Gliding over a plateau strewn with glowing fungae...
Rainbow and Wildcard sat on the hovercraft, facing each other.
Wildcard gestured.
"Uhm..." Rainbow watched, squinting. "...'mountain top.'"
Wilcard nodded. He gestured again.
Rainbow blinked. "'Tree.'"
The Desperado performed yet another hand-signal.
"'Weather!'"
The griffin's beak tightened.
"Errrrrr...." Rainbow squirmed in place. Her muzzle opened wide with an exhale. "'Storm cloud!'"
Wildcard gave a metal thumb's up. He proceeded to flash more words between them.
"'Gate.'" Rainbow Dash said, pacing.
Wildcard sat in place on the edge of the camp site. He munched on his meaty dinner in the starlight, then hand-gestured casually to the pegasus in between bites.
Rainbow tried "reading" her friend from obtuse angles. "'Gate keeper.'" A beat. "'Gate smasher.'" Another beat. "... ... ...'Broken gate.'"
"'Mana,'" Rainbow Dash said.
Wildcard nodded. The two glided ahead of the convoy, scouring the sporadic topography of the Dark Side. The two tested Rainbow's ability to "read" from nearly parallel to the Desperado.
The griffin made another signal.
Rainbow craned her neck. "Uhhhhhhhh..." She grimaced. "'Mana stone?'"
Wildcard shook his head. He briskly gestured the same signal again.
"Mana charge" Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth. "Dang it, this is hard."
"It's worth practicing this way, Rainbow," Twilight Sparkle said. "You can't always have the convenience of looking at Wildcard dead-on every time."
"But... that's asking a lot out of her, isn't it?" Fluttershy remarked.
"Remember how smoothely Bard could understand our friend here?" Rarity said. She squeaked in a gentle "Rest his soul" before clearing her throat. "They only got to that moment of mental clarity through an abundance of practice."
Fluttershy nodded. "I guess so. Still... I don't know how Rainbow Dash manages to do it. I can phase through the griffin and even I'm having difficulty..."
Rainbow shrugged. "I do my best memorizing when I'm flying."
Wildcard looked at her curiously.
"Not talking to you." She smirked. "The gals."
He gave a knowing nod.
"Anyways..." She motioned to him. "Continue."
Rainbow leaned forward from the back of the wagon. Her eyes followed Wildcard's slow hand movements.
"... ... ..." The petite pegasus' brow furrowed. "'Ignore... the... flying alligator—' Errrrrr... 'Dragon'." Rainbow Dash coughed. "Ignore the dragon and... save the world through... harmony!'" She grinned wide. "Did I get it right?"
Wildcard nodded briskly, smirking beneath his beak.
"Woohoo!" Rainbow pumped her hoof.
Sitting—shackled—a few spaces away, Seraphimus rolled her eyes.
"Sounds like somepony's making progress down there!" Ariel exclaimed from high above.
"Well... pffttchyeaahh..." Rainbow nodded. "It's only been..." She squinted into the starlight. "...how many weeks?"
"Yes..." Rarity rubbed her tired, ghostly eyes. "Just how long has it been since Darkreach?"
"I've been keeping count," Twilight droned.
"Yes, darling, and...?"
"You don't want to know."
Rarity pouted.
Kepler spoke up. "Ach! Rrainbow One! You will be a rregularr Herraldite in no time!"
"She's the single reason we're even here," Ariel remarked, raising an eyebrow. "What's the difference?"
"Now I get to listen in on all the nasty gossip Wildcard's been sharing behind my back!" Rainbow stuck her tongue out. "That's the difference!"
"I speak in jest, of courrse," Kepler said, smirking. He turned to look at her from across the wagon. "But I'm simply excited to have anotherr educated soul in ourr midst!"
"Uh..." Rainbow shrugged. "You're welcome?"
"Oh, let me congrratulate you morre prroperrly!" Kepler then proceeded to execute a blazing mix of claw-based hand signals.
Wildcard winced.
"Uhhhhhhh..." Rainbow's ears drooped as she blushed. "A little... slower... please?"
Ariel giggled.
"FAIL," Logan burped.
"Be easy on her," Flynn said, guiding the hovercraft over a craggy landscape. "She only now began learning."
"Well, I cannot think of a morre prroperr envirronment!" Kepler remarked with a shrug. "This half of the plane is like a verritable blank slate in everry dirrection!"
"It is for now..." Logan muttered.
"Shhhh!" Ariel slapped him upside the scalp. "Be positive!"
"Meh."
"I trrust..." Kepler winked in Rainbow's direction. "...that you shall have a full grrasp of Wind Speak in no time."
"Well..." Rainbow smirked aside at Wildcard. "It's pretty sweet and all... but I kinda sorta wish I could... y'know... speak back."
"Yeah." Ariel sighed. "There's a toughie."
"I mean, I totally would... but..." Rainbow held her stubby fetlocks up. "Y'know..."
Wildcard hand-signed, and Rainbow Dash managed to catch: "'You. Could. Always. Break. The. Wind. Talk.'" He finished this with a smirk.
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash snorted. "Snrkkk..." She hugged herself and doubled over, kicking her lower hooves in the twilight. "Hee hee hee hee!"
Flynn smirked while his horn glowed. "Now that's some progress."
