Props crawled up into the cockpit of the Noble Jury.
"Hi hi, handsome!" She smiled with flouncing ponytails. "How's Nancy handling the nips? Heehee!"
"She's flying stable," Floydien muttered, turning a few dials from where he sat. "But she could use more of the zap zap from paint bucket boomer."
"Mmmhmmm..." Props sipped from a mug of hot cocoa. "Y'know... is it just me, or is she needing to zap that thing more and more in shorter spans of time?"
"Floydien thinks that the book no longer needs her," the elk said. "And paint bucket boomer no longer needs the book."
"Yeah. Freaky." Props shivered. "What do you suppose that means?"
"Floydien can't pretend to know that spit," the pilot said, suddenly leaning forward, his red eyes squinting. "East horse's destiny is... very... mysterious..." His muzzle scrunched at the sight of multiple, multiple blue bodies all surging the Jury's way. "Hmmmm..."
"What is it, handsome?"
He slowly reached a cloven hoof back. "May Floydien borrow blonde boomer's mug?"
"Uhhh..." Props shrugged. "Sure!" She hoofed him the hot cocoa.
"Thank thanks." Floydien took a sip and spat all over the windshield. "Psskkkttt!"
"Ackies!" Props flinched. "Handsome?! What gives—?!"
SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOSH! A hundred Rainbow Dashes soared through the snowy air, rocking the Noble Jury off-center as their giggles rang through the bulkheads.
"... ... ..." Props' blue eyes blinked. "Gimme th-that mug!"
"Here..." Floydien hoofed it back to her.
She took a big sip, leaned forward, and spat all over the windshield too. "Spkkkttt!"
FWOOOOOOSH!
Outside, a solid train of blue fuzz and rainbow hair soared toward the crooken mountain peak to the west. The air resonated with raspy chuckles and voice-cracking giggles.
Through it all, one determined pegasus bobbed and weaved. Gritting her teeth, Rainbow Dash threaded her way through the massive flight and pulled herself toward the front of the pack. She squinted against the pelting snow, her vision foggy from the sheer distortion of air that all of the powerful wings caused.
"You're going down!" one of the dozens of pegasi shouted.
"Oh yeah?!" Rainbow grunted, eyes tearing. She opened her mouth again—
"IN HISTORY, MAYBE!" the entire atmosphere thundered.
Rainbow winced. "Celestia on a trampoline..." Holding her breath, she angled her wings, dove down, bounced off a flurry of cold air, and propelled herself upwards. She was nearly at the head of the group, inching her way past several blue bodies and shoulders and—
Wh-Whap!
"Gaugh!" Rainbow yelped, nearly being thrown off course. As they approached the crooked mountain, she glanced aside. "Did one of you just bump into me?!"
"Pfft! No!" said one, while another—
Wh-Wham!
"Aaugh!" Rainbow yelped again, struggling for balance. "Knock it off! You..." She grimaced. "You cheater!"
"Quit hitting yourself!"
Whap!
"Quit hitting yourself!"
Smack!
"Quit hitting yourself!"
Th-Thwap!
"Eeh hee hee hee!"
"Hah hah hah hah!"
"Rghhh... Luna's nipple!" Rainbow wheezed, shrugging off the multiple hard-contacts. "H-how could I possibly suck this bad?!"
Just as she wheezed those words, the flock finally reached the crooked mountain. She held her breath, weathering the g-forces as she and all of the doppelgangers spun sharply around the jagged peak. Then, evening out, the group flew back towards Ether Point in a solid line. The air thundered from every set of wings flapping harder to boost themselves down the final straightaway.
"Can't let them win..." Rainbow hissed under her breath. She felt her sweat freezing across her brow as she pushed her wing muscles to the limit. "Think about the changelings back at Amulek..." Her eyes narrowed. "I owe it to th-them...!"
"They're coming back around," Josho said from the llamas' plateau.
"EE," Roarke spoke. "Can you tell who's ahead?"
"Uhhhhh..." Eagle Eye sighed, shrugging his forelimbs and slapping them down. "Rainbow Dash is... pulling ahead of Rainbow Dash."
"This will prove to be a real migraine if she doesn't win this," Josho grumbled.
"Yeah!" Eagle scratched his head and glanced at the others. "Who'll we tell who's who?"
