Personal History
The group was escorted by the silent warriors to the steps of the Council buildings, before they smartly turned and left the group alone. Staring out at the horizon, Rainbow hot her first proper look at the Craftworld.
To say it was large was an understatement. Canterlot was large, Cloudsdale was impressive, but this, this was on a whole ‘nother scale.
As far as the eye could see were towers and spires, stretching far beyond the grasp of gravity, and weaving intricate shapes that seemed to defy any laws that governed how buildings should be able to stand up. In between the mighty spires flitted innumerable dots that could just be made out to be red in colouration, punctuated by slightly larger, and slower, crafts that reminded Rainbow of The Ishas’ Maiden, as well as the craft that she had been in when the seer council had summoned her and her friends.
Looking over at the Exodites, Rainbow saw that they were having a slightly toned back version of her own amazement.
“Haven’t you guys ever been on here before?” Rainbow asked, scratching her head in confusion, “You all seemed to know so much about this place.”
“Elarique and Talvan were some of the only Eldar on the planet who were from off world originally.” Egarion explained, tearing her eyes away from the view in front of her and looking down at Rainbow. “Both of them came from here, but gave it all up to live on Hannibal. I never questioned why they didn’t want to stay at their home, and now I’m even more confused. Giving all of this,” She gestured to the Craftworld, “up, just to live on a glorified farming planet.”
“You know why they did it.” Dorgolmar said happily, “It was ‘cause they didn’t want to leave us.”
“He left before he met idiot.” Aranel said exasperatedly.
“Oh yeah.” Dorgolmar said, sounding crest-fallen. “Well, I’m out of ideas then.”
“No surprise there.” Muttered Egarion.
“What do we do now then?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t know what Talvan wanted, but Elarique always said that when he died, he wanted his soulstone placed in the ‘Forest of Ghosts’, whatever that is.” Aranel said.
“That’s that then.” Rainbow said, “Let’s find this ‘Forest of Ghosts and put…” She trailed off, before resuming slowly. “Put Elariques’ soul to rest.”
“You really are taking this hard, aren’t you?” Aranel asked, crouching down and looking directly into Rainbows’ eyes.
“He…he saved me. If it wasn’t for him I would have died minutes after I woke up. Then he treated me like an Eldar, not just a ‘thing’ to be looked down at. And then. And then he gave his life to protect me. I just wish it didn’t come to that.” Rainbow said, tears forming in her eyes.
“He wouldn’t have done that for just anyone.” Aranel said, pulling Rainbow into a hug, “He truly cared about you, did you know that?”
“No, *sniff*, I thought he was just nice to everyone.”
“Ha. Elarique? Sure.” Dorgolmar laughed, before being silenced by Egarion.
Sniffing some more, Rainbow eventually broke off the hug that she and Aranel had been sharing, and allowed the once-Exodite to stand back up.
“So how do we get to the Forest of Ghosts then?” Rainbow asked.
“I believe there is a transport system on the Craftworld. It will be as good a place as any to look I guess.” Aranel said, looking around, before turning back to the group. “Let’s go that way.” He pointed in a seemingly random direction.
“Why that way? And for that matter, who put you in charge?” Egarion asked.
“No one, but unless we’re just going to stand here, we might as well move. As for direction, I’ve got no idea. So we might as well walk. We’ll have to stumble across it, or someone who can tell us where it is, eventually.”
With a nod, the group began walking in the direction that Aranel had indicated. Passing by mighty statues of Eldar heroes as they descended the massive amount of stairs outside of the council chamber. Finally reaching the bottom, the group wandered through the courtyard, before catching sight of another Eldar, garbed in a simple Red tunic.
“Excuse me.” Aranel asked, walking up to the Eldar. “My friends and I were wondering if you could point us in the direction of a transport system.”
“And you are?” The Eldar asked.
“Aranel, of Hannibal. My friends, Egarion and Dorgolmar of Hannibal and Rainbow Dash of Equestria.”
“Ah yes. I heard tales that we picked up the last survivors of that world. Keep your pet on a leash or find it put down. In answer to your question, the Cross-hub shuttle is over there.” The Eldar said, pointing to the opposite side of the courtyard, before turning and stalking off.
“I almost died for the Eldar and I’m still just a pet.” Rainbow said, grinding her teeth.
“Eldar on the whole are sceptical of other species. Give them time, and prove that you are more than just another unsophisticated alien.” Egarion comforted, walking towards the area that the shuttle was.
Keeping quiet, but silently brooding about how unfair everything was, Rainbow allowed Aranel to lead her to the shuttle vault beneath the courtyard, which a small glyph identified as the Crescent of the Dawning age. As the group descended yet more stairs, they emerged onto a wide platform, which was almost completely empty, occupied by only a handful of Eldar, who all moved away from the group as if they would catch an imaginary disease. Looking at the group, Rainbow saw what was the obvious difference between her group and the Eldar on the platform.
