Somewhere…
Far away…
Over a quiet and unassuming mountain range…
The darkening evening flashed with unnatural lightning. Sparks and shrapnel flew as a hulking metal battleship veered hard to port. Several massive chunks had been blown out of its blue armor, sending emblems of a giant serpent sailing towards the yawning chasms of the uneven landscape below. Equines scurried across the deck, fumbling towards their emergency stations. A set of magically-glowing sails billowed in the heated air as the vessel attempted in vain to pull away from the looming mountainside.
Another flash of lightning: a stream of cannonballs flew through the air and impacted the ship’s stern, sending a ruptured wave of destruction up the central body of the craft. Screaming ponies flew over the edge, engulfed in flames.
As the ship swayed towards the granite peaks ahead, a ship twice its size roared through the heavens. It bore Ledomaritan colors, and its double dirigibles pivoted as the full weight of the vessel’s brown steel hull bore down on the smoldering target. A pair of turrets pivoted towards the bow, aimed at the enemy ship’s plight, and fired four massive shots.
The cannonballs flew true, impacting the heart of the veering craft. The blue ship cracked in two, and both halves grinded against the mountainside. The glowing sails tore to shreds, and the remnants of its hull rolled down the granite slopes, bursting into flames with the shrieks of the unfortunate occupants within.
The Ledomaritan ship hovered to a stop while its deck rang with uproarious cheers. Crew members jumped in place, telekinetically waving their berets and rifles and cannon loaders. Towards the bow of the ship, atop a command platform, a decorated stallion stood, calmly staring out a pair of binoculars. He lowered the item from his weathered eyes and sighed out through his nostrils.
“That will teach those tattooed bastards to dirty our skies.” He hoofed the binoculars to a fellow officer. “May they choke on the Spark’s dust in the eternal abyss.”
“That couldn’t have gone more perfectly, Prime Enforcer Fortis,” an officer said. “They barely even put up a fight.”
“You saw the way it went up in flames when it finally ruptured?” Prime Enforcer Fortis pointed towards the burning debris below. “The ship’s got three times more supplies in its belly than corpses.”
“Then it was restocking the enemy front?”
“More than likely, lieutenant.” Fortis marched slowly down the steps of the platform while the deck rang with cheers around him. “Which explains the lack of otherworldly mumbo jumbo at their disposal. These weren’t fighters; they were deliverers. But it matters little. Xonans are deluded fools, all the same.” He turned with a flash of a rapier hanging at his flank. “With the extra firepower the Council gave us, I was hoping we’d see more of a fight. Still, not a bad way to start our maiden voyage.”
One of the officers glanced at the continually cheering crew members. “Should I… order this crowd into silence, sir?”
“Don’t stifle the enthusiasm, lieutenant. However, it would do us good to salvage whatever we can find from this wreckage.” Fortis motioned with his hoof. “Bring the Lightning Bearer into a lower hover at the base of the mountain. Send two teams on skiffs to inspect the rubble. Look for anything resembling polished white silver or brittle bonestrips.”
“Sir…?”
“We need to get to the heart of the Xonans’ secret weapon, lieutenant,” Fortis said with a slightly growling tone. “The Lightning Bearer might be the best ship in the fleet, but that doesn’t mean we’re at liberty to fly the skies, murdering weak enemy vessels at luxury. Prime Enforcer Seclorum is depending on us to choke the enemy line, so we cannot linger here forever.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Nnnngh. While we’re at it, somepony fetch me a drink. A victory is a victory, no matter how meager.”
Basso was a big, big stallion, though his face’s complexion belonged to an equine easily three times smaller. He wandered down the decks of the Lightning Bearer, bumping awkwardly into one equine or another with his massively thick fetlocks.
“Oh… uhm. Sorry. Excuse me. My bad.”
“What’re you so nervous about, Basso?!” A stallion grinned, stopping at one spot in the corridor to brohoof the other crew member. “We just sent a bunch of tattooed freakjobs to their graves!”
“Uhm… yes!” Basso adjusted the beret atop his sandy brown mane and tried to punch his hoof back. “Go us!”