"Oooh!" Winree slid in, grinning. "We pluck their tail hairs loose and listen to who yelps the loudest!"
"Creative," Roarke droned. "But no."
"Say... uhm..." Winree chuckled nervously. "I-I don't suppose you have any fishsticks under th-that helmet of yours, huh?"
"Shhhh!" Eagle Eye hissed. "Here they come!"
"Ledo's vulva, I'm so glad I didn't bet silver on this," Josho mused.
"Grnnngh... hnnngh..." Rainbow pulled and pulled and pulled herself ahead of the group. Then—on a dangerous whim—she spun around and flew backwards, facing the group. "Okay! For the last time! I'm the real Rainbow Dash! You're all are just changeling copies!"
"Pffft! As if!"
"It's not over yet!"
"Say your prayers, punk!"
"All my life, I've only ever done things the hard way!" Rainbow shouted, her eyes flickering red-on-yellow. Her pendant glowed and the ends of her mane turned stiff with static energy. "And that's the only way to show you the truth! The hard way!"
With that, she twirled around and shot forward with incredible speed.
"Watch and learn, dudes!" Rainbow's voice echoed behind her as her body formed a vaporous pale cone of compressed air. "This... is what you call winning!"
KA-POWWWWWWWW! The air exploded with a spherical flash of prismatic light, issuing outward in every direction.
The dozens of Rainbow Dashes gasped—only to be blown back and knocked off balance by the sheer force of the sonic rainboom. One by one, their blue bodies fell towards the plateau below.
"She did it!" Eagle Eye beamed. He hopped up and down. "The real Rainbow did it! Woohooo!"
"The borealis!" Winree shrieked, his bright eyes reflecting the heavens as the rainbow glow instantly cleared the sky of all gray snowclouds. "The aurora! The aurora!" He hopped up and down on steaming leg-braces. "Sam! Sam! Take notes! Take notes!" While the other llamas scrambled, Winree paced back and forth, pulling at his face-wool. "Nnnnnngh—GOD! I hope we can somehow eat that!"
Swisssssssh! Rainbow hurled down like a color-streaking missile. She ricocheted off the ground, grunted, and slid across the plateau's ice.
Wh-Whump! Roarke caught her with metal-laced limbs. Cl-Clak! She retracted her helmet armor, squinting at her with thin, proud eyes. "Congratulations. You just smoked your own flanks."
"Mmmmfnngh..." Rainbow rubbed her forehead as her mane slowly, slowly settled in place. "Now I know how Fluttershy felt..." She lifted one leg. "Look. Tell me... are butterflies appearing?"
"You're delirious."
"Love you too." Rainbow stood up on wobbly legs, her pendant still flickering. "Nnngh... ooh ra." A brief smirk, and then she blinked. "Wh-where the hay did they go?"
"Don't fret, speedy," Josho said, pointing at the sky. "Here they come now."
"Uh oh..." Eagle Eye helf a hoof over his muzzle.
Slowly, the Rainbow Dashes descended, and each one of them had a look of worry and sadness spread across their muzzles. Within the span of a minute, all one hundred-odd of them were perched along the ledges of Ether Point.
"But... b-but..."
"I don't understand..."
"I'm awesome..."
"Aren't I awesome...?"
"I... I..."
"Nopony said you can't be awesome," Rainbow Dash said, pacing forward along with Roarke. With the blizzard completely eradicated, her voice carried far in the crisp, mountain air. "You just don't have it in you to be awesome in the same exact way."
"I... we..." One doppelganger grimaced as its body reverted to a black shell under green flame. "We were wrong the whole time..."
"Mother..." Another sniffled, its blue fuzz and ruby eyes replaced with dark gloss and glazed green. "She... she abandoned us..."
Eagle Eye bit his lip. He turned to look at Josho.
Josho looked back. He nodded. Holding his breath, he spun, faced west, and disappeared with a pulse of magic. Fl-Flash!
"Now look..." Rainbow stepped up to one of the many changelings, tilting its chin up. "Don't be so glum! It just so happens that 'being me' is a job for three ponies: Me, myself, and I."
"But... y-you've done so much good!" one wheezed. "And we..." It sniffled. "We've done so much bad..."