As Rainbow's laughter died down...
"... ... ...There's always Cloud Swiping."
Rainbow sat up straight, blinking.
Ariel looked over to who had just spoken. "What...?"
Seraphimus looked back. "Cloud Swiping," she reiterated in an emotionless tone. "The Talon utilized it to great effect."
Ariel's lips pursed as she struggled to understand...
Seraphimus sighed. "I know for a fact that Jordan is quite efficent at the communication system." She leaned back, resting her limbs in their fetters. "So was the Lieutenant."
Rainbow looked at Wildcard. "Sooooooooo... what are we talking about?"
Wildcard glanced sideways at Seraphimus, then proceeded to gesture briskly across the wagon.
Rainbow was at a loss to read him that quickly, until she realized Wildcard wasn't "talking" to her at all.
Kepler responded: "Apparrently, it's a small collection of imperrative commands conveyed thrrough overr thrree dozen physical arrrangements of grriffin wings." He looked at Rainbow directly, adjusting his spectacles. "Quite efficient at conveying simple messages while stalling in mid-flight."
"Huh..." Rainbow Dash blinked. "Well, no wonder the Talon got so close to nipping me in the bud multiple times."
"Not efficient enough," Seraphimus grumbled.
"Now..." Logan threw a smirk over his shoulder. "Why oh why would anyone bother to tell us that now?"
She merely glared back at him.
"Say, Wildcard..." Rainbow looked at the Desperado. "...you think we could use Cloud Swiping for me to talk back to you?"
He briskly shook his head.
Rainbow's ears drooped. "Awwwwww..."
But Wildcard held up a talon. He glanced at Seraphimus, then gestured slowly to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow only caught a few words, she interpeted them as: "...Will... Help... Us... In Addition..."
"Heh..." Rainbow smirked. "Well, whatever works, bud."
Wildcard nodded back. He gestured another word: "'Toothpaste.'"
Rainbow's eyes crossed. She leaned over and rubbed her head. "Butttttttttt... let's just practice teaching me your words first and foremost, 'kay?"
Cloud Swiping; it's like texting with your wings.
So a whole other style of signing to learn as well. Nice.
Communication is one of the, if not THE, most important thing when multiple individuals are working together. Nice to see that they recognize that. So Rainbow only now is fluent Bilingual, after all this time. Guess that is what happens when you are on the move, and everyone moving with you can speak your language.
As if hand signals weren't enough, now we have wing-talk!
Sera wants to have a go at playing mentor too it seems.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
So they've been on the Dark Side for, what, 2-3 months now? A week or so to reach Darkreach, 4 weeks there, and then several weeks of travel.
Go Go Gadget Oil Slick!
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Remember kids, don't text and fly
Gotta love them callbacks.
The audience begs to differ.
Skirts
Do we need to do an intervention or something
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A cloud-based solution for instant messaging is not something I'd have expected to see in this setting.
Edit: Especially because Rainbow Dash seems to find Discord's notifications as annoying as I do.
Thanks for the suggestion Sera. Glad to see you're making progress.
Perhaps he was just trying to gently inform Rainbow of her bad breath?
Also I imagine Kepler's signing to register with Rainbow as something like this:
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Given the idea of IRC over torrent is almost older than Dash herself, Id totally forgotton about it.
At least Dash is learning faster than Deep Mind, though that begs the question of given the megafauna on the Dark Side, if they just throw Everything in the Sarlacc. Or have some psychotically efficint recycling methods. Or some kind of blend.
At least the Blue lizerts aint Viagra. Sera would so hate to feel so happy?
She can at least imitate Wildcard's most important gesture:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/6/14/652944__safe_artist-colon-ieatedaunicorn_rainbow+dash_angry_fuck+you_heart_middle+feather_middle+finger_obtrusive+watermark_simple+background_solo_tran.png
No. Do not break wind. That's Logan's job.
Warning: Do not Cloud Swipe and fly at the same time; your chances of crashing or being struck by a rogue lightning bolt are 27 times higher than while flying normally.
I may not have Roarke here reminding me to keep fit nowadays, but instead I have Rainbow reminding me to keep up my Japanese learning. It's hard work. Good on ya Dashie!
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We can just count up the scenes where she uses the full moon to talk to-- oh dammit.
Sera is contributing!
Rainbow's gonna be a sign expert by the time this is all done with. Can't wait to see her put it to good use.
Rarity understands me right now . . .
Wing fingers for the win.
Yes we do.
Seraphimus *in her mind* : Why does she get to learn Wyvern? I wanna learn too! *pout*
Well obviously yes, we do, but if we assume Equestria was in the center of the plane on the light side, and the Midnight Armory is the center on the dark side (at least that's what I've been led to believe based on what and how I've read), considering how long it took for Rainbow to reach the edge—not even including the time she spent holed up in Blue Shelf OR the in-between time with the Noble Jury/flying across Rohbredden—they've still got a looooooooooong way to go.
Callback! ...er...call.... parallel universe?
WE'RE GONNA HAVE WILDCARD TALKING SOON OH BOY OH BOYOHBOY
....of course the first real thing we get from him is a fart joke. Beautiful!
Man, I miss Keris. He was great. Wish he could have come with us...
BUSTED. ALSO she jelly af.
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Wingers.