Yup Yup Yup
A sickly crunch echoed across the tiny concrete niche.
"Mmmfh...mrrmmff..." Kera chewed and chewed, squatting over a tin case full of legless grasshoppers. "Y'all want some? Mmmf! They got some sun so they're extra crispy!"
Phoenix smiled nervously and said, "I... do believe we are fine, Miss Meh."
"It's Mehjj!" The filly frowned. "What, are you deaf?"
"Uhhh..."
"And didn't I tell you to call me 'Kera?'"
"Hey, did you...?" Bellesmith spoke up, blinking. "Uhm..." The adult mare was standing by the alcove's edge, gazing directly out upon the mana-lit street at fetlock-level. A thin space afforded her a glance at Blue Nova's mightier spires in the distance. "Did you ponies hear something?"
Kera took another crunching bite. Phoenix glanced over at the foal before returning a thin-eyed gaze at Belle. "Nothing unusual for a hole in the ground like this."
"Mmmf—Hey!" Kera glanced up, frowning. She spat out a segmented leg and barked, "You want I should make a hole in your face!"
"I seriously doubt you could, kid."
"Older colts have lost their teeth for saying much less!"
Belle blinked. "Is there a storm passing through? I heard thunder... or something like it..."
"Ms. Belle...?"
"Nothing. I'm just..." Belle sighed and ran a hoof through nonexistent bangs. "I'm tired. So very tired."
"Well, why didn't ya say so?!" Kera used a beam of telekinesis to fling a moth-eaten canvas blanket in the mare's direction. "Roll up and catch yourself some z's, lady! There's no rent in this hotel! Ha!"
Belle took the blanket graciously. She paused, however, and leaned forward to squint at the fabric. She spotted several bulbous pale things crawling up and down the material.
"It's best to let some of the ticks suck your blood," Kera said from the other end of the infested blanket. "They'll make for a finer breakfast in the morning."
Belle shuddered and immediately rolled the thing up. "I do believe I have some strength in me to last a while longer." She slide the item out of sight. "Thanks anyways."
Kera shrugged. "Your loss." She bit into another grasshopper, dusted her hooves off, and closed the tin case. "Better get used to your new lap of luxury. Things don't get shiny on their own. You gotta work to make 'em bright, if ya know what I'm saying."
Belle exchanged quiet glances with Phoenix before clearing her throat. "Ahem. Kera, I... I have to ask you—"
"No, I haven't."
Belle blinked. "'No, you haven't' what?"
"Ever murdered a pony," Kera said.
Even Phoenix blanched at that. "The heck made you think she was gonna ask that, kid?"
"Because my magic is so awesome, I'm suprised y'all think I haven't summoned a meteor onto this whole town by now!"
"Would you want to?!" Belle remarked, suppressing a smile.
"If it'd get me bits, I'd smash anything!" Kera slapped a hoof against her pale chest. "What, you think I haven't got it in me?! Just you wait and see! Why, just last Friday, I summoned a flame giraffe!"
"A flame giraffe..." Phoenix droned.
"Yuppers!"
"I do not think you have it in your capacity to summon a flame giraffe," Belle said with a subtle grin.
"Bite your tongue! You check this out!" Kera leaned forward, tensing her face. "Nnnngh! Hhhhhhhnnngh!" Her tattoos glowed and sparkled from top to bottom. The tip of her horn shimmered with blue light, then went dim. "Ummf!" She collapsed onto her chest, panting. "Ungh... okay, so maybe there won't be a flame giraffe today." She gulped. "But I think I just went to the bathroom inside myself." She glanced up with a nervous expression. "Is that possible?"
"It never happened to me, Kera."
"Pffft. Whatever." Kera sat up and rubbed her petite little chin. "Maybe I dreamed about summoning a flame giraffe. I did eat a lot of rhinoceros beetles that evening..."
Meanwhile, Belle quietly turned her head to gaze at the child's flank. A mess of cyclical tattoos strategically covered the filly's coat where a cutie mark might appear. Under the dim shadow of night, it was too hard to see much of anything as it was.
