"Okay..." Flynn leaned back from the Desperado. "Now... try making a fist."
Wildcard sat up on his cot. His upper muscles tensed around his beak.
Between them, a rickety skeleton of metal digits and hydraulic activators wobbled, pointed towards the ceiling. The joint below the prototype prosthetic glowed with mana power. Hissing sounds filled the common room, and slowly... gradually...
...five talons closed tightly together. The gesture was slow, but it was still a gesture.
Wildcard relaxed his muscles, exhaling heavily. He turned with a surprised expression, his goggles reflecting Flynn's smiling face.
"Pretty boss, right?" Flynn slicked back a mane that wasn't there. "Whew! I am on a roll!"
Wildcard nodded back.
"Now..." Flynn leaned in again. "Spread all your fingers out and put your palm flat." His eye narrow. "Pretend that you're... playing that weird, mystical game griffin kids are obsessed with. What's the name...?"
"'Rocks, papers, scissors?'"
Flynn blinked. He looked over his shoulder at Seraphimus in a distance. "Right... pffft, griffins..." He turned to look at Wildcard again. "Can you do that?"
Wildcard licked his beak. His shoulder shifted.
With a rattling noise, the prosthetic twisted. The levers and digits attached to them rotated. Soon he had flattened all of his talons into a straight plane. A cloud of manasteam spontaneously vented from the lower joints.
"Whoops! Excuse you!" Flynn chuckled, reaching over to pat Wildcard's shoulder. "I know it's pretty cruddy and slow now, but that's because I've yet to power it all the way. I just wanted you to get a feel for it. I mean... errr... y-you know what I mean."
Wildcard slowly nodded.
"Double-yoo, I don't have the tools here to make it nearly as awesome as the one you had back on the Light Side," Flynn said. "More specifically, you're probably going to lack the same spatial recognition system that used to grace your senses. But... you're skilled enough to make a calculated guess about your limb placement, right?"
Wildcard used the new skeletal hand to wave from side-to-side.
"Right. But I promise you that it'll be articulate enough for you to fully 'speak' again," Flynn said. "What's more, I just might be able to add a few new bells and whistles to it." He smiled, pointing at a narrow thread of pulsing conduits running the length of the forelimb. "You see this cable?"
The Desperado nodded warily.
"It extends from the prosthetic's mana core. With the right discharge of pent-up leyline energy... well..." Flynn grinned wildly. "It just might be able to give your fist some extra punch."
Wildcard nodded. He curiously gestured with his right hand, drawing a "compass" with his fingers against the cot.
"Sorry, bud..." Flynn shook his head. "That badass magnetic core is gone for good." He shrugged. "I just don't have the proper equipment to recreate it here. But... I'm hoping to give you some better improvements anyway."
A sigh escaped the griffon's beak. He nevertheless gave a thankful nod.
"Once you're fully back on your feet, I'll let you give the limb real practice at full juice. How does that sound?"
Slowly, the metal digits turned, pivoted, and formed a shivering thumb's up.
"There we go!" Flynn grinned wide. "That's the spirit!"
"I don't see why Jordan has to have his hand back," a contemptuous voice droned from the opposite end of the Common Room. "A blighted traitor like that should live with a constant reminder of what he's given up."
Wildcard clenched his beak. His left limb clicked and clacked as the inner parts struggled, grinded, and eventually—with much effort—shot a lone middle finger towards the ceiling. The Desperado raised it high and proud.
"Hrmmmfff..." And Seraphimus was silent.
"Heeeeeeeeeeey..." Flynn patted Wildcard's shoulder again. "That's some even better spirit!" He got up with a mild groan. "Ooooookay. You starving?"
"Ta-daaaaaaa..." Logan droned, lethargically gazing into the glowing blue compartment.
Ariel stood in place, blinking blankly. Her eyes reflected rows upon rows of otherworldly mushrooms.
"Well?" Logan scratched his stubbled chin and looked at her. "What do you think?"
"Uhhhhhh..." Ariel smiled crookedly. "Wow, Big Show! It all looks so..." A gulp. "...edible?"
"Hrmmmffff... we already know that it's edible," Logan muttered. "The stuff ain't poisonous."
"Right. Wildcard hasn't keeled over." Ariel gulped. "I think."
"The problem here is that there isn't enough of it," Logan said.
"Are you sure?" Ariel pointed into the illuminated half of the dim compartment. "It's covering the entire wall, corner, and part of the ceiling!"
"This is a month's worth of cultivating," Logan grumbled. "And not a single one of us has been eating from it." He turned about and trotted out the room with a sigh. "Let's face reality. This shit's ain't gonna sustain us."
"Yeah? So?" Ariel pivoted and followed the large stallion into the room where he had assembled his arsenal. "Once Rainbow's done resting her flank, the two of us will fly Omega again and grab some more! There's a whole field of the stuff!"
