A red sun hung over the barge, distant, dull, obscured by fumes.
Monket's steamships lingered between the canals of the northern struts. Servants and slaves strolled across the vessels' surfaces, scrubbing the decks and polishing the hulls.
The slaver of waves himself stood on the bow of one steamship. His dreadlocks drifted in the sea breeze as he squinted eastward, scanning the horizon for returning messengers. The stallion glanced at a watch dangling from his vest, sighed audibly, and marched his way back below deck.
Along the multiple struts to the south, dredgers and laborers milled about. The only tasks available were exceptionally menial ones, requiring redundant brush-overs of pipework and metal junctions. Several stallions simply sat on the edge of the artificial canals, fanning themselves and muttering incoherently as they waited for the dirty day to die.
Nixkit oversaw this—and several other sights—from the upper balconies of the centralmost platform. Pacing along the edges of the Skag Hole, the high-ranking dredger sighed and resumed his stroll under the shrieking song of seagulls.
Deep in the brig below deck of the southern struts...
Keris sat slumped in his cell. The Lieutenant's thin eyes fluttered awake. He glanced across the frame of his prison door, then towards the bars flanking his side.
Beyond the narrow metal slits, Digiff could be seen. The stallion sat at a desk, going over daily reports. The dredger rubbed his bearded muzzle, sighed, and fought yawn after yawn.
Blinking, Keris squinted past Digiff, looking into the cell opposite the walkway.
It was hard to make out, but Keris could have sworn he saw the hint of a fuzzy blue figure seated deep in the shadows. A ruby lightning bolt pulsed gently... persistently... ticking off the liquid seconds of the gray day.
Along the inner ring of struts surrounding the central platform...
Laborers returned to their families after their early morning shifts.
Stallions and mares reunited with ritualistic nuzzles. Elders looked on, sitting in the shadows of tall rusted apartments built out of conjoined ships' hulls. Fillies and colts chased one another, playing giggling games and shouting into the polluted air.
From a distance, Saxon sat in his guard tower. As his part of the struts rocked and shifted, he lazily swung a harpoon turret around. Squinting down the sight, he pretended to aim at the scampering foals, then mouthed “bang” with his muzzle before chuckling breathily to himself.
And yet... the day limped on, insurmountably uneventful...
Deep below in the seafoam hold...
Quint sat at a table, counting bags of reserve rice. He scribbled a few notes down onto a sheet, turned aside, then spoke to a few of his fellow companions.
Two colts shuffled up, standing at the ready. At Quint's commands, they nodded, then scooped up a total of six tiny bags. As he waved a hoof at them, they scampered off to the furthest edges of the rusted orphanage, distributing the “nibbles” as Quint saw fit.
A few spaces over, Whony lay slumped on his mattress. The bored colt glared across the dim interior, his nostrils flaring.
He couldn't help but notice that a specific mattress in the furthest corner was curiously empty...
Swab sweated, gritting his teeth.
With firm, sudsy strokes, he mopped the surface of a second tier hull along the eastern struts. A filmy surface of slick moisture coated the once-dirty metal, bringing the strut to a near-shine.
He paused briefly, panting for breath, wiping his brow. Then, gradually, his body relaxed. He stared at the floor beneath him, nostrils flaring.
With a splash, he dunk his mop back into a nearby bucket. He leaned over, staring at his one-eared reflection in the wet metal. His yellow eyes blinked. He reached a hoof down, drawing the edge of his fetlock against the surface. With jagged motions, he formed a “lightning bolt,” then topped it off with a poofy cloud.
Another sigh escaped his lips. He leaned against the stick of his broom, smiling liquidly into the design he had just made. A salty breeze swept over the platforms, disturbing the wet surface. When the ripples settled, he saw the reflection of a frail filly and her sunken eyes bouncing back at him.
“I think I've figured it out,” Croche droned.
“...??” Swab turned to look at her.
“She's put a spell on you,” the filly muttered. “It's the only reasonable explanation.”
Swab squinted back at her. His one good ear flicked, and he said, “Or maybe I'm just addicted to doing nice things for a pony.”
Croche slowly shook her head. “It can't be that.”
“Why not?”
“Even you aren't that stupid,” she muttered. “All of the stuff you see day by day... all the mean things that Quint and his cronies do to you.” She gulped. “Doesn't take a genius to know that there's no point in being nice to anyone in this life. Especially some strange monster from the west.”
Swab leaned his head to the side. “Do you really think that's the case?”
“I know it,” Croche exhaled, glaring.
To that, Swab only smirked. “Then what's the point in you stopping by to express your concern to me?”
Croche did a double-take. Her teal pupils shrank. “It's not concern.”
“Heehee... really?”