“Gaah!” The stallion stumbled backwards from the sheer force of Basso’s forelimb. “Whew! Heheh. Dude, next time we find a dreadnaught, we oughta launch you at them instead. We’d take the enemy out in one shot!”
Basso frowned. “Very funny.”
“Where you headed to in such a hurry?”
“My C.O. has asked me to check up on Zetta’s progress with the eavesdropping. Have you seen where she went?”
“Pfft. Where else could she be?” The stallion pointed down the hallway. “Communications. Deck C.”
“Er. Right.”
The stallion galloped off with several others. “I’m off to do a checkup on the mana conduits in the starboard auxiliary chamber. Catch me in the mess hall at twenty-three hundred! We’ll have drinks!”
“I’ll… uh… I’ll think about it.”
“Ha! Come on, Basso. Throw your weight around!”
Basso snorted once the fellow crew members were out of earshot. “I try not to…”
Deep in the bowels of the Lightning Bearer, where the hallways and corridors were increasingly tinier, a mare sat at one of several brightly-lit stations. She leaned a glowing horn forward, positioning it within the space of three alternatingly strobing crystals lowered on an adjustable metal arm. Her eyes were closed beneath her beret as she focused on a myriad of different noise frequencies squelching through the maddening array of sound stones before her.
“Zetta?” Basso’s voice dripped down into the Communications room, joining the white noise. “Zetta, I--Guh!” The large stallion winced, stumbled, slid, and shuffled his way into the cramped interior. His muscular limbs squirmed together as he finally found a “comfortable” place to stand. “Whew. Ahem.” He smiled. “Zetta, Lieutenant Straker wants to know how the project is coming along.”
Zetta’s forehead tensed. “Mmmmff… Basso? Has anypony ever told you that your voice has the tonality of a brown bear when it finds honey from a tree?”
Basso blinked towards the confining bulkheads on either side of him. “Uhm. No.” He smiled. “However, if I try really hard, I can do a spot-on impersonation of Hugoats Weaving.”
“Liar.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Basso hung his head.
With a sigh, Zetta tilted the metal arm with the crystals away. She pulled her beret off, tossed a red and gold mane, and rubbed her scarlet forehead. “Sometimes I get so immeshed in the noises, I think I’ve already joined the Spark.”
Basso squinted. “You think eternity is a bunch of white noise?”
“It’d be a relief from this stupid war.” Zetta turned and glanced calmly at the stallion. “As for the report Straker wants, I’m afraid I’ve not got much to bring to the table. There are definitely Xonans out and about in these clouds, but where they’re coming from--I’ve no idea. Their language is so garbled that sometimes it’s easy to get mixed up with background noise. Also, it doesn’t help that… well…”
“What?”
Zetta’s petite figure squirmed in her seat. “There has been a recurring noise, something new and somewhat disturbing. I noticed it as soon as the Lightning Bearer made it into the east skies after its initial deployment from Blue Summits.”
“Could it be an enemy base?” Basso asked. “Maybe we’ve finally found the Princess of Tattoos?”
“Who? Lasairfion?” The corner to Zetta’s lips curved. “What, you want to ask her out on a date or something?”
“What?!” Basso jolted back, banging his horn against the bulkheads. “Ow! Nnngh. No! No way!”
“She’s kinda sorta the leader of the Xonan detachment that has been slaughtering Seclorum’s forces left and right. You sure she’s your type, Basso?”
“I want nothing to do with her! She’s the enemy!”
Zetta giggled.
Basso frowned, his muzzle taking on hard lines. “Darn it, Zetta…”
“I’m sorry, Basso.” Zetta leaned back in her seat with a calm smile. “You’re just too cute to tease, ya big lug.”
“Can you please give me something to go on? I don’t want to face another one of Straker’s angry lectures.”
“Pfft. Please. You could eat the tiny enforcer whole.”
“And spend the rest of my career making gravel in Blue Yards? No thank you.” Basso nodded towards the communications array. “This strange new noise you keep hearing. What is it?”
Zetta’s face scrunched up as she gazed at the array of flickering sound stones. “It… it’s so odd. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it resembled whale song.”
Basso did a double-take. “Whale song?”
