Rainbow Dash panted… panted… panted…
Everytime she moved, she heard the rattling of metal chains. As shivers ran through her body, she heard the echoes of her agonized breaths against the tight walls.
Something warm and wet trickled down her forehead and over her muzzle. She opened her eyes. The world around her flickered red once… twice. She saw glowing manacrystals propped up on columns situated around a metal dais built beneath her.
More trickling; Rainbow Dash licked her muzzle, tasting blood. A throbbing sensation coursed through her body, fixated in two points across her skull. With a groaning breath, she hunched forward--only to find herself dangling along the lengths of her chains. She wasn’t standing, and yet she wasn’t hanging either. All four of her legs as well as her two outstretched wings were looped with metal shackles bound to a cubicle framework surrounding her atop the circular platform. As her eyesight fell to the floor, she spotted twin puddles of blood along the edge of her shadow.
Glancing back up, she saw her reflection in something. A frazzled pegasus stared back, and two knobs of gnarled brown bone were protruding from the pony’s forehead. It was around this time that Rainbow Dash realized that it was her ruby pendant--hovering in a manafield about two meters directly ahead--that was reflecting her.
Her neck was bare.
“N-no… no!!” Rainbow Dash shrieked. She thrashed left and right, rattling the chains. But her restraints pulled tight from all angles, and she couldn’t move her body a single inch. She hissed and wheezed as a nightmarish pain echoed through her skull. Her ears twitched from what could best be described as a burrowing sound, and she felt the two bony protrusions slowly twisting like wooden screwdrivers piercing the layers of her of her skin. “Guhhhh-haaaugh!” Her eyes flickered red on yellow and back to their usual ruby, in constant flux. “This… this isn’t right! I shouldn’t be here! I-I shouldn’t be like this!”
”La’gnimaasaal thr’aala’kameel thien sel’uusuru, hra’ma ja’lessurem tren’tassan.” A regal voice drifted into the chamber.
Rainbow Dash looked up, breathless.
Princess Lasairfion trotted in from a pitch black corridor adjacent to the platform. She was followed swiftly by the Xonan interpreter, who was already speaking for the silkily robed monarch.
“And yet it is still unharmed, the little pony?”
Rainbow watched with twitching vision as Lasairfion stared at her in her state and calmly spoke, “Th’nna Oss Tray Oh tren’tassan messul m’beraasa diulen hassul thriel.”
“Oss Tray Oh pony is not bound by fear.”
“Hava’salem dre’draan mekhulien maakara’nal vimull thiul Negu’n?”
“Then why should it restrain from the voice of Negu’n?”
“This…” Rainbow hissed, floating helplessly in the web of chains. “Th-this is not power! This is chaos!” She gnashed her teeth as more blood poured down her head like an anointing. “It is very, very dangerous! I’m not being fearless by avoiding it! I am being smart!” She motioned with her head towards the pendant. “Now put that darn thing back on me and let’s be done with it! I’m serious!”
Lasairfion took a deep breath as she trotted around the circumference of the dais. Her voice drifted towards Rainbow’s ears like liquid gold. The interpreter tried in vain to emulate her Majesty’s grace.
“We knew it was coming because Negu’n felt it. Both beat with the same heart. Both breathe from the same skies. But where Negu’n has only slept, Oss Tray Oh has flown.”
“What…” Rainbow squeaked from the pain wracking through her body as she tried to keep her eyes on the Princess. “What are you trying to get at?”
Lasairfion shuffled to a stop and stared fixedly at the pegasus. She spoke in a firm tone.
The interpreter droned, “It needs it to commune with Negu’n, so that the glory of the Goddess will bridge the gap between the world and the sky.”
“You… you expect me to help you…?” Rainbow Dash was too exhausted to frown. “Like this?!”
Lasairfion smiled, her eyes glinting in the manalight as she spoke.
The interpreter said, “It will not help the Princess. It will not help the Goddess. It will help bring love and peace to this continent.”
Lasairfion leaned forward until she was practically purring into Rainbow’s twitching ear.
“It is not the pendant that saves it. It is loyalty that keeps it in this state, just as it is the Goddess’ noble devotion that keeps it in one piece, though infinitely pierced.”
“Infinitely… p-pierced…?” Rainbow Dash murmured.
By this point, Lasairfion was pacing towards the corridor from which she came. She paused, however, to stroke a gentle hoof across the surface of the Element of Loyalty. She spoke in a distant tone, though her regal smile never left.
“Breathe with Her. Commune with Her. Then She will learn to fly. There will be no need of pendant, nor fear. All will be the glory of Negu’n, as brought by Oss Tray Oh.”
The Princess left, and the interpreter followed her. Barely ten seconds after their departure, a loud mechanical grinding could be heard. The dais lit up beneath Rainbow Dash. She watched--breathless--as the entire circular platform spun in a slow circle. It lowered like a reverse drill, suddenly sliding down a deep cylindrical passage.