"Kera, were you... I mean..." Belle took a deep breath and managed to say, "Were you ever inside the Nightshade Industries skyscraper?"
"We both were, weren't we?"
"No, darling. We weren't," Belle remarked in a gentle voice. "I mean to say that I wasn't. Nor was Mr. Phoenix here. This is our first time in Blue Nova ever."
Kera stared awkwardly at Belle, her head tilted to the side, her mouth hanging slightly open.
"Does this surprise you?" Belle remarked.
Kera's eyes squinted even harder than they previously were. "Nopony's ever called me 'darling' before."
Belle blinked.
"Well, not here, at least..." Kera unrolled the infested blanket and laid it out across the ground. "And certainly not at Madame Nutshade's place."
"What were you doing there, if I may ask?"
"Pffft. Saving my horn, for one!"
"Saving your horn?" Belle paused. She felt the stub at the end of her forehead with a soft hoof. Biting her lip, she hesitantly asked, "Were they... doing things to your body?"
"Ha! You kidding?" Kera grinned. "I was too fast for them! My parents didn't hold me back! Where I came from, I could toss stones over rooftops without lifting a single stupid hoof!"
"And summon flame giraffes," Phoenix added.
"You shut your face!" Kera squeaked, frowning. "I've gotten more powerful since then! I bet I could tosses houses over stones—or maybe into you!"
"Sounds like a good time."
"Phoenix..." Belle glared aside.
"What?" Phoenix shrugged, smirking. "I genuinely wanna see her do something like that. The kid's got a lot of spunk."
"Nah, no boring, cruddy building could ever hold me," Kera said. Stifling a yawn, she spun in three circles then squatted down on the blanket. "I bolted out of that place as quickly as I could. If the others couldn't make it—pffft—that's cuz they weren't strong enough."
Belle did a double-take. "Wait... there are others?"
"Yup. Well, at least I'm guessing. They weren't talking to me much at the time. I went back once or twice to see if they wanted to leave too, but it was too late. They didn't wanna leave. But, heck, I wouldn't wanna leave if my horn got lopped off too."
Belle covered her mouth with a hoof. "Foals... g-getting their hooves dismembered?"
"Nah. It's not that bad!" Kera smiled with tired eyes and pointed up at Belle's forehead. "After all, you still get around, right?"
Belle let loose a shuddering sigh. "Kera, ever since I suffered this injury, I've been incapable of performing the rudimentary magic spells of a unicorn. I can't even lift the blanket you offered me earlier."
"Something tells me you wouldn't touch it anyways," Kera said, giggling.
"That's not the point—"
"Wait a second." Phoenix trotted into the center of the conversation. "Kera, did you say that you went back to the building with the foals?" He narrowed his gaze. "After you had gotten out the first time?"
"Yup yup yup."
"How?"
"Ungh..." Kera rolled her eyes and stood up halfway. "Same way I got you two sad-sacks into Blue Belly, of course!"
"Your magic?"
"I know the security mechanisms of these lousy walls inside and out! Heck, you think I always wanted to eat grasshoppers? For the first week, I fed myself by sneaking into the back of a restaurant two blocks down! They couldn't stop me from entering, so they just moved the food storage to the other side of the building! Pfft... lousy cheaters..."
Phoenix glanced aside at Bellesmith. "She can get into the building."
"Yes, and?" Belle returned the look.
Phoenix merely raised one eyebrow.
Belle's face took on a twisted expression. "Certainly not! Who knows what's being done to these poor foals in that place! We're not bringing Kera anywhere near there!"
"But what if there's a connection to Rainbow Dash?" Phoenix asked.
"How on earth could there possibly be a connection to—"
"'Rainbow Dash...'" Kera spoke up. "Is that her name?"
"Whose name?"
Kera pointed at the satchel hanging off of Belle's flanks. "The colorful pony in the photographs you got in that ugly green book."
Belle nervously ran a hoof along the top of Luna's container. She gulped. "You... you looked at it?"
"Pffft. I stole it, didn't I? Not like I was gonna marry it..."