"It was so righteous being you," another stammered, its clear eyes leaking tears. "You were the only one strong enough to face up against Mother..."
"That's not true!" Rainbow grinned. "My friends wouldn't have survived the perils they did if it weren't for shape-shifters—brothers and sisters just like you—who defied what they were in the past and stood up for saving their fellow equines!" She motioned with her hooves. "And in my travels, I've met other changelings who sacrificed their all just so that innocent ponies could live! You are capable of living past what your 'Mother' made you out to be! You just have to trust in yourself and have faith!"
"Faith in what?" A changeling choked on a sob. "We have no future. We don't even have a home!"
Fl-Flash! Josho rematerialized with a powerful teleportation spell. A timid earth pony shivered in his grasp.
"Rainbow..." Eagle Eye motioned at the pegasus and pointed at Ebon Mane.
Rainbow smirked. She faced the changelings once again. "If you don't believe me, then lemme introduce you to a pony who you can believe. A pony with first-hoof knowledge about what you're going through."
Eagle took Ebon's hoof.
Ebon smiled at him, then trotted across the icy plateau with a brave breath. Shuffling past the llamas, he faced the many-many changelings and said, "I know a lot of thoughts are going through your head right now. I went through the same thing. All things considered, I-I still am. But... you have to believe me... you can pull through this."
The Noble Jury's cook took a deep breath. Slowly, a green band of flame ran down his body, exposing a petite changeling that looked identical to the rest.
The broodlings blinked, their gossamer wings twitching in curiosity.
Eagle Eye trotted up from behind Ebon and nuzzled him.
"Hmmm..." The changeling smiled in Eagle's embrace. He reopened his misty eyes and said, "You can find a purpose. What's more, you can find love. It's okay to be scared... at f-first... but soon you'll discover that the best thing you're capable of doing is adapting."
"Adapting?" one changeling murmured. "How?"
"Have a seat," Ebon said, squatting beside Eagle Eye as the herd of insectoid equines gathered around. "I think it's time we had a long... long talk..."
I think I'll take a healthy dose of 2 chapters in one night instead.
He he. I can't wait for story time with Ebon Mane.
Also, didn't the rainboom in innavadr or Odsrjot dispel the changelings' cover?
Whelp Floydian and Props stole the show this chapter Classic comedy gold!
These Changelings have like, no social skills nor common sense whatsoever.
At this point, I was expecting the elk to have his mind completely blown.
I wasn't expecting the double-spittake from both him and Props. Priceless.
So I guess in the end, the changelings were lost and were just trying to fool themselves. Sad, that. But here comes Ebon to the rescue.
I wonder if they're gonna hole up on the mountain now with the other three?
Floydein and Props wasted good cocoa. Ebon wouldn't be happy about that.
Floydien and Props made my night.
Ebon's already come a long way, but I think him helping other changelings like this is the best thing he could be doing to continue that progress. Now I just wonder if there's some deeper significance to this place and these changelings.
So wait, not only did Floydian practically swap spit with Props right there in Nancy's cockpit, but they also both spat all over her. I'm not sure if that's rude, cheating, or the start of a kinky threesome.
Ebon the changeling motivational speaker!
5048921
All three...I think.
5048725
Well, these changelings are already different from the ones we've seen so far.
5048921 I'd ship this, if Props/Zaid wasn't so perfect.
Go Ebon. Its your time to shine!
Yes! Go Ebon! Finally come to terms with himself, and now we can have some epic moments!
Ten burpees, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Well this won't work as a home for the changelings. But where will they stay? And who will get these llamas some darned food already?
Ebon Mane, Changeling Messiah.
...I'm okay with this!
Ok, it's really nice that, so far, this little town/outpost/building has not yet turned into the setting for a Lovecraft book. But unless we leave, soon, it's only a matter of time.
I suppose "Will the real Rainbow Dash please stand up" has too many words.
Can we give the llamas some food before they start eating the Jury's faces?
Middle of a race is a bad time for kinkyness Rainbow
Floydian, Props, and the hot cocoa scene, because Zaid keeps the hot coffee for himself.
Poor Llamas, trying to get a hive of chagelings to clear the sky so they can see the aurora. This aint no Flight Of the Snow Duck laddies, even if Dash is Baloo all over.
