It was a singing voice. Soft and serene. Rainbow Dash's mind was tickled by memories she didn't even know she had. Something from foalhood, or perhaps before. It was melodic, soothing, healing...
Harmonic.
"Mrmmmfff..." Rainbow Dash stirred. She was lying on a mess of blankets. Opening her eyes, she spotted a tent looming above her head. A yellow shape drifted beside her. "Grnngh... Flutters...?"
"Shhhhhhhh..." Fluttershy leaned in, resting a hoof close to where Rainbow's shoulder was. Her warm smile came into focus. "Just don't move too quickly. Twilight's guessing that you probably have—"
"Aaaaaaaugh..." Rainbow hissed through her teeth as she raised two hooves to clutch her aching skull. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh skunk holes..."
Fluttershy sighed. "—a very, very bad headache."
"'Bad' is putting it softly, girl," Rainbow wheezed. Her eyes nearly teared from the pain. "This is like the cancerous mother-in-law of 'bad.' This is bad bombin'."
"I will... pretend to know what you mean by that."
"Grnnngh..." Rainbow continued clutching her skull with both fetlocks. One eye remained open, squinting. "... ... ...the girls?"
"They're safe. Just resting."
"Vanilla... Zone...?"
"Mmmmhmmm." Fluttershy nodded. "They're not stuck there, though. They're there by choice at the moment. Resting.."
"But... before...?"
"Oh! Right. I guess you wouldn't know, would you?" Fluttershy daintily cleared her throat. "We were all forced into the Vanilla Zone the moment you came within close proximity of the Crater."
"Crater?"
"It's... what the Herald is calling the place with all the chaos metals. We heard Kepler estimating that there must be tons of it."
"Yeah, no kidding." Rainbow gulped. Her eyes fluttered slightly. "This... where...?"
"Wildcard picked you up and dragged you to safety," Fluttershy said. "The Herald made camp on a plateau somewhere. We've been here ever since."
"How... long...?"
"Uhm..." Fluttershy tapped her chin in thought. She squinted towards the faint slivers of twilight peeking in through the fabric of the tent's entrance. "That's a good question. Twilight would be better at guestimating. But... uh... well... the Herald have cooked themselves dinner at least five times since you fell—"
"Five days?!?" Rainbow immediately winced. She clutched her head again. "Princess Celestia on a bike. I've been conked out by chaos metals before but not that hard!"
"It..." Fluttershy winced. "...was a lot of chaos metals."
"How did I even...?" Rainbow brushed her chin—feeling the dried residue of soup broth hardened to her muzzle. "Food?" She glanced forlornly at her buttocks. "Un-Food...?"
"Not very easily," Fluttershy said, giggling nervously. "But, don't be worried, you were taken care of very nicely by—"
"Stop! Quiet!" Rainbow hissed. "I... don't really wanna know who."
Fluttershy blinked. "... ... ...it wasn't Ariel."
"Okay. Whew." Rainbow laid back, exhaling. "I have enough reasons to see a shrink back in Equestria as it is."
"It's so very nice seeing you awake, Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah, well... I'm sorry I blacked out on you gals."
"And we're so very sorry we vanished like we did!"
"Mrmmfff... couldn't be blamed for that. It was the chaos metals."
"Well—as you like to say—'back at ya.'" Fluttershy smiled proudly.
Rainbow squinted at her. "You're not half as worried as I'd expect you to be."
Fluttershy shrugged. "You've pulled yourself out of worse straits—and without us around to even fret about it. Besides..." Fluttershy looked at the pile of blankets. "You were more or less here. Just... a bit furrier."
"Furrier?"
"Your... erm..." Fluttershy gulped. "...dragonequine features didn't go away quite so quickly."
"For real?" Wincing, Rainbow nevertheless fought her migraine to stretch her neck. She looked into the corner of the tent to where an Emeralidinian helmet was being utilized as a bucket. The container housed severed antlers and tufts of pale blue hair.
"Some parts even grew in the others' places before eventually coming off..."
"Guh..." Rainbow clenched her teeth. "Super not good." She looked nervously at Fluttershy. "It's never been like this before. Remember Red Barge?"
Fluttershy shuddered visibly. "I try not to."
"... ... ..." Rainbow looked left. She looked right. Then—with an explosive gasp—she shot straight up. "DISCORD—!" She immediately regretted the swift motion and clutched her pulsating temple with both hooves. "Unnnnngh—!"
"Rainbow Dash...!" Fluttershy reached in vain for the petite pegasus. She frowned. "You must calm down! Discord isn't here!"
"Yes... he... is..."
Fluttershy grimaced slightly. "You kn-know what I mean. He's gone. We are back. I promise you."
"He was there, Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash gradually recovered from her motion and sat weakly in place. "Clear as day. Brightest and... most visible I've ever seen him." She gulped. "I was so freaked out. I thought that... th-that maybe he had replaced you girls completely."
"As soon as you were away from the crater, the girls and I returned," Fluttershy insisted. "We've been watching after you ever since. Waiting for you to wake up. Trying to... make sense out of the Herald's dialogue over what happened."
Rainbow sighed. "Fluttershy, I'm so... so sorry that this happened to you. If I had known that the 'null' magic that Twilight was sensing was the chaos metals..."
"You couldn't have known. And don't be sorry. Live and learn." Fluttershy smiled. "It's okay. You're in the company of friends. You do more than just travel together. You adapt together. Even on the Dark Side you must make baby steps."
"Yeah..." Rainbow nodded. "I guess." She gulped. "Well... it's a good thing we put as much distance between ourselves and that chaos crud as possible."
Fluttershy's posture immediately wilted. She bit her lip and avoided Rainbow's gaze.
