this is the first where she's referred to her companions as friends, not just passing ponies. Rainbow's goal is to get them to a comfortable spot free from danger, I doubt she has any illusions about anything beyond that. That does not mean, however, that she can't try her best to do what she can.
I see what you're saying, but that really assumes that it is more of a help than a hindrance to have companions, especially ones who are at a genetic and physical disadvantage. Rainbow cares about them, enough to get into a fight with impossible odds. Remember what she said way back when about speeding them up as opposed to them slowing her down.
2075469
LITERALLY.
Sometime, I wish to be a part of this story.
The Spectacle Cannon? Cannon and Spectacle? Dashie's gonna have fun with that.
2075581 There's a literal "god out of the machine"?
2075589
No, but there is a literal machine from the heavens.
Wow...
Well, all things considered, that could've been quite a lot worse. Darn chaos magic, messing up Rainbow at the wrong time...nearly getting her blown to smithereens...
Another Day - Armored Saint
Odd. The end of this chapter clearly resembles the end of Austraeoh, with RD conked out and a big, flying thing near her. It does make me wonder who she's talking to, though. No one is leaving her, as of right now.
Wow, okay. It seems like I have finally caught up. Next time i suggest to put off reading 100+ chapters so that i can later read them all in one sitting, slap me, hard.
This chapter is almost certainly going to lead to dash getting captured, most likely by that Roarke character that was foreshadowed awhile back.
Chances are RD is gonna have to beat the crap out in the standard 'villainous boss battle' sorta way, but I am going to hang onto the hope that Roarke turns out to be more morally ambiguous then absolutely evil. Perhaps this Iron Mare will even side with Rainbow Dash as free radical characters often do in fiction stories.
Personally, I wouldn't mind if Rainbow's party had at least one other member besides herself that could kick some serious flank.
We shall end this now Mr.cliffhanger.
2075581
Oh, "God" might be a little too kind. But she's definitely the machine part.
SCOLON! MAY CELESTIA DAMN YOUR CLIFFHANGERS TO THE CENTER OF THE NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL!!!
Great chapters, though, and really looking forward to more. As of writing, Eljunbyro has a like:dislike ratio of 28:1, so congrats. Also, if this is anything like Austraeoh, then we are officially three-quarters of the way through Eljunbyro.
2075488 Don't worry, we'll either be awesome bad guys, or awesome good guys, so we're cool either way.
I have no idea if this will turn out in dashies favor or not but I hope dash will get back on track as soon as possible. If she starts getting the chaos spells sooner and sooner she is gonna have a very difficult time getting to the end of the world...
Lets hope this bounty hunter has a heart!
If not...
Here, he can have this one
Don't ask where I got it from...
The roarke in the machine
2076984 atleast we saved dashie from sudden death
I don't really know what to say to that.
Blub.
Well, I don't know what that chapter meant. Perhaps it's the rowdiness of the people around me. (Boarding school. Woo.)
Pfffffffff..... well....
Onwards!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So...really nothing happens here. I suppose it's significant that Dash thought of her friends as well as herself in a moment of peril, but that's it. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
So, here she is again, facing the threat of separation.
You know, despite the imminent kidnapping, I can see Roarke and Dash possibly hitting it off. Then again, they're both pretty alpha-ish, so maybe they'll end up hating each other's guts. Hard to say.
And poor Dash, always being separated from her friends. Pilate and Belle are probably having kittens back at the ruins. Who's supposed to fend off all the evil monsters infesting them, now? (because, lets be serious, ain't no way there are ruins without monsters. I'm pretty sure there's a rule for that written down somewhere).
2075312 But this time, it's different. The roles were clear back in Austraeoh: it was Axan leaving, Dash being left alone. But don't leave them? If she means her current friends, who is it that is leaving them? Or does she mean her former friends? Is she adressing the Element of Loyalty, and if she does, why would she be afraid of it leaving them and not her? Or maybe she's even talking to the fleeing birds - then what the heck would that mean?
oh well. Honeytiger has nothing to say here.
well, 50 chapters left. that took a long time. Half of it is of course reading the comments you guys leave.
Oh no. She's not going to die, but she is being kidnapped...
Again... 
EDIT: 3/4 done!
Don't worry, Dash. It's only a flesh wound.
Hm, now what does this chapter remind me remind me of?
3/4 into the story and Dash is just hanging out.
Neat.
350 down, so damn many to go.