“Wh-what’s going on?!” Rainbow’s voice cracked as the chains rattled and rattled. If it weren’t for the glowing manastones around her, she’d be cast in darkness with her blood and pain. “Where are you sending me?! What is all this?!” She shook and grunted, but to no avail.
It was then that the cylinder gave way, and Rainbow Dash found herself lowering into a deep, cavernous abyss within the very heart of Sacred Hold. The air flew out of her lungs and her ears folded foalishly atop her head, for a loud, haunting noise was reverberating all around her.
A loathsome, wailing song.
Through the shadows below, something shifted, something cold, dark, and massive.
Rainbow Dash gulped as the platform rotated to a jolting stop. “Hoboy…”
Damn it, why can't anyone just leave Dash the hell alone?
But perhaps now we'll finally get a look at the beast that frightened Roarke. If it even was a beast...
I may be (wrongly) reading too much into it, but does that imply that RD won't need the pendant at some point?
Crap...I completely forgot up to this moment that RD still needs that pendant to counteract the chaos...and that she is is in immediate proximity to a bunch of chaos-derived magic and spookies. This is not good.
3507641
I'm thinking the same thing.
What? Why? What is she even trying to accomplish?
3507749
She wants to harness the power inside Dash... but does she truly know what it is?
Ten burpees, ):(. Knock 'em out!
All I could notice was that we got more text to attempt to translate.
This is madness!
No, this is Xona!
Nagun is one of the ancient dragon-goddesses. I probably should have called it earlier, before it was somewhat more obvious.
Also, a great deal of my very soul wants to punch the smug smile right off of Lasairfon's face. Typical holier-than-thou knowitall with all the answers. Just like every other fucking jerk who has tried to exploit Dash. All she's going to accomplish is turning Dash into a draconequus, who will then proceed to kill the shit out of Xona. Probably. Maybe?
3507829
obviously not. If she did, she wouldn't try to harness it...
I don't think Lasairfion has a working understanding of what love and peace actually mean.
3507981
well, I did call it earlier, though not as confidently as you do here.
but no one listens to the fitful whispery breezes that are the sound of the Forest muttering to itself, anymore.
Alas, what might have been...
3508348
Want a smoke?
3508208
Like I said before, the Xonans are like the Martians from MARS ATTACKS!
They're completely backwards, razing your village to the ground is their most polite means of saying hello.
You know how there are some villains that you kind of like? Sure, they're evil, and you want them to lose in the end, but you can't help but like them because they're still sorta awesome? (Max Cash springs to mind...)
Yeah, Queen Lassie is not that. Fuck her. I really do hope she gets her delusion-filled head exploded sooner rather than later.
Maybe its saying that the feeling of Loyalty, the spirit of it, Is what keeps the chaos at bay. That's why shes saying that {Perhaps} Rainbow won't need the Element of Loyalty, because if Rainbow figures out that she just needs to stay loyal, then she doesn't need the pendant.
Thus Rainbow gets 20% more badass
So, Dash might not need the pendant anymore in the near future. Isn't that one step towards being able to control the chaos? Austraeoh might be about to become a lot more powerful.
~Basso
Great to be caught up again, I can't deem to stay that way very long though...
I'm with you guys on nagu'n being one of the dragon goddesses that would make a whole lot of sense, although what does lasairfion mean by "infinitely pierced?" let's hope that this ends better than the encounter with axan did...
I've been waiting for another Rainbow Dash chapter, the suspense was killing me! And now, the suspense is back D: WHYYY
So it wasn't Dash that scared Roarke half to death.
and wasn't it implied in one of the other books that the transformation to chaos mode would kill her? So they either need to get that pendent back on fast, or Dash kills everything, then dies herself
The Second Ancient Dragon is dying in the hold...so what scared Roarke so badly?
The dark side of my brain is secretly kind of hoping that Dash kills everybody. It would make things a whole lot easier.
Oh hey, I'm still alive.
Looks like Dash is about to see what the Xonans worship.
Here it comes...
If its big, its a dragon. Rainbow Dash, herself, was chewed up by the last mega dragon, left for dead, then essentially resurected through removal of the pendant and containment in chaos metal.
So, Chaos Dash verses Mega Dragon.?
As for Simon, and all the others? I believe I may have to work on The Fabulous Riverboat.
Im too good at DEM.
Well, the fact that it "shifts" suggests it's a living thing. The dragon theory becomes more likely. I wish I could remember the description of the various dragons we were given earlier. Perhaps it's a dragon that's hibernating - Lasairfion mentions Nagu'n "sleeping" - and they're hoping Dash can wake it. And it's been a while since the dragons have come into play, so it would be neat to see them fleshed out some more, especially since we've only ever seen one.
Or it could be some other beastie altogether.
Also, the suggestion that Dash could learn to control the chaos in her and not need the pendant to do so is intriguing. And if Dash could learn to control the chaos, through continued loyalty to the band of friends she now has, it may serve to preserve her for the duration of her journey (because, let's face it, it seems unlikely she'll make it at this rate; something needs to happen).