Rainbow saw it in an instant. "Flutters..." She cocked her head to the side, fighting dizziness. "...where's the Herald?"
"Erm... Ariel's nearby... helping Logan with the latest meat they've caught. Seraphimus is seated on the wagon."
"And Wildcard...?"
"He's... watching after Flynn and Kepler as they... uhm... study the chaos metals up close."
"But... how...?"
Fluttershy smiled nervously. Ghost sweat. "We haven't left the outer edge of the Crater since you went under..."
Well, looks like her friends got her out before things went TOO pear shaped. I do have to wonder what their next move will be however, since as far as I know they are still down one hover plank.
Hmm... I wonder if Seraphimus took care of Rainbow while she was conked.
welll...at least someone is studying it now, better late than never I suppose.
Proximity might also explain why it took her so long to wake up, and for her to return to her normal pony self completely.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Could it be possible that Dash might build up an immunity to the Chaos metals, especially now that she is on the Dark Side? Not a complete one, but one where she would immediately collapse upon getting within a single mile of the stuff.
Ok, so they are still pretty close to it. And man five days is a crazy long time for her to be out. At least the girls are back, though I was kind of hoping for a longer chat with Discord likely in some dream real or maybe a return of those voices that were talking to Dash every once in a while.
And with that ominous pronouncement and the implication that the chaos metal may be more prominent than it already is, our heroine wonders, yet again, why she just didn't run away with Roarke in the first place.
Don't miss our next episode, "Chaos Metal Blues" or "Flynn and Bear It!"
Welp Seraphimus now knows Rainbow's kryptonite if she ever finds a way or the full will to use it. Somehow.
Booooooooo!!!!
Yikes. Also, best new swear yet.
Oh... good.
Just have to hope the effects arent pervasive cumulative. As in, they know the point where Dash exclaimed the girls went, and that was the other side of the mountain to the craters edge. So why would the girls manage to appear at teh craters edge, or even at the origional location, instead of say double the distance? Then again, once teh centre had been found, Kepler etc couldve made a simple estimate of distance traversed, and doubled that to clear it? Or, did they just let Wildcard and Muder Death Kill Turkey handle teh psychotic ball of Red Barge destruction until she calmed down with distance?
Awwwwlunadammit.
Which isn't the same as fuzzier, sadly. Probably more of a tough gristly texture entirely unsuitable for cuddling.
... I'm howling at the moon.
(In before "Howling At The Moon" is a chapter title. :P )
Welp at least they're far enough for it not to affect RD too badly.
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Assuming she doesn't mind being ripped to shreds in the process.
Okay, so the crater caused no permanent damage then. That's a good sign.
Good ol' classic.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/1/3/201496__safe_solo_princess+celestia_sunglasses_space_badass_motorcycle_artist-colon-mrdouche89_dat+uranus.jpg
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I'd be more afraid of the possibility that Seraphimus might fall back into her old pattern, a.k.a. calling her blighted etc. after seeing her chaos form.
Yeah, that song might give headaches.
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I only volunteered because I like watching you be helpless... Baka.
Now what could have caused so much chaos metal to form there?
I'm still guessing the dark side will allow Rainbow to be in control of herself in her chaos form... but only if the pendant isn't "gumming up the works" as it were.
Sometimes we drift too far, there is no way to slow down
So either steer or collide.
I've sailed a sea of stars and ran the vessels aground,
Something's corrupt in the tides.
A crater of Chaos metal? That does make sense - and helps answering yet another question, the origin of the material. Given how such primeval Chaos was never inherent to the Urohringr in the first place, it would be much more reasonable for it to have been added later on; more precisely, flung down at it from the heavens in meteor form as it passed the Chaotic cloud.
Well Seraphimus might go back to her old self after all that. But hopefully that won't happen.
O.o
Uhhhhhh.....
Huh.
And now they somehow have to get through that or go around it without Rainbow going full chaos beast on them. Hopefully the resident eggheads can cook up some scheme to get her through safely.
And now we need to find out if anything else important - like the Midnight Armory - is surrounded by similar deposits.
Great, now we possibly have more geological obstacles to look out for, as if the trek wasn't going to be hard enough.
That's pretty freaking metal.
Concentrations of metal like the one they are next to usually come from meteoric impacts, that it is a crater as well suggests that the chaos metal was once a in a meteor before it got there. Does this mean that Chaos metal is in fact of extraterrestrial origin? It makes sense given that 'clouds' in space (like the Oort cloud near Pluto) are usually giant groups of very small rocks and some gas. Meaning Discord is also of extraterrestrial origin and I should probably not read too much into this...
11/08/2017
19:16 UTC
Five days? Man . . . that's a really long time. I mean, at that point, I would almost begin to fear that Rainbow was in a coma. That shows how much they trust Dash to pull through because they most likely never considered that possibility. They just proceeded to take care of her until she came to. Truly loyalty right there.
Five days?!! Yikes, poor Rainbow. I wonder what they'll do with her discarded antlers.
Five Days? Dang, we really are going to be on the dark side for a long time. I have a feeling we won’t know how long they will be on the dark side for until they come back to the light side. It might be fair to assume many years will pass until then.
Hey, maybe they can make this chaos metal into a Hover Plank 5000 upgrade!
HA! What would they call Folgers in Equestria?
Aww, damn.
...It wasn't Seraphimus, was it? That'd be a switch and a half.
Excuse me, what? Like... wings where antlers would be? And vice versa? Then again, I could see Discord doing that willingly, so...
Uhh... you boys better not be studying to try and incorporate those metals into something. That won't help Dash any.
Jeez, five days worth of being sorta close to the Chaos Zone?