Thank goodness those changelings were still their happy, scatter minded normal selves, instead of being ultimately Jury Clone trained. Im trying to remember which SciFi story has Needle Ships, long thin designs that can fit though narrow wormhole portal gates, and that bunch together to set up various combat patterns. Cos was leading to a theoretical possibility of Dash being the point f the needle, rainboom, and the Dash clones being the bulk of the needle, seperating th outside of the boom from inside, letting the Jury slipstream inside the cone?
So many ways the story can go, and so amny ways that can be selected that has nothing t do with what any of us are thinking.
You knlw, all we need now to make the insanity complete, is a Scutter to assist Props, and a Talkie Toaster to offend Floydien.
Channeling Pinkie Pie.
For some reason, this had me thinking of that South Park episode making fun of Kayne West.
Shouldn't the changeling Rainbow Dashes be able to do sonic rainbooms? It's been established they can do whatever the form they assume can do. That's why they copied Rainbow in the first place, to possess her power over Stratopolis.
Yay for story time with Ebon! At least they look like they are ready to learn to be themselves and it will be less of a journey then with the others.
Awww. :)
There can be only one.
Looks like Ebon is getting over with his issues well.
looks like Ebon gets to help others (and possibly himself too)
5050262 OH THANK LUNA YOU ARE STILL HERE! for a few months i havent seen your comments on any of the stories i read (after seeing you on most of them) hope you are doing well.
Here's a time for Ebon to be nice and helpful. I still feel sorry for the changelings. Don't worry, holey hooves are awesome! Aerodynamic! You could probably beat any other Pegasus in this form. Just leave the booming to Rainbow, she's the only Pega
coolawesome enough for that.I'm sure we can finally have some food for the Llamas in the next few chapters, now we've dealt with all dat Rainbow. I know I would kill for a cheese sandwich, has the cheese bounty been devoured yet?
5052320 Didn't they like give all the cheese away to some random town back a while ago?
5052724
How did I not hear of this?
How come Zaid didn't die?
Humph... I do seem to remember that, actually. Off, to research!
I love long-long talks. I'm wondering, if the Sonic Rainboom was the Aurora, if that was the purpose of the other Rainbow Dashies. This whole llama business seems like a giant red herring or something though.
5049572
Just somethin' to get the blood pumping to those wings.
Rofl
Llamas are fucking gay.
5054582 What!?
She is the one and only! Rainbow Dash! Woo!
5051867
I am SMASHING
Floydien and Props were great. Nice to see Ebon coming out of his shell a bit to help some changelings out.
llamas tho
5054582 Sounds good to me!
Heh.
i was half expecting about a hundred sonic rainbooms to level the mountain range thank goodness the clones didnt do that...
Floydien and Props steal the show. And Ebon's handling the changeling's transition well.
-Spirit
Good thing that was solved quickly. We can barely take one Rainbow Dash. Too many would be terrible and terrifying.
5868528 Agreed. A part of me is very glad it ws solved well and quick, at the same time... So much FUN could have happened there.
...I must admit... if a hundred Rainbow Dashes were soaring through the snowy skies outside MY window in winter, I'd probably spit-take too.
Uhhh... I think I read that wrong.
The beginning gag. Otherwise the chapter had a nice combo of sad and happy.
Every changeling was technically capable of a rainboom too, according to the "inherited abilities" they spoke of in stratopolis... though maybe they didn't have the energy for it.
Damn, just trying to imagine that sight... a whole mob of Rainbow Dashes flying in a giant blue and rainbow wave...
I need a picture of that. That's a beauty that cannot go to waste.
Hundreds of
Rainbow DashesScouts flying through the air while hurling hilarious trash talk? Sounds familiar...... didn't Floydien just contradict himself there? Does the book need to be recharged or doesn't it?
Edit: Unless what he's saying is that it needs the frequent recharge because the RD/book link is gradually dissolving?
In which case... am I too paranoid for suggesting this story might see Dashie continue while the Jury stays behind (possibly without their ship) in Val
RoarkeRoa?Edit: Autocorrect has learned Roarke, but evidently not Val Roa.
Yeah, amazing sight doesn't really help when trying to pick out one needle in a stack of completely identical needles, good thing for him that Rainbow was on the ball.
09/22/2019
19:05 UTC