As soon as they had erupted, the flames cleared up. The air of the upper storage chamber returned to a dim twilight, tinged with smoke.
Rainbow Dash and Ariel crawled out from behind a pile of junk that had shielded them from the changeling's self-destruction. Breathless, they gazed across the room.
They saw Wildcard with a few of his wingfeathers burning like candles. He twisted and shook and writhed in a desperate attempt to put them out. Suddenly, a large figure loomed over him.
"Let me, Double-Yoo. I've got it—" Logan gnashed his teeth and slapped the sparks out with his heavy hoof. "I've got it!"
"Holy shit..." Ariel exhaled, trembling all over. "I mean... j-just..." She ran a hoof through her frazzled mane. "Holy shit."
"Okay, everypony remain calm," Rainbow insisted, gesturing with both hooves. "Are we all in one piece?"
Wildcard grimaced, examining his glowing wounds. With a jolt, he frantically looked all over... then was relieved to find Bard's staff lying un-damaged on the ground beside him. He picked it up and collapsed the thing with a contented sigh.
Rainbow gulped. "Fluttershy," she spoke aside. "Tell me. Is everypony in one piece?"
"Yes, Rainbow," the ghostly pegasus said with a nod. "They might be slightly bruised up, but I assure you... Flynn, Kepler, and Seraphimus are fine as well."
Applejack cleared her throat. "Ya might wanna think twice about Seraphimus." She looked at Rainbow. "Reckon you should go visit her, sugarcube."
Rainbow was about to reply to that—
"Dashie!" Pinkie Pie pointed. "Look!"
Rainbow and her ghostly friends turned around. Along the crest of the concrete ramp leading out to the exterior of the mesa, there was an unmistakable burn mark. Green blood boiled to a stand still and a few chitinous pieces of flesh lingered along the edges of the point of explosion. However, that wasn't precisely what Rainbow and her companions were staring at. Lifting up from the singed epicenter was a misty cloud of ruby light. It lingered in spot, harboring far too much purpose for any normal, mindless patch of fog.
Twilight's muzzle hung agape. "It's happening again, Rainbow..."
"Then..." Rainbow gulped. "...that must mean—"
Just as they spoke, the ruby aura moved. At first, it looked like it was shifting directly out of the entrance to Darkrreach. But as the ponies witnessed, it sank as well... descending through the ramp and—presumably—through the mesa altogether.
"Where's it headed?" Pinkie asked.
"Judging from the way the entrance is facing..." Twilight swallowed. "...the same direction Axan's... erm..."
Rainbow merely bit her lip. She heard the scraping of metal and looked over to Logan.
The large stallion was picking his axe up in tense silence. Smoke and slimy green blood clung to the blade's edges. He sighed with a shrug of his shoulders.
Rainbow trotted limply towards him. "Logan..."
"Look, Rainbow..." He grumbled. "The lil' bug-eyed shit was tearing us all a new asshole, and—like you said—it was just a bee's harvest away from warning the whole hive about us. Take it or leave it, but we just can't afford to make friends with every dayum thing that moves on this side of the plane!"
Rainbow grimaced. "I-I wasn't even going to go on about that." She cleared her throat. "I... I was only wondering—"
"What the Hell was that just now?!" Ariel stammered.
Rainbow sighed. "Ariel..."
"Who were those ponies, Big Show?" Ariel exclaimed. "I know that bugger was only trying to mess with our heads, but... but..." She shuddered. "Shit... that last one was so friggin' mad at you. Is there something you're not telling us—?"
"And what if there was?!"" Logan spun to snarl at Ariel, startling her. "I don't remember a rule about volunteering information when we all signed up for the God Squad!"
Ariel jumped back, shivering. "I-I'm only concerned about you, Big Show—"
"Well, stuff it!" he spat, shouldering his dirtied axe. "I'm the same big idiot you've always known, just a bit more pissed off! So back off!" His nostrils flared as he turned towards Rainbow. "Are Keps and that bald bastard okay downstairs?!"
"Logan, we're your friends. You can tell us—"
"Ask your spooky friends!"" Logan stomped a hoof. "Are they okay or not?!"
Rainbow nodded nervously. "Fluttershy says they're fine!"
"Good. I'm going to go check on them." Fuming, Logan marched towards the nearest stairwell. "Somepony remember to close the goddess-damn door, okay?!" And he was gone.