Giant hair with stone orbs entangled in it AND billowy robes?
Isn't she afraid that the fashion police will come and beat her with their fabulous batons?
IT BEGINS!!
3507981
Perhaps if we combine our souls, the righteous fury they emit will pierce through the heavens and smite all of Xona.
Do we get to meet Nagu'n now, or was Lasairfion implying that Dash was Nagu'n? Need another chapter to clear my confusion.
3510132
There was already something like that. It was called "the Elements of Harmony".
But they're kind of dead right now.
There's also Captain Planet, but I don't think he exists in this Universe
3509749
If Nagu'n/Negu'n (what's up with that, btw?) is a dragon matriarch, she can only be Verlax or Nevlamas.
Since we haven't seen any frost around the place, and the "deep-seated darkness" could be connected to the chaos magic Xonans use, I would bet on Nev.
All colours thus now face the blackness. This will be an interesting meeting. Related picture for today:
motto.net.ua/images/201209/motto.net.ua_19426.jpg
The amazing part is that some of those words could be coming from Whitemane's mouth for all they're worth. "It is Loyalty that empowers you, not the pendant". The whole It's-the-virtue-in-your-heart-not-artifact-XY-that-counts talk is not usually done by villains. So yes, I was suspecting Nagu'n to be an originally benevolent (harmonious even) deity whose worship went horribly wrong - or who went wrong all by herself, given the nature of her song and the fact that she seems to be physically present in the hold. But if the princess is neither misinterpreting her nor purposefully lying to her people, how could that be? How could such a powerful being be of Harmony and at the same time have her followers employ creatures of Chaos? I can't make up my mind about Nagu'n. Truth is, I can't even make up my mind about Lasairfion. I would not be surprised if they turned out to be good after all.
By the way, regarding the two warring theories about Austraeoh, whether the Xonans and company know of Rainbow because there have been other Sparks before her or because of prophecy: the princess expected Discord. I do not think that being possessed by Discord was a quality that any hypothetical earlier Austraeoh would've shared with Rainbow - given how she was the one who killed him in the first place. As I see things now, the prophecy theory must be true - confirming that there is indeed the possibility to truly foretell the future in this universe and that there is a higher order, some kind of fate (if my obvservations shouldn't turn out to be misguided). This does of course not exclude the possibility that there also were other Sparks before Rainbow - but we don't need to assume them to explain the Xonan's knowledge anymore.
As a general side remark, I am still thinking that Searo must be destroyed. Just thought I'd mention it.
3510796
and would her being the Queen of Magic have anything to do with the chaos strips and stuff?
3510796
I'm so glad you took the time to look that up (I'm a lazy bastard, so...)
I agree that those look like good candidates. Nevlamas, in particular, tickles my prediction gland. There might even conceivably be an etymological link between "Nevlamas" and "Nagu'n", though they're not very similar, apart from the first letter.
Sing her song and become nothing...
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
What? She won't need the pendant at some point? This is huge. The Elements will be, like, within her. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Haha! almost halfway through catching up once more!
3507709
3507641
Thirded. I certainly hope so.
Hell, maybe she'll even learn to control her chaos form at some point. That would be interesting, even if it makes her OP as all get out...
Wait, so no pendant? Hmmm... I'm so used to it that not having it around might be weird, but I think I can roll with it.
So, dragon imminent, I'm guessing. Poor Dash. Even when the girl stays away from underground caverns and tunnels, she gets dragged into floating fortresses that contain underground caverns and tunnels. And their associated denizens too, of course.
Onward!
Will RD not need the pendant some day?
Is this a dragon?
-SPirit
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHH
MY SHOT IN THE DARK SCORED A HIT!!!
the dying song WAS one of the divines
FUCK i feel gooooooooood about masealf!!!!
-punches the air-
but in all seriousness, i have a feeling seclorum is going to be defending against an invasion rather than conducting one himself...
This...is...VERY...grave news...\
also, if this is the obelisk at blue shelf, i wonder if we'll uncover any other yet untold deep dark secrets there?
only time will tell
You look into the abyss, and the abyss looks back . . .
So... perhaps it WAS Chaos Dash who was fucking shit up earlier, and perhaps it was this abyss monster... only
timethe next chapters will tell.Uh oh
Lots of people have said Dragon, possibly one of the Divines, and while that's a definite possibility, I'm going to say it's something else.
Just what we needed, another dash of chaos.
Some really crazy stuff is about to take hold. I'm excited, to say the least. I wonder what Roarke saw a couple of chapters ago, and I wonder what Dash is seeing now down there. Only time will tell. Ugh... I think it's bed time for me. I wonder how much more of this I can get done before the year is up...
~SolidFire
It's...JOHN CENAAAAAAAAAA
6845779
It's the Chuck Norris of chaos!