“Deep sonar reverberations undulating through a dense medium. Honestly, I think it’s just a massive leyline entanglement causing feedback off the soundstones. But if that’s the case, it’s a supremely large entanglement. The biggest I’ve ever witnessed. I’d not pay it much attention, save for the fact that it’s increasing in volume and… and…”
“Yes?”
Zetta shuddered slightly. “It almost feels like the noise has emotion. Severe, painful, loathsome, remorseful emotion…”
Basso took a deep breath and said, “I think you’ve had your horn used as a tuning fork for far too long, Zetta.”
“Mmmm. Maybe.” She smirked up at him. “You wouldn’t happen to know a strong, handsome stallion who knows how to make a mare relax, do you?”
“Uhhhhh…” Basso shuffled backwards, fidgeting and sweating. “Uhmmm… I… I…”
“Hmmm?” Zetta giggled. “Well?”
Just then, a corner of the soundstones glowed red and began flashing. A loud buzz echoed over the soundwaves.
Zetta spun towards the console. Her lips pursed. “Hello. Who’s a pretty songbird?”
“What is it?”
“It’s an automatic alarm.” Zetta lowered the metal arm so that the crystals aligned with her horn once more. Her hooves swam across the console in a flurry of twisted dials and yanked levers. “The energy manifold is alerting me to a specific signal being picked up.”
“Huh?”
“I wasn’t here when the console was built, Basso. Somepony must have engineered the leylines of this thing to flash an alarm as soon as it picked up a particular signal.” The stones flashed before her in a sudden pattern, and her features paled. “And now I see why.” She gulped. “It’s Seclorum’s Beacon.”
“Seclorum’s Beacon?” Basso struggled to inch forward for a better listen. His face was washed over with concern. “What’s that mean? He needs help at the front?”
“No. It’s something I was briefed on before I was even stationed on the Lightning Bearer,” Zetta said. “Seclorum’s Beacon is a specifically coded frequency meant to convey a message.”
“What kind of message?”
A stallion’s raspy voice spoke from the entrance to the Communications Room: “That we at last have what we need to end this war.”
Zetta and Basso looked over. Basso stood up straight with a gasp. “Lieutenant Straker--!” Bonk! “Ow!”
A uniformed stallion with a smokey coat and a straight black mane trotted forward, icily glaring at the two. “Well? Is this truly it? The signal that Seclorum has been waiting for all these years?”
Zetta cleared her throat, adjusting the diodes of the communications array. “Without a doubt, sir. From what I can tell, it’s been broadcasting only as of recent. This must have been activated not that long ago. Maybe less than a day, even.”
“Where is the signal situated?”
“Due west. I’m getting the coordinates as we speak.”
“Good. Once you’ve come up with an estimated source of the broadcast, meet me on the top deck. Prime Enforcer Fortis needs to hear about this.”
“Sir?” Zetta glanced aside. “Shouldn’t I get another expert in here to cross-check and analyze--”
Straker’s eyes narrowed. “Are you deaf, soldier?”
“Ahem.” Zetta gulped and shook her head. “No. No, sir. I’ll report to the top deck, right away, sir.”
“Good.” Straker made to leave, but paused to glance at Basso. “Basso, you come too.”
“Sir?”
“You’re a part of this discovery. It’s only fitting that you assist in delivering the report. I expect to see you with your beret on.” With that said, the lieutenant spun about with a billowing black tail and was gone.
Basso nervously placed his article back onto his head. “Just what did I do? This was all your work?”
“You took up space,” Zetta muttered.
“Hardy har har…”
“And from tracing the leylines back to their source and calculating from the frequency of the manastream fluctuations surging back and forth, I’ve determined that the source of the signal is the Blue Marshes, just north of the Azure River Junction along the Great Sea’s coast.”
Prime Enforcer Fortis nodded. “Very good job. Very good job indeed, Enforcer…”
Zetta stood up straight alongside Basso. “Zetta, sir. And Enforcer Basso here, to my left, assisted in the discovery.”
“What? But I--”
“He helped,” Zetta grumbled forward, stealthily swatting the stallion’s thick fetlock.