"Logan, wait—!" Ariel darted after him, only to have Bard's staff block her way.
Wildcard stood in somber silence, looking after the stallion's exit. Despite his fresh wounds and bruises, he remained the calmest of the three.
"Friggin'..." Flynn sat at an overturned bench in the common room, holding a rag to his bleeding gums. "...damn freak took me by surprise. Who'd think we'd run into a changeling this soon?"
"Ach...!" Kepler sat beside him, bandaging the stallion's right forelimb. The thin materialy barely contained the lively glow as the wounds were patched up. "It wouldn't be called the 'Darrk Side' if it wasn't full of unpleasant surrprrises, brrotherr..."
"I was so busy trying to get Darkrreach operational." Flynn spat on the concrete floor and frowned. "Feel like a damned fool."
"You arre not alone, forr what it is worrth..." Kepler sighed, adjusting crooked bifocals. The frame had been bent when he took a fall, and they needed to be repaired. "But—live and learrn! It'll be that much harrderr forr the childrren of Tcherrn to drrop the prroverrbial anvil on us! Ha-Hah!"
"Heh..." Flynn rolled his one good eye. "'Kerrrrsplat.'"
"Well put, frriend."
Heavy hoofsteps.
They both looked up amidst the flicker of manalights.
Logan gave them one glance. His body was covered in soot and slime.
"... ... ... ... ....had a bad date?" Flynn suggested.
Logan merely snorted. He trotted clear across the room.
Kepler and Flynn watched him pass by. "Okay then," muttered the latter.
But before Logan exited completely, he glanced towards the far end of the chamber. His eyes fell on the griffin tied to the pipework.
Seraphimus shook and trembled. Tears ran down her face as she stared into the corner of the room. For a brief moment, her gaze lifted and she looked at Logan.
Logan looked back.
Amidst the tense silence, their vision was severred... and Logan made his way into the adjacent corridor.
And Seraphimus...
Seraphimus went nowhere.
Yeah, you just....you just sit there and...think...
Yeesh, what a mess.
Yeah, I'd say he's not too keen on talking about it right now. Eventually (because exposition demands it), but not now.
Mentally she has been going nowhere for a long time. Perhaps it is time to stop.
This makes me sympathize with her greatly.
Damn last chapter was some good stuff. I think people it's not giving Sera the credit she deserves. From the moment Rainbow went to talk to her to now, she has been much more quiet and reasonable than what would be expected. I don't think she will believe in Rainbow story soon, but I don't think we are gonna see her trying to kill Rainbow soon either.
And I'm incredible hapy for it, cause Sera it's, in my opinion, by far, the most interesting character of Raimbow comapaniants. It's not just a question of simple taste, it's just that Sera was properly introduced, slowly and organically into the story ,(Like the majority of the characters in the previous books), while most of the Herald isn't just developed enough. I hope we get to see a little more of meat in their characters (I guess we are going in that direction with Logan).
Exactly!
This is only the easy part of the journey, and we have already faced down the Changeling version of a kamikaze T1000. Unless the gang finds some sort of weapon or way for effectively dealing with threats, they will not get far
The Dark Side: No holds barred
Looks like quite a few old wounds ripped right back open now.
Logan needs some time to chill.
Thankfully, Dash didn't seem to be pressing him too hard to share.
Hopefully she'll let it be until he feels ready to share.
He actually seems concerned about Seraphimus.
Hopefully this will be the turning point where Sera can be untied and won't kill them all.
She really wanted to help WC, and she shouted a warning to Dash after the changeling was tackled off her.
Perhaps she'll still be a death seeker, but she won't seek it trying to take Dash with her.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Dash might not go on about it, but I will, because I'm obsessive like that. Where was the heavily wounded Changeling going to be able to go, exactly? There's hundreds of miles of nothing in all directions, it's bleeding from every hole, and you have three fliers in the party, one of which is equipped with a life-form detector. The Changeling wasn't going to get anywhere, even without your intervention. But hey, whatever you need to tell yourself, Logan.
But if you had brains anywhere other than lodged in your rear quarter area, you might grasp that this emotional thing you've got going here? Yeah, its not going away. And its only going to get worse as you deal with the Dark Side more. What's your plan when you run into Changelings again? Lose your shit some more? No matter how raw that wound is, if you don't deal with that shit sooner rather than later you're literally just turning yourself into a time bomb, and next time your friends might be the ones getting caught in the proverbial (and possibly literal) blast.
