“Split up?!” Zetta gasped. The Sacred Hold shook all around her. “Are you serious?!”
“Pathetically, yes.” Rainbow Dash fumbled to strap Luna’s saddlebag back on. Nightshade leaned in to lend a hoof, but the pegasus writhed away from her, frowning as she finished the dizzying task herself. “As much as I need to fetch Kera, none of you ponies deserve to stay stranded on this crumbling rock for any longer. That’s why I suggest that the bulk of us go and jump aboard a Xonan aircraft, and I’ll go find the foal myself.”
“How can you expected to do that on your own?!” Zetta spat. “You’re in no shape to trot a hundred yards, much less fly through this collapsing mess!”
“Yeah!” Zaid exclaimed as he stretched the limp, quivering figure of Khao over his backside. “I love the little scamp and all, but I totally vote for you not becoming floating serpent house fodder!”
“Nnngh…” Khao’s face tensed as she clutched her injured forelimb. “Damned heathens! Damned heathens and apostate masses!”
“That’s uhhhh…” Zaid smiled with a sweating expression. “That’s Heraldese for ‘you got a point there, Brother Zaid!’”
“Do you even know where to look for her?!” Zetta exclaimed.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes fluttered as she teetered heavily to the left. Basso leaned in to support her. As the Ledomaritan prisoners watched nervously, the pegasus shook her muzzle, rubbed her head, and glanced down through the opaque floor with sheer focus.
“Yeah,” Rainbow muttered. Her thin ruby eyes spotted a flickering lavender light several hundred meters through the body of the floating mountain. “I know where she is…”
“She’s gifted with sensitivity for the lavender flame,” Nightshade spoke out loud.
”Ulp!” Rainbow Dash held a hoof over her pale muzzle. She gulped bile down and muttered, “Yeah, some gift…”
“Rainbow, perhaps we could make it to the escape ships without you,” Zetta said. More shaking, rumbling. She frowned as she said, “But you can’t possibly be expected to survive on your own!”
“Yeah!” Zaid squinted. “Won’t getting closer to the book make your head even conkier?!”
“Meh…” Rainbow Dash shook her head and tried to keep her eyes steady. “I’m open to ideas.”
“I think I should accompany her in her sojourn,” Nightshade said.
Rainbow frowned, but refused to look at the madame. “Besides her.”
“Do not pretend that your executive authority gives you the excuse to be ignorant of common sense!” Nightshade snapped. “We both desire the child’s safe return, and it would benefit us in our struggle against the Xonan menace to possess that book. Although I can be of great assistance to you, I fear that I am not strong enough to carry you swiftly and safely through these dark tunnels.”
“Pffft. Yeah?” Rainbow balked. “And I bet you know who is?”
Nightshade was silent. She turned around and looked at Basso. Zaid glanced at Basso. Everypony was staring at Basso.
The stallion blinked curiously. “Who? Zetta?”
”Haaaaaaaaaaaugh!” Roarke charged violently into Zytharros’ armored figure.
“Grggggh!” The warrior took the brunt of her galloping attack. The two flew back into a series of metalwork tools, knocking steel instruments across the stone floor in a loud, cacophonous thud. Briefly wrestling, the two rolled over abandoned chaos strip mold casts. At last, Zytharros bucked his legs out, tossing the Searonese attacker high in the air.
Roarke twirled close to the ceiling.
With gnashing teeth, Zytharros telekinetically hoisted several chunks of debris and flung them at Roarke’s body.
She twirled, fired her rocket thrusters, and soared along the length of the emptied metalworks. Twirling about, she dove low, twirled, and shot straight towards the stallion. With flicks of her forelimbs, her metal-laced hooves extended razor-sharp blades. “Rrrrrrrgh!”
Zytharros took a calm breath, telekinetically stripped his armor, and stepped back. He solidified the blade directly in front of him, closing the glowing blue plates around Roarke’s outstretched hooves.
Roarke gasped, jerking to a stop, anchored.
With a growling shout, Zytharros spun the sword vertically. The twirling motion threw Roarke in a tight circle. Her hooves slipped, and she flew into a series of suspended buckets and mechanical limbs hanging in the corner of the room.
Zytharros’ hooves stomp-stomp-stomped across the floor as he charged, spun like a top, and swung his sword as savagely as he could across the sweaty arena.
With a sharp breath, Roarke jumped back, juked, side-stepped, and reverse-somersaulted. In so doing, she escaped the razor-sharp blows with a hair’s grace. Chunks of metal debris rained down on her. Entire slivers of Xonan factory works rattled loudly onto the floor.
At last, Zytharros shoved her up against a series of smoke-stained glass windows. Roarke tripped and fell on her armored backside. She winced as the soldier rushed towards her, used his sword as a pole-vault, launched high, and came down at her with a murderously violent downswing. “Yaaaaaugh!”
Roarke held her breath and rolled back onto her forward shoulders, performing a hoof-stand. Thunkkkk! The blade embedded into the ground a centimeter’s sneeze from the nape of her neck. When her upper body fell back down, it reclined along the blunt edge of the blade with her rear hooves clasping around the glowing hilt.