"Yeah? And what about when that crud runs out during our inevitable trip Curveside?" Logan snorted reaching over to a table to continue polishing a sword and shield. "There's no telling if these little buggers grow out beyond the parallel."
"From the sound of things, there's lots of flora out there..."
"You call that carniverous stuff 'flora?'"
"Well... organic stuff." Ariel stuck her tongue out. "Stuff not affected by the impact of the Sundering. We're just bound to find something to forage! Or hunt!"
"Uh huh. Did the old Cylindrimanian spheres find any living game out there beyond the mesa?"
"Errr... no. But then again, everything within five kilometers of the mesa is wasteland."
"Then we'll have to do our hunting while dodging living death grass for our lives," Logan muttered.
"I'm certain we can find some meat to sustain us."
"Don't you see the problem?" Logan sighed. "Rainbow Dash."
"What about her?"
"The damned girl would rather eat her own mane hair than dine on a roast beef sandwich. The rest of the Herald? We're just fine and dandy. But our illustrious leader has to be a vegetarian!" Logan dropped the weapons angrily to the table.
Ariel winced. "I... I'm sure we can eventually convince her to do what's right to survive."
"Oh yeah? And who's going to convince her to take the first bite? You?" Logan glared before brushing past the mare. "You've been hitting on the Austraeoh since she first fluttered past your gaze, and she hasn't given you the friggin' time of day."
Ariel squirmed, running one forelimb across the other. "That's got nothing to do with anything..."
"Doesn't it?"
"No!" She frowned. "It doesn't!" Ariel stomped a hoof, angrily. "Sure, maybe it's obvious to everypony that I have feelings for the mare, but I'm an adult, Logan! I can set them aside when I know there's something far more important at hoof!" She exhaled slowly, her ears folding somewhat. "Just how... she's learned to do... s-some time ago..."
Silence.
Logan shifted awkwardly. His voice was low, but still apologetic: "That sucks balls, Ariel. I... I shouldn't have said that." A cough. "Sorry."
"And you're forgiven. But I wish you wouldn't let it come out like that." Ariel trotted over and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "Something's been bothering you. I know it. Instead of being full of farts and comebacks, you've been nothing but glum and grim."
"It's the Dark Side, Ariel," Logan grumbled. "It's hard to be sunny over here."
"You don't think I know that?" Ariel shook her head. "It's something else. Something's been eating at you since we first came into Darkreach and encountered the changeling."
"It's not friggin' important, alright?"
"It obviously is to you." Ariel bit her lip. "Okay... so I never got as chummy with you as Flynn has. And maybe your old adventures with my mom have made it really awkward to level with me. But over here, Big Show, we're all that we have! And... and if we're gonna trust each other while in combat... can't we trust each other out of it? I wanna get to the Light Side and put all this behind us as much as you do, but... but what if we don't make it? What are we gonna do to resolve all our problems beforehand?"
Logan stared into the distance of the room. Eventually, he droned: "I already put things behind me, Ariel. That's what I'm trying to say." He glanced down at her, eyes narrowing. "I'm good to go. Honest."
Ariel bit her lip. At last, she nodded. "You are, aren't you?"
Silence.
"How... how much of the Bleakweed do we have left?"
"Another week if we ration it," Logan said. "Between that and the 'shrooms, we'll last through the trip to the parallel. But beyond? When we're gonna need the energy to sweat and fight the most? We'll have to come up with something new."
"How long will Rainbow Dash last if we ration the vegetarian food exclusively to her?"
Logan brushed his bangs aside, exhaling slowly. At last, he shrugged. "Four weeks? A month? She's a light pony, after all."
"Then maybe that should be the plan?"
"We can't survive on meat alone... heh... as much as I'd love to." Logan turned to look at Ariel again. "You'll need to work some charm on her. Get her to change her ways for her own good."
"Uh huh..."
"Don't 'uh huh' me, kid. This is super friggin' important."
"I know! I know!" Ariel tossed her forelimbs and groaned. "I'll see what I can do." A bitter smirk. "Heh... what irony."
"Yeah? What?"
"Out here... flying and adventuring with the hottest mare under the starlight... and I'm having to talk her into taking meat."
"See, there we have it. You can handle all the farts and comebacks for us."
"Heeheehee..."
"Hrmmm..." Logan resumed examining his weaponry. "One of these days, we'll get the musical lilt back in your giggles."
"Not exactly the top of our list."
"Nope. It isn't."
Ariel cleared her throat. "Speaking of rations..."
"It's about time, isn't it?"
"You've been hard at work on the arsenal." Ariel trotted off. "I'll do the rounds."
"No you're not." Logan held her back.
"Huh?"
"Feeding everyone means you're going to have to to feed her," Logan said. He trotted off in the same direction with a determined look on his face. "I don't want anyone near the bitch."
"And just why not?"
"Because it takes one to know one."
*Urge to strangle Sera intensifies*
SNRKPFT!
Perhaps it should be, one is not going to get very far without something making them happy.