“I see the academy has been training our new soldiers well,” Fortis said with a proud grin. He turned towards Straker. “Lieutenant? How far away are the Blue Marshes for the Lightning Bearer?”
“Thirty-six hours, sir. But half that if we engage top speed.”
Fortis stroked his chin as he gazed out on the granite mountains around him. “I would have wished to demolish more Xonan supply vessels, maybe even a dreadnaught or two. But if Seclorum finally has his Beacon, then it would be indescribably damaging to the war effort to ignore it.”
“There will always be Xonan ships to destroy, Prime Enforcer.” Straker’s eyes jerked towards him. “This Beacon is a one-time thing.”
“Hmmm. Indeed.” Fortis swiveled about and shouted across the deck. “Bring the ship about! We’re heading west! Set course for the Blue Marshes!” He glanced aside at Straker. “Set manathrusters on high burn. We cannot afford to lose the source of this. Especially if she’s wanting to bestow her gift to Seclorum.”
“Aye, sir.” Straker trotted down the steps and began shouting commands at the flurrying crew members.
Zetta and Basso continued standing stock still, until the stallion muttered towards the mare, “Who’s ‘she?’”
“I don’t know, Basso.”
“Sounds like somepony close to Seclorum.”
“Why?” Zetta’s lips curved slightly as she stared forward. “You jealous?”
“Yeah, well--Hey!”
“For the love of the Queen, Basso, put a cork in it. You can’t have every lady in this war.”
“Grrrrrr…”
She chuckled into the windy air as the Lightning Bearer turned about, then roared its way westward.
And Nightshade shows her true colors. The book, the beacon leading to it... Hurry up, Rainbow!
3360552
Not sure Fortis will be too happy to hear "well, I have half of it, but the rest of it we need to get fetch." Provided Dash doesn't happen to "coincidentally" attempt Kera's rescue at the same time. Suppose you could say Nightshade planned that, too, but it's be a little too convenient. Shell, likewise, will be pretty upset and the wheels spin in place.
Also, Zetta is a pretty popular name, it seems.
I foresee a conflict between Shell and Prime Enforcer Fortis/Seclorum incoming over the Book/Nightshade. Ooh Let the sparks fly!
Eighteen hours before all hell breaks loose ... time to put Rainbow's speed and Roarke's tracking to the test.
I can't help but wonder if the Lightning Bearer's name will turn out to be prophetic.
And now we're one-fourth of the way done with this installment! That was fast.
3360621
If we're lucky, Shell and Fortis will duke it out, letting Rainbow, Roarke, and Kera disappear.
Thirty-five wide-arm pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Well.
It's not like the charachter page didn't need to be updated.
Now Seclorum's party is joining in. We have been waiting quite a while for that.
Also, this.
~bass
And so, on a fateful October day there commenced The Great Naming. Except for morons with overly complicated names severely lacking in snazz and exotic vibes, such as mine.
Oh, and Zetta was reincarnated as a mare. Still doing crazy experiments in dark places with hardly any company except for people who should really be in a school.
So, Nightshade has launched that beacon, I'm assuming. Unless this is actually Seclorum doing something productive and successful out in the East. Would be a surprise, considering he works for Nightshade AND the Council of Ledo. Two negatives don't make a positive, Colon.
I do wonder what the beacon would be if that were the case, and this apparent search for something groundbreaking. I am so tempted to suggest the machine-world entrance, but I was fairly certain only Nightshade knew about that. Then again, the Council had a hell of an interest in such matters as well.
3360745 My guess would be the flame, now contained in the book.
~bass
Well, well...this is certainly setting the stage for a future shitstorm.
Looks like we're gearing up for another final showdown. Just how many climactic battles does Shell get before one of them is, like, an actual climax?
Nightshade...
Manipulation is the first step to downfall. She is setting herself up for a foalish knife in the back.
And everyone is now in the party. What a Ledomaritan civil war/Xonan battle this is going to be.
Lots of new characters. Is that what the title refers to? Also, Zetta is the first mare in Ledo's military weve met, I think.
I like the dynamic between Zetta and Basso. Hope they'll stay around for a while.
New characters! Yay!
Zetta threw me off, until I realized that she was unrelated to the other one.