“You wanna yell?!” With a grunt, Roarke pulled her entire body up until she was seated upright on the thing. From this position, she grabbed Zytharros’ startled muzzle in the crook of one hoof and aimed at his face with the other. “Do it on the way down!” She punched him once, twice--grabbed him--then threw herself back on the weight of the blade, tossing him savagely through the window. “Haaaaugh!”
Zytharros shrieked like a little filly, but the warbling sound was canceled out by the noise of shattering glass…
...as he plummeted through the window and straight into the central hangar of the Sacred Hold outside. As he flinched and flailed in mid-descent, he spotted an armored body diving out of the factory works and gliding after him.
Roarke wasn’t done with the warrior. Successfully catching up with the stallion, she straddled Zytharros’ body in midair and repeatedly pummeled his helmeted skull. “Rggh! Nnngh! Yrrrghh! Haaaugh!” Zytharros took it and took it, his armorless body spasming beneath her punishing impacts. At last, the two landed across the loading deck. Zytharros limply shoved Roarke off him, but it barely gave him the upper hoof. She rushed him and kicked the stallion aside. Stumbling, Zytharros cast a bleeding look towards the metalworks up above. His horn glowed with bright blue energy.
Roarke rushed him--but jerked to a stop, squinting at his shimmering mana. She turned and looked up in time to see a glint of sharp metal in the corner of her eyes. Gasping, she rolled sideways in time to avoid Zytharros’ blade slicing down and embedding into the ground beside her.
As Roarke got back on her hooves, she saw Zytharros limping towards the blade and leaning on it for a few seconds. The stallion spat a copious amount of blood onto the floor, tilted his head up, and glared at her. His eyes strobed with bright blue light, and the chaos strip around his neck twirled with otherworldly energy. Within seconds, hissing translucent serpents slithered out of his blade and swam menacing circles around his figure.
Roarke clenched her teeth, backing up on anxious hooves. “Typical breeder…” She cracked the joints in her neck. “Bringing snakes to a pony fight.”
Zytharros yanked his blade out from the ground and floated it besides his summoned beasts as he limped angrily towards her.
Meanwhile, several hundred feet away, the Lightning-Bearer floated in its moorings. Several disguised Xonans had spotted Zytharros’ plight and were murmuring in surprise. At least a dozen of them grabbed glowing scimitars and manarifles and prepared to charge onto the loading dock to assist their patron warrior.
At the sound of a loud, abrasive shout, they skidded to a stop in their tracks and looked behind them.
Arcshod stood tall and resolute, glaring at the group. He slowly shook his head.
The Xonans exchanged nervous glances, squirming in their Ledomaritan uniforms. Obediently, they bowed at the commanding officer and trotted reluctantly back to their stations.
Arcshod gave the distant duel between the metal mare and the Xonan warrior a squinting glance. After a few seconds, her smirked, then turned to shout towards the lead helmspony. Xonans passed the order down towards the far end of the ship. Ponies worked the instruments at their stations.
With a loud rumble of engines, the Lightning Bearer undocked and drifted away, cruising towards the mouth of the Hold’s immense hangar entrance.
Zetta, Zaid, and nearly a dozen Ledomaritans galloped briskly down a tight corridor.
“I don’t suppose there’s a chance of using the little pony’s room between here and there, huh?” Zaid panted in mid-run. “It’s been a while since I made sissy. Not sure about How-Now-Browned-Khao, here.”
“Nnnnnghhhhh…” Khao whimpered as her body flopped on his backside.
“You wanna take a leak?” Zetta frowned, stammering for breath. “Do it over the side once we’re a mile away from this collapsing mess!” As if on cue, the mountain rumbled around her. She gritted her teeth and glanced at the dust trailing from the ceiling. “Oh, I really… really hope they find the kid so that I can see Basso again.”
“I don’t get it, Miss Dash,” Basso muttered as he galloped forward on thundering hooves through a dark hallway. “How is it that you can see the book through walls?”
“Stop talking…” Rainbow Dash whimpered from where she was draped over the full length of his backside. “The vibrations are making me wanna upchuck…”
“Let’s simply proceed to our destination,” Nightshade grunted as she galloped after the two. “We’re at a junction, Miss Dash! What direction should we take?”
“Unnngh…” Rainbow squinted over Basso’s hobbling shoulders. “A sharp right. Look for stairs or something, cuz we gotta descend another two levels.”
“If you say so.” Basso turned a corner and approached a tightly sealed stone door. “I still don’t see why you chose to bring me along and not somepony else.”
“The door, if you can, good sir,” Nightshade said.
Basso shrugged his way into the doorframe, smashing through the stone slab as if it was made of paper.
The edge of Nightshade’s lips curved slightly. “Good Basso. Remain curious. It certainly helps the rest of us.”
“If you say so…”
Rainbow Dash’s frowning face winced under falling pebbles. “On second thought, keep talking, buddy,” she muttered. “That way I don’t get to hear her stupid voice…”
This sort of reminds of Metroid Prime, just after defeating the first boss, where the entire place is collapsing and there's only a small amount of time to escape.