All the other Eldar were wearing normal clothes, ranging from a long flowing black dress, to more practical looking green and red tunics. The Exodites and Rainbow on the other hand looked like they had been put through a meat grinder, which she guessed in a way they had. Each one of the group wore some type of armour, ranging from the chestplate and helmet that Rainbow wore, to the intricate greaves tha Dorgolmar wore, which still bore the ash from his flamer. In fact, if it wasn’t for the civilised surrounding that they were in, Rainbow guessed that they could quite easily be garbed for an upcoming battle.
Rainbow pushed the thoughts out of her mind as a soft hum heralded the arrival of the shuttle, pulsing from within the tunnel way from the left before it actually pulled into view, coming to a halt alongside the platform. Rainbow and the others looked in awe at the chain of sleek, bullet shaped compartments hovering un-assisted just above a central rail, before shaking their heads and moving towards the shuttle.
Finding an empty carriage, Rainbow and the rest of the group entered, and sat down inside, waiting for the shuttle to move again. They didn’t have to wait long, as the shuttle smoothly accelerated into the blue-tinted lights of the tunnel, rapidly picking up speed until the lights outside were nothing but a blur. In-spite of herself, Rainbow found that she was just waiting for the familiar explosion of colours that heralded anything that moved at these speeds, but to no avail, as the shuttle continued along un-interupted by any explosions of light.
Eventually, the group found themselves outside a set of intricate white gates, which responded to their touch by swinging open, and allowing the group entrance into the Forest of Ghosts.
The Forest itself was not what Rainbow had expected. Instead of the vast seas of green trees that Rainbow associated with the word forest, there was simply a large expanse of the same gleaming floors, punctuated by what she guessed could be called a ‘forest’ of wraithbone spires. Winding their way through the spikes of psycho-plastic, the group made their way to the center of the forest, coming into a large clearing dominated by the colossal wraithbone obelisk in its center.
As the group neared the obelisk, Rainbow felt a subtle whispering in her mind, but was unable to make anything out other than just a dim gaggle of voices in the back of her mind. When they reached the obelisk, Rainbow spotted a small alcove near the bottom and called the others over to it.
“Reckon that’s where we put the Spirit stone?” Dorgolmar asked.
“I’m guessing so. I don’t know how this works.” Aranel replied, withdrawing the glowing red stone from a pouch on his leg.
Slowly, almost reverently, Aranel placed the Spirit stone into the niche, before stepping back and returning to the group.
“Someone should say something.” Rainbow said simply, staring at what was once the very essence of her first friend in this universe.
“He wouldn’t want us to. He was never big on ceremony.” Aranel replied, bowing his head in respect.
The group stood in silence, watching sombrely as the red stone began to glow less and less, before it simply ceased to glow completely, leaving behind a dull red ruby-like stone in place of the brightly shining Spirit stone that had been placed within a moment before.
Walking over, Rainbow retrieved the stone, bringing it back over to the group.
“What do we do with this now?” She asked
“You should keep it. It’s what he would have wanted.” Egarion answered softly.
“Nonono, I couldn’t do that. I mean, I only knew him for a couple of weeks at most, you guys knew him for years.” Rainbow said quickly, thrusting the stone out for someone else to take.
“Try hundreds of years.” Dorgolmar muttered.
“Even more reason for you to take it. One of you must have been more important than me to him.” Rainbow insisted.
“Rainbow, in the ten days you were on Hannibal, I saw a different side of Elarique.” Aranel said, “In the four hundred and seventeen years I knew him, I never remember Elarique smiling, or laughing, or talking to anyone sociably other than Talvan. He always saw himself as above the rest of the Exodites on the planet.”
“Wait, you knew him for four hundred and seventeen years? How old are you guys?” Rainbow asked incredulously, the stone in her hoof momentarily forgotten.
“Five hundred and seven.” Aranel answered.
“Eight hundred and ninety five.” Egarion said softly.
“Two thousand and…something.” Dorgolmar said in an absent minded tone, causing Rainbow to look even more astonished.
“How old?” She asked, picking her jaw up from where it had crashed open.
“Two thousand and seventy I think. I honestly can’t be bothered to remember exactly.” Dorgolmar said.
“You’re the oldest?” Rainbow asked, still sounding astonished.
“Yeah. He’s older than all of us. Older than Talvan and Elarique to.” Aranel answered before Dorgolmar could open his mouth, “Although you wouldn’t guess it from how he acts.”
“So how old are you Rainbow?” Egarion asked inquisitively.
“Twenty one.” Rainbow said simply.
“Wow. That’s…young. How long do you usually live for?” Aranel asked.
“Pegasi usually live about to about one hundred, unicorns are slightly longer and Earth ponies and slightly shorter lived. I always thought that the princesses had been around for a long time.” Rainbow said.
“How long have they been around for?” Aranel asked, sounding genuinely interested.
“Well, the first records of Celestia and Luna were when they beat Discord, which was about two thousand years ago.” Rainbow answered, still acutely aware of the stone in her hoof.
“Ha. That’s nothing. Eldrad Ulthran was over ten thousand when he died.” Dorgolmar said with a laugh, “and Asdrubael Vect is even older, and he’s still alive.”