“Don't laugh.” Croche frowned. “That's even worse.”
Swab shook his head. “Didn't think anything was funny.”
“So why did you bother?”
Swab took a deep breath. “Just... for the first time in as long as I can remember, there's something bright behind all of this muck.” He gulped. “If you caught a glimpse of that, wouldn't you want to know more? To feel more?”
Croche sighed, hanging her head. “No. I'd want to bury it.”
“Why?”
“Because...” She sniffled. “...it smells too much like hope.”
Swab bit his lip. He released the mop entirely and strolled towards her. “Croche. It's okay to feel sad. If it helps at all to know, you're hardly alo—”
POWWW! The bulkheads behind them exploded.
The sheer shockwave of the blast sent both foals flying a dozen feet, shrieking. They landed awkwardly, showered with a wave of metal shrapnel and rusted debris.
Each strut of Red Barge shook.
Down in the sea foam hold, dozens upon dozens of foals fell off their bunks and tumbled across the floor.
Whony rolled against a bulkhead, grunting.
Quint leaned against a metal pylon. The entire floor shook and swayed while barrels full of burnt soot rolled past him. As children shrieked and yelped, Quintflashed a frenzied look towards the sunny spaces in the fractured ceiling.
Keris stood up, beak hanging open. His talons scraped across the floor of his cell as the brig rocked... rattled...
Just outside, Digiff jumped up, grabbing a shark prod. There was a loud crack, and the dredger looked up. He gasped to see a loose bulkhead crashing down through the jail. With a grunt, the dredger leapt aside, barely avoiding several slabs of rusted metal collapsing over him. THUDDD!
Keris shielded his face with two manacled' talons as a wave of dust and smoke filled the cells.
The struts of Red Barge rocked and grinded against one another amidst a chorus of scattered screams.
And yet...
P-POWWW! A second blast erupted across the western strut.
Followed by...
KA-POWW! A third blast struck the north hulls. The bodies of three dredgers went flying in seven different directions. As the red mist and shrapnel settled, a burning chasm could be seen in the middle of the strut.
Monket peered over the edge of his steamship, gasping. His eyes scanned the northwest horizon—finally settling on three sets of scattered smoke. He gnashed his teeth.
Another booming noise echoed across the murky waters.
Breathless, Nixkit scampered towards the northwest corner of the central platform's upper balcony. Within seconds, Skagra and several other dredgers had scrambled out of the top dredger's office to join him.
Five ships dotted the horizon. Three turned broadside, reloading their cannons. Meanwhile, a burning red projectile soared in from a fourth.
BLAMMM! It flew into a smokestack just to the right of the Skag Hole. With a thunderous crash, the smokestack teetered over, shattering into a dozen smoldering bits. Nixkit, Skagra, and several other dredgers coughed and wheezed into the surmounting debris cloud.
“Mrmmmff... whelp...” Skagra waved the fumes before his muzzle. “...there goes my libido for the day.”
“Boss! I think they're pirates!” a dredger yelped.
“Yeah. No shit.”
“Those explosions...” Nixkit gritted his teeth. “You smell the powder in the air?”
Skagra was already exhaling. “Dredge coal...”
“They're attacking us with our own supply!” Nixkit glanced aside. “Boss, you know what this means?”
Pow!
The fifth ship fired while several small skiffs roared towards the Barge on rumbling motors.
“One sec, Nixxy!” Skagra waved a hoof as he and his fellow stallions scrambled for cover. “I'll get back to you when I'm finished pissing—”
POWWW! The projectile impacted the tower two floors below, incinerating screaming laborers in hellish plumes of flame.
Not a long chappie indeed. :/
I think this word landed awkwardly
Explosions!
Make everything better.
Not a good way to go.
A moment of silence for the immolated innocents...
...Huh....
...Alright...waiting for all hell to break loose.
Still waiting for all hell to break loose.
Gonna happen soon. Any second now.
Aaaaaany second now...
Aannny sec-SWEET JESUS.
Oh god, I hope the kid's alright...
Also, Skagra seems...awfully calm about this...
And the growing powder keg has sparked.
Celestia on a bike, Saxon's a sick mother fucker, isn't he? Just take aim at the little kids...
Skagra has mastered the art of not giving a fuck.
Fluttershy is probably not handling this seqeunce of events very well...
They can't die; Swang Song hasn't had them make out yet!!!
And things were going so well.......Wait! No they weren't! Awww yiss, SMASH THE STATE!!
Well, that's bad; I've never heard of someone landing 'awlward;u' before.
6615922 Maybe she's sleeping and wakes up when the chaos is all over.
6615948 Either that or she panics and departs into the 'Vanilla Zone'.
6615908
6615914
Indeed. take a look:
That Explosion was so big, it broke the 4th wall and fouled up the grammar.