"There's a pony I know named Rainbow Dash and... well..." Belle sighed. "She and I got lost, and I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with her again. And right now, I have nothing to go on. All I know is that there's something inside the Nightshade Building that may shed more light on... on... unngh..." Belle face-hoofed, stifling a moan. "It's very complicated, you see..."
"So, you know winged ponies?" Kera asked.
When Belle didn't answer, Phoenix answered for her. "Ahem. Just one, really..."
"Cuz I've always wondered..." Kera gestured why speaking. "If Nightshade is so interested in winged ponies, why bring over a bunch of 'magical savages' from the east instead?"
"Nightshade knows something about pegasi?" Phoenix asked, then did a double-take as he heard himself exclaiming, "Wait, all of the kids are frickin' Xonans?!"
"No, we're not fricking any Xonans. We are Xonans, ya dumbflake!" Kera gawked at Belle. "Where'd you get this guy?"
"He's got a couple of good questions..."
"Ungh... Ya know what?" Kera smirked. "If you're dying so much to know, how about I just take you there tomorrow? Maybe you'll make hooves or tails out of it. I know I can't! None of the other kids know crap either, but—hey—they've been doing the study lessons a lot more than I ever did by now. Maybe they know a thing or two after all."
"Study lessons...?" Phoenix repeated out loud.
"Kera, it's..." Belle sighed. "This is all too much to take in! We can't possibly get you involved anymore than you are!"
"Oh come on!" Kera beamed, her eyes wide. "It'll be totally fun!" her voice cracked and her mouth froze in a sunny grin. Then, in the space of three milliseconds, her body kerplunked on the blanketed ground, instantly snoring. "Znnnnkkkt—chkkkt—chuuu..."
Phoenix blinked. He turned towards Belle.
She sighed and sat back, folding her forelimbs and shivering.
Quietly, the stallion trotted over. His voice echoed within their end of the claustrophobic alcove. "Miss Belle, our options are limited."
"It's just... It's just all so wrong..." She sniffled. "This Confederacy... this horrible country..." She gulped, her eyes growing teary. "What did I ever see in it?"
"You were raised in it," Phoenix said. "Second to family, the hardest thing to tear apart is your home, even when you know you deserve better."
Belle nodded, but sighed again. "I think I'm beginning to understand the beauty in what Rainbow Dash had for a while there. Her only home was herself. Pilate and I? We were a part of that home, and it was so... j-just so righteous..."
Phoenix stared and said nothing.
Belle rubbed her face dry. "I want to go home, Phoenix. I don't know where it is, and I doubt I'll ever find it, but I think just going someplace—anyplace—and not looking back is gonna be a great deal more wholesome than anything else I've had in my life."
Phoenix nodded and said, "Be very careful with that desire, Ms. Belle. The desire to find your way home can... c-can make you do some really wild things."
She glanced pointedly at him.
He winced slightly. Shaking his head, the stallion said, "This kid... think about what she's giving us the opportunity to do. Find out more about Rainbow Dash? Sir... but she's got a problem of her own..."
Belle gulped. "She doesn't seem particularly troubled by it."
"That's what makes it a problem," Phoenix said. "Look, I'm no hero, and I can't pretend to be righteous about anything anymore. But..." He bit the edge of his lip before uttering, "I don't think we're in this just for ourselves anymore."
Belle turned. She looked at Kera's quietly sleeping figure. Her tattooes were garish, her mane was a tangled green mess, and her blanket was covered in parasites. But she looked far more graceful than anything that city had yet offered.
"No, Mr. Phoenix, we're not in this for ourselves," Belle murmured. She stood up straight as her brow furrowed. "And I doubt Rainbow Dash was anymore, either."
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Just look at all that character growth and exposition. Damn.
Appears to me like Nightshade is trying to figure out how to make themselves some pegasi.
Now we're getting somewhere. This was the best chapter in a while. Kera and Belle were on point throughout, and Phoenix, while still generic, is beginning to grow on me.
I hope nightshade turns out to be a villain who actually does stuff. We don't need someone who just sits behind a desk and pushes buttons.
On another note, I wonder how far away RD and her group are. Surely they were headed for Blue Nova on Dash's orders.