"Seclorum's Beacon," eh? Sounds like something Dash would have fun destroying.
Marshes? She? Nightshade...
Well, at least Zetta and Basso seem like stand-up ponies.
I can't wait to see the Lightning Bearer and the Steel Wing duke it out high in the skies while Rainbow Dash and Shell go at it on the ground. You may have thought you'd seen explosions before, but I tell ya, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
24
Weren't we talking about Zetta earlier? Did colon hear us?
Well this could be bad. At least they're saner than the Steel Wing's crew. Maybe.
The musicians are just tuning up their instruments, your appetiser will be along shortly. We hope you enjoy the creme bulee.
3361956 IC is always listening.
This chapter seriously reminded me of The Hunt for Red October. Complete with the strange sounds that are mistaken for whale song.
This new batch of characters seems interesting. Can't wait to see how this all ties into the story. I assume they'll be a sort of foil to the Steel Wing. Seriously, this thing is starting to have more characters than War and Peace.
I assume the new signal they got was Nightshade's doing, but what about the mysterious sound Zetta was studying previously? My guess is either: A.) Dash or something directly related to her, like the book, or B.) Something bigger and darker - the same mysterious Something ominously hinted at a few times now, hovering around the edges of the chessboard but tilting every other piece in its direction.
Also, a badass battleship? I can live with that.
...Hmmm...I seem to like Basso...LOL, maybe he'll be Eagle Eye's new boyfriend XD With all that ribbing Zetta is giving him about girls and stuff, I'm wondering if he's actually not interested in mares.
Also
I'm working for the baddies...and it seems I've been promoted, XD Well, let's hope I'm smarter than some OTHER Enforcers I could mention...or that I at least have a very noble death doing the right thing...or hook up with Eagle Eye myself instead of Basso XD Hey I'm in the story now,i may as well take advantage of it XD
3360621
This would be the second time "I'm" in this fic, with the same part of my name, to boot. Not that I'm complaining!
3363313
I would like to mention I hate you, Lieutenant.
I think colon wants to see me rage.
3361729
Plot twist! 3363356 and 3363356 are related, part the same heritage but divided generations ago!
3363381
But, Zetta(Silvadel) is from the unicorns from the west, while Zetta(Ledo) is from Ledomare... I assume. Maybe Zetta(Ledo) somehow can trace her line from the west.
I hope Zetta(Ledo) turns a blind eye to the Enforcers, somehow. Or escapes.
I'm betting that the Lightning Bearer was being built while Nightshade's offices were being raided, and that it has a system that allows it to harness the flame using Nightshade's information on board, probably added at the last second.
I actually like those 2 ledos! ooo and a meat up is going to happen very soon.
3363313
I definitely wouldn't mind. EE is cute.
~Basso Fthe
So Nightshade (presumably) called a Ledomaritan battleship - the best, apparently - while holding Kera and the book. The crew heard a signal that has been broadcasting for less than a day right around the time the book was removed from its cage. Roarke and Dash are pursuing a scorched-earth policy trying to find Kera. Shell is totally unhinged and probably more than a little upset that his two prisoners have escaped.
By my estimate, the damage that will be caused when all these forces meet at once will be all the bits. Which is unfortunate, because the Lightning Bearer's skipper seems pretty chill.
3360667
If you mean the wiki, I'm happy someone is actually looking at this
Now if only someone but me would ever edit the wiki... :P
You know stuff's getting serious when even the chapter titles can't take it anymore.
Lightning Bearer is a pretty awesome name for an airship, if I may say so. I wonder how many of the ship's crew members are aware of Nightshade antagonizing the Council of Ledo - or of the fact that they are now working for her in the first place. It might just as well be that Seclorum is the only one in the entire affair who's fully aware of what's going on.