Also, Basso is one of my new favorite characters.
Rainbow Dash is going to need an epic fight scene with the Xonan Princess to make up for that nauseating ailment ("Wrong A word") bringing her down.
I like Basso's total cluelessness to everything. It's rather humorous.
Roarke knows that defenestration is never enough to kill someone. Never let your opponent out of your line of sight, because they will come back.
Arc changed genders.
Those fucking Xonans! Leaving behind a wounded countryman to face utter annihilation! Dishonor on their families! Dishonor on their cows!
Anyway, I really love Basso's whole demeanor.
We need to get to the bridge before the self destruct goes off. But all 46 emergancy bulkheads between here and there are sealed, we cant open them. Why dont we cut them open with laser cutters? A very good plan sir, but with two minor problems. Firstly, theres no power for the laser cutters, and secondly, we dont have any laser cutters. We could, if we had something say 6 foot long, 2 foot wide, with a flat head.
You do realise that the biggest problem Im considering now isnt even that chaos dragon or the mountain dive, but how the hay to build a weapon and or shield that can actually be used by Basso, in that it doesnt just cumple like foil when he firsts uses it.
Finally realised. Basso is Grey Hulk.(?)
Looks like Roarke is handling herself just fine. It'd be kinda nice if she just got Zytharros... y'know, out of the way. I know we have almost half the installment left, but there's still lots of plot elements being juggled right now.
I'm enjoying these bovine puns more than I should.
I bet after rainbow finds kera and Dalen they will have to jump out of the hold to fall to the ground, only to be saved by the other group who managed to find a ride just in time, then they pick up Josho, sort out any problems(kill the xonans/stop the war or something), shell will show up, then they get rid of him and get belle back, then the rest of the jury regroups with them and we have another farewell party for those that stay behind
If that Lightning Bearer takes off, the best hope we have is either, Seclorum's quick initiative or Shell somehow stopping the whole thing (by himself, of course).
I love Basso. Such a lovable simpleton.
For a metal mare, Roarke sure does twirl a lot.
I can't wait for Rainbow to come back after being decommissioned and return to get awesome butt kicking self. she is gonna tear these bad ponies a new one.
Basso continues to remind me of kronk, for all the right reasons.
Basso really is clueless. Thankfully it doesn't matter how clueless he is; I doubt anything he knows or doesn't know will ever manage to hurt him.
3599939
Oh dear. That sounds like an awful lot of trouble.
At least he's got a shot with Roarke now. You know, if she wasn't clearly RDsexual.
The most significant differences between me and Basso are the "big" and "strong" parts. All other differences can be accredited to compensating for the absence or presence, respectively, of these qualities.
~Badasso
Basso feels like a more clueless version of me. I generally end up being the biggest and strongest of any given group I'm a part of.
I have no hurry for having a character with my name in the story, because when I read Basso, I feel as I am inside the story.
I dub this shipping...
Batta!
I said it, so it shall become true!
So is this Round 3 or 4 for Roarke now?
The longest duel in the history of the series thus far was Roarke vs. Rainbow Dash, which lasted seven chapters if I remember it correctly. Let's see if we can't at least reproduce that.
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3599941 I wouldn't be surprised if Skirts has read Arc's in-character monologue, taken it into account and turned him into a disloyal little schemer because why the hell not. He was smirking after all.
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Nightshade just admitted Rainbow outranks her.
Zytharros just did the sword technique I've been waiting to see somepony write in... the polevault cleave.
IIIIIt's Dashie's sort or Christmas Special Get-Backing Adventure!
I love Basso's personality, I really do. Beyond that, not much else in this chapter. But that fight scene was especially epic because I perceived perfectly what was going on. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Tired. Family troubles. Be thankful for what I am giving you, one or two more chapters tonight.
P.S. Self-destruct escape sequence...like every Meteoid game, ever?3599806JK I like Merroid.
So much drama! I don't think I can stand to keep reading!
Yeah, Ok, I totally can.
So long as the end of the drama isn't depressing and everyone gets out safe and sound. That can still happen, right? Literally everything is exploding zillions of feet from the ground, and a chaos dragon is about to unleash the mother of all death beams into an unsuspecting population, and at least three main characters are in directly life threatening situations, but...
Ugh, I really need to go to bed, but I need some sort of closure first: Onward!
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Here we go. Almost to Kera. We're nearly all reunited again!
-Spirit
I'm still confused by the other twelve prisoners, but I look forward to the royal beating anyone that gets in the way of Basso shall receive.
Basso's naivety is so charming!
Zytharros was arrogant, and did not take to the serpents right away. A big mistake on his part.
When all else fails, start breaking things.
5481649
Well maybe they picked up Dash's habit of saving random ponies from doom?
Rainbow Dash gonna be so jealous.
7006684
Naw, it's just a sideffecf of prolonged exposure to pure awesomeness.
You need to refine the stuff
Miss Dash! That's new!
Oh, Basso... I sincerely hope you become a jurist.