I'd like to be sympathetic man, but you have exactly zero time for this kind of thing, and the more you suppress that shit, the worse it gets.
I don't know, she seems to be going somewhere. Slowly.
Wow, harsh realities all around.
:/
When's Applejack gonna get into Rainbow's groove?
...
Accidental pun, but still, I wanna see the first love of her life react to being the first love of her life!
I just hope Logan can open up about what that was sooner or later because there are going to be more changelings that will do that to him so the others will find out eventually. It might even help it not effect him as much during a battle.
Not really surprised Logan doesn't wanna talk about it. Also I wonder if we're ever going to meet that changeling again...
Man I feel sorry for her...but hopefully she'll somewhat try to realize just what's actually going on here.
This is a war. In war, people die. Do we really need a rant every time a member of this group kills in the name of saving All life in this world? Sometimes the end dose justify the means, and when it's the world as we know it, I say it's a price worth paying.
Didn't Rainbow learn this after all the things that happened in the last two book? Especially after the Quade.
Sure it's unlikely that the Changeling could have gotten away. But it wasn't worth the risk of letting it try. Who's to say that it couldn't have flown a mile into the darkness, turned into a rock, and waited for a chance to slip away. Fluttershy could barely feel the thing at all. It's possibly that it could have given them the slip. Or who's to say that it even needed to go that far. Perhaps as soon as it left the cargo bay, it would have sent out some kind of message or homing beacon.
Sorry, didn't mean to rant, just kinda sick of seeing this brought up every other chapter.
Looks like there are loyalty missions to complete...
Welp.... Ser is pretty darned shaken.
Can't believe I actually feel sorry for her
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if you'll recall though, Fluttershy could only barely sense it alone, even with Twilight and Pinkie helping, all they managed to do was narrow down a direction until they were nearly on top of the thing.
So.. no, if it got out and a good distance away, they very likely would not have found it again.
All of the herald have back stories to explore, looks like Big shows is gonna be a sad one like Bards was. I'm sure we will get to know what has happened in the past with each of them as the story progresses.
One down only about one third of this side of the world's population to go. Ezpz
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Given its injuries how far could it really get, and outrunning a mare who can literally fly faster than the speed of sound? And while they had to get close to pinpoint its location, Fluttershy was able to sense it all the way to the bottom of Darkreach, which is a damn fair distance to sense its general location. Given how close behind the Changeling Dash was already, no, it wasn't getting away, even without Logan's intervention.
Caught up.
The last of the Light Side? Shake a persons world hard enough, and usually its the person that breaks, not their world. Usually when the persons world breaks, they go MAD.
So, it seems that Logan was a father.... then something major went wrong.
My statement about Seraphimus was wrong: that changeling unhinged her sanity with this trick. And it got under Logan's skin as well. I fear it caused more damage than just a few bruises and scorch marks.
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Seraph-imus was already mad. Her family killed (thawed out) by rainbow, she probably went insane
There's a shared pain there, though Logan has denied it even to himself all this time.
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Ain't that the truth.
Geez, someone needs one of these.s3.amazonaws.com/FratMusic-Site-Images/assets/cover/chill_pill.jpg
Finally caught up!
It seems like the changelings on the dark side are more powerful than those on the light side. No individual changeling that I can remember gave Rainbow and/or the Jury this much trouble.
Also I love Seraphimus' development
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Welcome to the Jury! I just caught up recently myself.
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This one sounds more badass.
Well, that's bizarre and ominous...
Descending! I missed that part - given the plane is concave, that means the destination must be really close. If it were far enough away for curvature to matter, they'd see it ascending instead.
I think Sera might be broken . . .
Aww...
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For Axan it rose though...
-Tilda, Mice and Mystics
Interesting that changeling souls also carry enough Harmonic energy to be visible on the dark side.
"materialy" seems out of place IC.
I'm not usually one for off the wall ships. But, I'm currently invested in seraphimus and Logan getting together to share common emotional wounds. Hell even if its a simple fling I'd be satisfied.
And thus was a low bond-compatibility overcome.
As mush as I loathe the turkeybird's continued existence, seeing her get to bond with Logan over old familial wounds would be a good read.
Seraphimus's body goes nowhere. Her mind, I'll bet, is going many places right now. Perhaps we'll see a change of heart soon? Or at least acceptance of the realities of the situation.
...oh dear. These two might have way more in common than we ever figured they would...