Long live the United Empire of New Rome
Also, ZADBADABU! It's been too long since I've said that.
That was an amusing way to end that conversation.
So...Xonan foals in Nightshade Tower. Yep, this just got a lot more interesting in a hurry.
I loved this chapter. Yup yup yup.
And Belle's friendship is so strong, I'm surprised you think she hasn't cast Holy.
media-cache-is0.pinimg.com/192x/1a/65/6b/1a656bab95b7854067ca0d6ee98e98b3.jpg
c:
Not liking this Nightshade outfit one little bit.
More character development! Yay
I love Kera's character. She's just so enjoyable to read.
So, anyone else think that Imre worked for Nightshade?
2602324Yup Yup Yup
2602324
It's... Possible, I guess. But how did she get out? I can't see Roarke storming the Nightshade Industries building, and except Kera, I don't think many ponies could escape.
2602430
When it came up in the Skype chat, Zap suggested that she travelled to Xona because she no longer cared if she lived or died and wished to give medical aid to the people she had experimented on. I think this is a pretty good reason for Roarke to find her in the midst of that country. It's not like there's really another plot thread hanging at this point, either.
Wow, this was a great chapter. Lots of character development and plot furtherance. And Nightshade is looking uglier and uglier. And if they're trying to recreate pegasi or something, it makes me wonder. It was suggested a few chapters back or so that Nightshade might have its tentacles in the Ledomaritan government (if I'm not mistaken), which makes me wonder: might they have something to do with Shell's interest in the door to the machine in Blue Shelf? How much does Nightshade know about...things?
2602324
You're probably right. Everything seems to be tying back into Nightshade in some way.
"Y'all want some? Mmmf! They got some sun so they're extra crispy!"
Mmmmmm..... Crispy...... *more drool*
my speculation is that nightshade runs the nation and is using the war to get slave labor to fund the war. it is an infinite loop of prophets where everyone is a pawn.
scary shit.
Wut.
So anyway, we got this:
Study lessons, eh? Trying to read the language of the machine, eh? The massive skyscraper is secretly housing an obelisk, eh?
i347.photobucket.com/albums/p480/chrisahend/Ebay/March%20Of%20Dimes/yupyupSmall.jpg
Yup yup.
Two groups are very close to meeting now. They should be in the very same building by tomorrow.
Now we just need EE and Josho to run into Rainbow and the gang somehow, and we'll be golden.
...It's still way too early for all this to be happening. It's all coming together already, and it's only Chapter 79.
And I cannot wait for the look on Belle's face when they stumble into a random blind zebra with a telekinetic Tesla squirrel on his face. It will be glorious.
mmm... grasshoppers...
Did I like this chapter? Yup yup yup. On that note, pretty heavy chapter, makes me feel like IC's getting ready to drop a major bump on the mountain towards the climax of this story. And speaking of that, how the hell is IC this damn good? How could he have written so many chapters knowing what he was getting into from the start? And to add on, he updates almost daily! Did he just write the whole damn thing and then split it up into tiny pieces that he teases us with? HOW CAN YOU BE THIS GOOD?!
Ohhh, Kera, poor kid. I wanna hug her so much...if not for getting bit by tics, lol. She's trying to be so strong though. She kinda reminds me of a toughened Scootaloo in a way...only a Unicorn.
blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/cleanplatecharlie/1309422978-37.jpg
Sounds to me like Ms. Nightshade's got a wing fetish. A nice exposition dump here - enough solid facts and clues to give birth to many hideous, speculative theories.
Loving the development of Kera. Hell, I'm just loving the character. Belle and Phoenix aren't so bad either - but Belle's grated on me a bit from the start.
Holy exposition Batman.
Let twisted stands of fate tie together...
PS, I wonder what this would be like as a tv series.
Yup yup yup? Yip yip yip!
I almost feel bad for joking about the title. The chapter's contents are pretty solemn, after all. Let me make up for it with something relevantly serious and seriously relevant:
"I'm waking up to ash and dust,
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust.
I'm breathing in the chemicals.
I'm breaking in, shaping up,
Then checking out on the prison bus.