Force/try to convince Rainbow to give up on her vegetarianism? Good frickin luck, she managed half the light-side without it, and is just a bit hell-bent on keepin it that way.
Welp, can't say I didn't expect a joke along those lines, lol.
Ariel has a really hard job ahead of her, its gonna suck but maybe she will have to get Rainbow to come around given the situation right now.
Ugh, when can we kill Seraphimus?
As a decade-long vegetarian myself, I really emphasize with Rainbow here, and I'd have a tough time eating meat in a survival situation (and I don't know if I could ever eat pork if it came down to it; probably would though, seeing as I would be starving), and it's worse for her due to the cultural circumstances. But this journey is more important than morality in many aspects, and (if that "eating meat is morally wrong" as true, and also if it's not true) it's clearly morally worse to fail at saving billions of lives for the deaths of a few nonsapients.
Convincing Rainbow to eat meant? Yeah that's probably not gonna happen....
Hmm.. Sera seems to ricochet between concern and contempt.
Like she's struggling to find how she really feels.
I think she still cares for WC, considering how adamant she was about being freed to help him during the changeling incident, and yet, when he's in the room with her, she's back to commander nasty, she's deliberately pushing his buttons to give him incentive to get back to 100% faster or something.
I can't wait for the chapter where Dash passes out from hunger and Ariel has to stick a strip of jerky in her muzzle and help her masticate to get her back on her hooves.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Just start wrapping her food around jerky or something—tell her it's "special seasoning" someone found in Darkreach storage.
Soon, they will be ready to get going. We're nearing 100 chapters of getting to and gearing up in Darkreach.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Sometime in the future, Big Show, you will have step up to your past. It's a coming.
It's a coming.
Darn. No more reloadable Falcon Rocket Punch.
8372940
Perhaps the entire problem is that he has put it all in the past, as he says and believes, and he legitimately just wants everyone to drop it.
I've done and experienced stupid and painful things in the past, and I'ved moved on, but they still hurt in retrospect when a reminder hits home. Just about anyone can say the same of some event in life.
Old wounds are just that: Old and scarred, not raw and bleeding.
It most likely won't come down to eating meat(i think). But if it does, she'll cave, probably from Twilight's science and AJ's experience convincing her.
Who's to say they won't encounter flora that's made of meat.
All Rainbow needs is a good medium rare steak and she'll be on board that train ez pz. Now, to find a nega-cow somewhere on the dark side...
Am I the only one who thinks Flynn has been doing a lot of work recently and not gotten enough recognition?
Oooh! Does this mean that we get another logan-seraphimus chat? Excellent.
Good. Have that ready for the Generals Tea Party.
I think Fluttershy can convince Rainbow to become omnivore.
8372860
Sorry but the last part of your comment made me think of this comic page. *trigger warning: stuff*
comicnewbies.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/deadpool-feeds-archangel-with-his-own-body-2.jpg
They did say it was going to be the best thing about him having his talon back.
8373115 Biology would be my guess.
When the going gets tough...
Well... They could always... I mean it's not chicken but... Close right?
And now, Impossible Challenge #474: Getting Dashie to eat meat.
8373362
Hmm. Never thought of it that way. Still, if they overhear a command, they'll probably figure it out. That, or they'll be at 40k levels of crazy schizo-tech and won't care.
Oh this is going to be a fun conversation coming up for Rainbow. Dang it Seraphimus, you were actually becoming decent there for a bit.
Or, as ponies call it, Rocks, rocks, rocks.
We all saw that coming.
And to throw us all for a Twist, it's going to be Seraphimus that convinces Rainbow Dash to eat to survive.
I can't remember, are griffins omnivorous naturally or carnivorous?
I really wonder what it will be like if Rainbow decides to finally eat meat. To be honest, I really wonder what it would be like to eat meat for the first time after vehemently avoiding it your whole life. That would be really, really weird. Seeing as I have eaten meat all my life, I can't imagine it being a foreign substance.
But in the case of this story, I wonder how long Rainbow can hold out. Logan isn't wrong in wanting to convince Rainbow because not eating meat makes it extremely difficult for her to actually survive. If she wants to be in peak physical condition, she needs to eat a good amount to keep up with how much she is constantly on the move.
I guess, now that I think about it, with how much Rainbow pushes herself to the edge and beyond, I have no idea how she maintains the energy to do that while going so long without eating or sleeping. She is truly a freak of nature. I hope that her "taking it easy" will allow her to come back twice as strong and prepared.
I’m actually excited to see Rainbow eat meat. I thought she was gonna have to do it way sooner but nows as good a time as any.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Rainbow just stops eating instead of eating meat. Seems about as likely, and it's not like she hasn't pulled off equally terrifying physical feats.
Wow, Sera, are you being sociable?
Nope, nevermind. She's still being a bitch.
Atta girl, you're learning!
I know you are but what am I?...
And so Seraphimus does it again - maybe she'll convince RD to eat meat.