This line reminds me that IC is one of the best evocative writers that I've read.
Well Skagra, guess now we'll find out if you're all hot air or if you and your dredgers are even half as badass as you guys act.
The most logical course here, if Dash can escape, is not just to get away, but to do so in such a visually obvious way that she can draw the attackers off Red Barge. She can't fly, but maybe she can ride on Keris?
6615955
...And I'm sitting here wondering what the blazing fuck my brain was doing to make it overlook a typo like that...
Robo should probably go to bed now...
And nary a reaction from Dash. She's royally jaded to this sort of stuff by now huh?
Don't you know Croche? Hope burns brightest when surrounded by despair.
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
6615955 The question is, who's going to fix the fourth wall?
6615961 Yeah, sounds like you need some recovery time.
6615966 Haven't you heard?
Bird is the wordThat crap is self repairing.6615914
i.imgur.com/oOTw1w9.gif
6615961 Screw bed; I've got energy and determination in spades.
The downside to this series of events is that there's a lot of ponies in Red Barge that are, for all intents and purposes, slaves, and might get caught in the crossfire. And in all likelihood, the Right Talon will be swooping into the fray sooner or later. This gon' be crazy.
Austraeoh Fact Checker: What's the longest amount of time that we've spent without seeing things from Rainbow Dash's point of veiw?
And here comes the burning to the ground. Just like many places Rainbow has visited. Now, will she escape or try to go down with the ship thinking she deserves it?
6615978 Pass the popcorn. I have butter.
You seem to have missed a perspective break there, between the foals room and the brig.
6615983 Rainbow Dash, you're not the Captain! You don't have to go down with the ship!!
This is what Red Barge looks like right now:
newsinfo.inquirer.net/files/2013/08/cotabato-blast.jpg
6615982 Not AFC so don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure with not counting Dash's memories as being "her perspective", the start of Eljunbyro with Belle is the longest
From the start of the chapter, I had the worst feeling of dread.
And then I got to the end.
Ugh, I hate it when my instincts are right. Swab, Dash, and Keris need to team up! They can't if they're tiny pieces floating around the ocean.
6616025
I have a feeling RD is going to say something along the lines of "Ally or enemy, that's for you to decide."
Wonderful set up the following chapters IC. Rainbow, It's do or die time.
6615913 Not to mention any crushed/impaled, others that might drown from holes in walls, and people stuck breathing more smoke than O2...
I suppose this is Chandler's 'screw you' reply to Skagra. I have to wonder if RD is sit this one out to prove a point to the spookyfriends about how RD cares to keep slaves and victims out of the crossfire if possible, and those she's up against don't have such reservations
6615982
6616006
Yeah, the first 88 chapters of Eljunbyro is the clear answer (maybe fewer chapters depending on what you define as "Rainbow Dash's perspective")
6616099 Thanks.
Does anyone else think that Austraeoh Fact Checker deserves a reference in the story? Personally, I think that it should come in the form of a chapter title: "Keris Checks the Austraeoh's Facts".
6616114
i.imgur.com/Tezi2zB.gif
6616148 Well, if you prefer not to be, then that's perfectly fine too.
6616153
The end of Yaerfaerda 113 works fine enough for me
6616156 True enough. True enough.
Welp. Time for an escape!
Dash, Keris? Who's got the plan?
Finally! Some action from best pegasus!
6616177 hmm. Dash is so depressed she actually thinks she deserves this imprisonment, and Keris' only movable extremity is his tail. I'm not seeing an escape happen without involving Swab.
Pirates.attack(Red_Barge); Skagra.getAngry(); Rohdebredden.beAfraid();
And so the siege of Red Barge begins.
6616002 Sooo... Detroit?
Chandler is doing the only "safe" way to regain control: amputate the cancerous asset before it metastasizes.
Yes, this means the revenue from Red Barge is lost for good, and political tensions will go insane from the loss of half of Rohbreddon's Dredge Coal supply futures so soon to the Month of Thawing...
Chandler only cares that Chandler remains alive, the rest of the world be hanged!
is it bad i kinda wanna see Mopey Dash? just have her sit in her cell, let Mr. Kerris get her out, move her along?
'cause the only other option i see is Dash patiently waiting for an opportunity to show itself (which this is)
and something feels off about that
Dash isn't a patient, "wait and something will happen to let you do what you need to" kinda pony
she's more of a "do, do it awesome, move on" kinda pony
who seems horribly down right about now
Welp..it's make or break time. Crotche is interesting I think she legit cares but is afraid of what might happen is she shows it? Wonder where she's gonna end up after all this muck settles. Rainbow and keris better form a super team or im gonna be sour.