This is it, the apocalypse."
2601671 But why experiment exclusively with magic then? I don't see how giving magic to some weird-flank deer would bring them any closer to that goal.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse, yip yip yip, yip yip yip!
2601882
Ducky! She's exactly what I first thought of when I read the chapter title. I'm glad other people share in the nostalgia - I was about to start feeling old.
Also, this chapter. Why can't all the ponies in this land just calm themselves and stop experimenting with junk? And by junk, I mean other living beings. There's the sequencing, and the metal mares, and now more magic stealing and imbuing that's apparently supposed to lead to pegasi somehow. I don't normally recommend this, but they should go give Lady Gaga's "Born this way" a listen.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So I guess that this chapter affirms that Rainbow won't be traveling alone in future chapters. Also, again, it's good that Phoenix is getting more and more respect again. And you've really got to stop in order to understand the filth that Kera's living in...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
The world-building is getting great again. Kera is awesome. Hope she'll get a happier ensing than that colt from Austraeoh...
I realize that I am speaking only to the shadows of those who walked this path well before me. And that's okay. I am mostly thinking out loud.
The farther Dash gets from the influence of the royal sisters, the darker this story becomes. The world is progressively more broken. Governments are more oppressive, the weak are abused in more horrific ways. Will this be a trend? Is the abusive nature of ponykind part of what needs to be redeemed in the greater arc of this epic story? The Machine itself may need a new spark, but may also be a metaphor for the interaction of all ponies with each other? There's less harmony out there than even Discord could have imagined. Perhaps the alicorns were wrong when they said that the world didn't need the elements of harmony any longer. The world certainly needs more friendship.
An African proverb says "if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with friends." Rainbow is building up a new group of friends. Who will end up sticking with her, I don't know. But the adorable, homeless, medical-experimentation escapee who can read the tome and already thinks Dash is awesome? She's got to be part of the group. She can't be left behind. Perhaps the Xonans are going to be a break in the constant downward trend of harmony, if they understand the language of the Machine?
I don't know if this has been discussed before (I've missed a lot of the comments because I mostly read the .html download on my phone), but here's another lonely echo to add to the voices whispering in the dunes of the past.
3808450 I read this, fellow traveler.
Rainbow Unicorn Dash?
Not much to say, except we did get some light shed on Nightshade Industries.
Also, Kera was still is, and always will be hilarious. 
-Spirit
i'm i the only one that is reading Kera's words in Scootaloo's voice?
Come on, guys! No one mentions Land Before Time? Come on!!!
Anyway, Kera, holy shit, the love is real.
dat land before time reference though
anyway, interesting knowledge of Nightshade. Making artificial pegasi? Or at least trying to? Jesus, there's only one place this story's gonna go, and that's straight into Nightshade for a beatdown, as Pilate's already gone for...
Started Obscured By Clouds. Short little thing, really.
Nightshade wants to make alicorns, but they haven't perfected giving a pony a horn yet so they don't want to try on the only winged pony they have, which I'm guessing Novus is. Either that or they haven't figured out what kind of magic will produce wings. The plot thickens...
Yep, Kera is absolutely a more awesome Scootaloo. And in an interesting twist, she definitely knows something about winged ponies.
Ain't that the truth.
It was not what you saw, what you saw was a bunch of loving, decent, and caring individuals, that was worth protecting. It was what you didn't see that showed how awful things were. The oppression, the slavery, the absolute disregard for the lives that the government responsible for them gave said lives. It may be able to be saved, but not without some major changes.
05/12/2017 18:38 UTC
4769044
There was a Land Before Time reference?
Damn, aren't I such a blind person?
7:44 PM
7/9/2017
4432521
I used to, but now I'm making her voice a mix between Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2, and Webby from the 2017 Ducktales reboot.
Out like a light. I knew her energy wasn't limitless...
...Flame. girrafes.
2602752
It's called Nightshade. That name alone, Angels little fucking Trumpet, the devil's due, should be enough caution
Well...unless you didn't know Nightshade was the world's deadliest flower, that is.
Good thing too, or else this might not have gotten past the mods... 🙊