Rainbow stood completely still, her mouth hanging open as a glazed look over took her eyes.
***
Canterlot Castle
***
“Did you…did you say they were over Ten THOUSAND?!” Twilight asked incredulously.
“Yeah, trust me, I still have trouble wrapping my head around that.” Rainbow replied.
The entire group looked at the Rainbow maned mare in shock, before she opened her mouth and continued her tale.
***
Saim-Hann
***
“Dorgolmar, I think you broke her.” Aranel said, poking Rainbow and receiving no response.
“huuuh…buuh…what?” Rainbow stammered eventually.
“Eldrad. Ulthran. And. Asdrubael. Vect. Are. Old.” Dorgolmar said extremely slowly.
“But that’s not possible. I mean, don’t stars die out before that?” Rainbow asked.
“Not really.” Aranel replied, “And why don’t you go and tell Vect that he can’t exist. I’m sure he would be most pleased to know.”
Lapsing into silence, Rainbow contemplated the fact that a creature could actually live for that long. She was suddenly snapped back to reality by a burning sensation in her hoof. Looking down at it she saw she was still holding the empty soul stone.
“If you guys knew him for that long, one of you needs to take it.”
“Rainbow. He cared about you.” Egarion said. “I’ll let you in on something. You know the tale of the fall, don’t answer I know he told you. That tale is usually a closely guarded secret to anyone outside of the Eldar. For him to have told you, he must have seen something in you that the rest of us still haven’t. What that may be, I don’t know. But I trust his judgement, even if I didn’t see eye to eye with him on everything.”
With that, Egarion stood back up and turned to the group.
“But…” Rainbow started.
“I’ll hear no more on the subject Rainbow. You will keep it safe and you will accept it, for him.” Egarion said tersely. “Now come on, we’ve got to figure out where we can fit in around here.”
The Exodites began to walk away, leaving Rainbow standing by the Obelisk, tears forming in her eyes. ‘Had he really thought that highly of her? And if he had, what could she do now that he had died to protect her?’
“I’m not coming.” She said softly, causing the Exodites to stop.
“What?” Aranel asked, coming back over to her.
“I said I’m not coming with you guys at the moment. I need some time to clear my head.”
Before anyone could stop her, she flapped her wings and took to the sky, leaving the perplexed Eldar alone in the Forest of Ghosts.
Exams are finished. 
Hopefully this means I can get back to writing.
Stats
Page generated in 0.033 seconds
Total duration
847 users online
1,628,499 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Is this suidi Arabia now?
It's over NINE THOUSAND!!!
2698479
Fixed the stoning.
And no, Saim-Hann is not Saudi. That would be Ulthwe
Great to see you Updating. Cant wait for more.
I hope rainbow dont get herself into to much trouple and still find the others on that flying metropolis.
Silly writer Eldrad isn't dead
2698806
I thought he was:
(Lexicanum)
2698831
I believe that the recent Eldar codex retconned it.
Hasn't the 13th Black Crusade been retconned to not have happened yet? So Eldrad may or may not die anyway. *shrug*
2699016
Haven't read the new codex yet. I've got it though. I'll check before I make any other comments on the fluff.
2698831 All merely part of his plan, he's actually chilling in the webway drinking martinis.
2699092
Eldrad Ulthran is, as the NSFW sprinkled site 1d4chan said, a dick.
Also Story time:
Rainbow fought and bribed her way to get to this place, to arrive at this moment.
So, filled with courage, she stepped up to Vect's throne and told him to his face, "You shouldn't exist."
Asdrubael Vect simply blinked at that and dissapeared promptly in a puff of logic.
"Well this was easy", thought Rainbow Dash and proved that black equals white and got run over back on the craftworld.
2698479 Argh, I hate it when people say "It's over nine thousand" IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY!
2700820
you, you must die 
joking. I didn't mean it to be funny
2701423 if you watch DBZ than it is never funny
2701869 I don't watch it....
*cough cough* at this time... wish i could be of a help... also... keep up the work
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/325/887/1c3.jpg
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/22212416/images/1356431414772.png
2706056>>2705989
Alright alright. I get the message. I won't upload a new chapter until Spacelord is feeling up to editing it.
Edit.
Fixed now
2702525 Main reason you said it, if you do watch it than you never would've said it lol
2699092>>2700714
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7ar9cg04W1qcs7kp.gif
2707093 hey isn't that the one where one of The Doctors old companions is a contestant and she doesn't know any Doctor Who trivia?
2700714
I Like this idea.
2707125
2709216 that's it!
Good News Everyone! I'm not sick anymore, and should be back to work in the assistance of editing by some time the author feels like it.
Also, for those of you who are new, I am the editor of this story!
On a final note, It feels good not the be coughing every Five Minutes.
-Ven
2808365
Glad you're back. Been away for a couple of weeks, so sorry abput the tardiness of this reply.
should be starting work on the next chapter soon.
Rainbow hot her first proper look at the Craftworld
He left before he met idiot
Older than Talvan and Elarique to
1. Got.
2. We.
3. Too.
2698479