3362926 The biggest leyline entaglement she's ever witnessed, eh? This is absolutely fascinating. It can't be Austraeoh, nor Eljunbyro, Discord or Rainbow herself - those were all present way before, when Josho was hunting them with leylines and soundstones, he would've noticed back then if there was any entaglement between, say, Discord and Rainbow. But that emotional part is what's really enticing me. Not evil, but full of grief and remorse - the comparison to whale song seems highly appropriate to me: powerful, colossal, but also heart-rendingly sad. Apparently, too powerful to come from anything but a higher force. To some degree, I agree with you: this might be something new. Still, in some ways it will be connected to a theme we know already, but to which and in what way? I'm currently evaluating three different approaches that I could think of:
1) It is the power of the ruby flame trapped inside the book, the anguished outcries of a broken, dying world. This would of course mean attributing the ability to feel to the energy of the world itself - with dramatic results.
2) The sound is coming from the book, but not from the flame within. Instead, it is the spirits of the proto-pegasi that were linked to that book, the wrathful shades of a long-dead culture so to speak. That would also explain why it was possible to sequence with their minds when they had been dead for aeons in the first place - they still are linked to the flame. One could take it one step further than and speculate whether this is true for all the proto-pegasi, since we still don't know what it was that made the ring break and their culture die. Should that be true, Zetta would currently be hearing an entire species lamenting their own demise.
3) It is truly something we have not met before. This new mysterious force would fit right in with the three other mysterious forces that we have heard of, but know nothing of as of now: whatever it was that broke the ring to begin with, the gods of the Xonans and the "great darkness" that
the most awesome dragon evQueen Nevlamas has been (and perhaps still is) fighting in the north. In that case, it would make sense for some if not all of these forces to be the same thing. We still wouldn't know what that force would be then, but we would know some of it's history, power - and personality. In all three of this cases, Zetta has got her ear on something ancient now stirring. I remain hoping that this series will stay true to its printed twin - the Dark Tower - in the future as well: on a quest encompassing the entire series, the hero sets out to travel through land after land, defeating one minor villain after the other until finally the true, cosmic evildoer reveals himself and is summarily defeated throughout the course of the last three books (and hopefully not as anticlimactically as King's villain, either!).Or perhaps it's really just an exposition for the whole Xonan belief thing which will then turn out to be something entirely unrelated to anything else and will be smashed by Rainbow in two chapters. You never know.
Awww... I kind of already like Zetta and Basso.
I hope they do not become dead.
3363358 It's not my fault, it's my....e...evil TWIN! Yah! That's it ! anyonebuyingit?
3363672 Yeah he is...hey wait! Hey get back, he's mine! Oh who am I kidding. I just wanna see the little guy be happy and get his man! Poor little fella...
3364390 I will love him and take care of him.
~Basso Fthe
So many name drops... please stop oh celestia.
So someone had their name used twice eh.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
I am...confused. If Nightshade hates Ledomare, then why contact them? Maybe she thinks she can cut a deal with them, but I don't think so. Also, new characters! But will they join in Dash's cause or remain on the side of evil? And as a side note - is Basso pronounced "bass-oh" or "base-oh?" I think that "base-oh" sounds cooler. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. No Marathon or Adventure, I know. But I have something even better planned...
3414267 didn't she already say she had friends in the Ledomartian military? Double agents. and she has the strongest ship in the fleet under her agents control it looks like. s'quite a boon.
So many characters! I'm gonna have to start writing them down, Wheel of Time Style. That, or I could stop taking mega breaks in between reading chapters so I remember everyone better. Either one.
So Nighty actually does have some powerful friends still kicking around. Go figure. Team R-squared really need to kick their butts/thrusters in high gear and snag Kera before its too late, but something tells me their whole rescue mission might get a little sidetracked...
and with that exciting info dump, I go to sleep! goodnight!
I can't tell whether Zetta or Basso is going to be a main. Also, we now know what Nightshade really wants...
-Spirit
im happy to FINALLY see a level headed PE for a change. rather than shell the loony
3360707
I'm sure you noticed that you've been showcased as a large, muscular stallion.
Basso is next. Now, I have a feeling that this beacon is not what it seems.
Ooh, that's some good stuff! Zetta and Basso are real cards, lovin' them already. Plus, it's a military infodump, something that I loooove
welp! time for sleep. 1/4 of the way through the story in three days, I'm making good time!
Question is, Nightshade's crafty enough to let Kera keep the book for now, but does she know about it?
Sounds like someone has been watching The Hunt for Red October.