//------------------------------// // The Shards of Endrax // Story: Ofolrodi // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// "I saw... lots of things..." Rainbow Dash muttered. She sat in the corner of the tent, her petite figure bundled tight beneath three layers of blankets. The shivers had almost vanished completely, and she stared gently out into the twilight reaches of the city beyond the canvas. "So many ponies... so many creatures... monsters and imps and sarosians and crystal ponies and changelings..." Her fuzzy ears twitched—one after the other. "I saw entire years' worth of stuff... eons." A tender gulp. "Battles. Massacres. The rise and fall of countless Dark Side civilizations..." Her eyes twinkled. "I saw light... solar flares peeking out from beyond the Penumbral edge." A heavy exhale. "I saw so many crazy... wild things... and yet I don't feel like I got any answers." Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity sat in a ghostly curve before the mare, listening with intense expressions. "But..." Fluttershy's ears drooped. "...you learned about what happened to Endrax, right?" Rainbow Dash nodded. "She..." The mare pulled the blanket fabric closer, sighing out her nostrils. "...she sacrificed herself to block off all entrances into the Midnight Armory. Then—to seal the deal—she put a spell on her body to... make it pretty much unbreakable." Her eyes darted across her five friends. "The only way to undo it is to reunite the pieces of her crown that she lost." "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Pinkie Pie nodded. "So those are the Shards of Endrax!" "Right..." "Oh, I bet they must have looked fabulous back in the day!" Rarity declared, eyelashes fluttering. "Erm..." She daintily cleared her throat. "Not to... diminish the seriousness of their present-day worth, of course." "It's okay, Rarity..." Rainbow smiled tiredly. "According to Ariel, I've been dozing off for two weeks. I... I-I could really use listening to your fruity voice again." "Mmmmmm..." Rarity waved a hoof, grinning slyly. "Flatter all you wish, darling." "And them Shards..." Applejack rubbed her golden scalp as she thought aloud: "These pieces of Endrax that snapped off her noggin'... they're currently in the possession of the Three Factions of the Trinary War?" "That's right, AJ." Rainbow Dash took a breath. "According to Abaddon's song, they must be reunited and brought back to Endrax's corpse if there's any hope of her body being moved away from the Armory's entrances." "Well, fiddlesticks!" Applejack winced. "I guess there's just no moseyin' on into the place where the alicorns left the Harmonic Prism! I mean... not with the only keys to that there lock box bein' spread around all wild-like!" "Ohhhhh..." Fluttershy's ghostly form drooped. "...I suppose we were silly to think it could have been that easy." "Easy?!" Rarity shook her head. "Even without the Shards being an issue, just getting through this ghastly War to even reach the Midnight Armory sounds like a treacherous task in and of itself!" She shivered, raising a forelimb in revulsion. "Guh!" "I just can't get over the sheer amount of foresight that Endrax must have possessed to accomplish this!" Twilight Sparkle remarked. "I mean—she had to have known that the Bloodwings—or any faction, for that matter—would have found a way to eliminate her brood and clear the way to the Sarcophagus of Ages!" "Verlax had some pretty hefty friggin' foresight," Rainbow Dash droned. She raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Why's Endrax's intuition so mind-boggling?" "It isn't, really. But... Endrax still thought so far ahead! And she didn't have the same kind of preparation in song that Abaddon and her children have afforded all these eons!" Twilight Sparkle shrugged. "I used to think that the stars would align just to aid in the fate of Equestria. The more I look at things, the more I realize that fate's aligning to guide you. The Austraeoh." "Errrrrr..." Pinkie Pie smiled, waving a hoof through Rainbow's shoulder as if to pat her. "Of course—no pressure or anything! Eheheheh..." Rainbow sighed long and hard. "To be honest? I'm kinda numb to it all by now." "Well, reckon that's a good thing." Applejack nodded. "Because if I were you and I had to deal with the gravity of this here 'Shard' situation—I'd wanna be numb too!" "Jee... thanks," Rainbow gluttered. "Yeah, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie giggle-snorted, zipping around her and flailing her forelimbs. "Make sure you don't Shard yourself! Hahaha—" Rarity face-hoofed. "Ohhhhhh Pinkie." "What?!" Pinkie shrugged. "Just trying to make some laughs! We've gotta have a bright side to all this, right?" "And I appreciate it, Pinkie..." Rainbow slurred, her brow furrowing. "But the only 'bright side' is the fact that—somehow—the factions haven't stolen a piece of Endrax from one another in all the time it took for me to get my awesome butt over here." "What would h-happen if they did?" Fluttershy asked. "Well, no doubt these shards possess deep draconian enchantment," Twilight Sparkle said. "At least they should if they can collectively undo the post-mortem spell that Endrax cast on them." She looked at the others. "As far as we can guess, each Shard could very well be empowering the respective factions who possess them... giving them newfound ways in which to wage destructive warfare." "You mean..." Rarity leaned forward. "...such as this 'Flux' that the changelings are utilizing?" Twilight shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe something we don't know yet. But—imagine—if any of these three sides got ahold of another faction's Shard of Endrax? Abaddon was right to spell disaster in her song; there'd very likely be a snowball effect of intensifying power until that one faction overthrew the other two, gained the last Shard, and removed Endrax's body." Pinkie tugged at her hair. "And then got ahold of the Harmonic Prick!" "Prism," Rarity corrected. "That too!" "Oh..." Fluttershy wilted. "...my." "Hrmmmm..." Applejack tapped her chin. "...seems to me that the solution's pretty dang clear." She looked at the others. "We gotta help Rainbow fetch these Shard-thingies and get to Endrax before the rest of the factions can get ahold of the Prism!" "What—are you serious?!" Pinkie Pie cackled. "That's suicide!" Applejack sighed. "I said the solution was clear. I didn't say it'd be easy." "Is there even a way for Rainbow and the Herald to slip past these horrible armies and get the Shards?" Fluttershy asked. "Well..." Twilight looked all around the tent as she contemplated the matter. "...considering that these factions are so used to fighting each other... and in huge droves too... I suppose it's hypothetically possible for a small party like Rainbow's to slip on through and stealthily acquire something, but—" "Twilight, let's not kid ourselves here," Pinkie Pie said. "This situation is no laughing matter!" She paused in mid-speech, the shivered. "Brrrbrrrbrrr! Listen to me! This whole situation's got me sounding like Limestone!" "I'm afraid Pinkie's right," Rarity declared. "Why—just think of the Dark Vigil alone! They have lunar spells that are impossible to cross undetected! Need I remind you what happened when we came upon Bleak's Plummet back on the Light Side?" She gulped. "And then there're the Changelings! They're empathic by nature! They could detect us coming from miles away!" "Could..." Fluttershy trembled as Pinkie hugged her. "...c-could we talk about something else n-now?" "And there's no telling just what the mysterious Night Shard are capable of!" Rarity stammered. "Why—just from what Rainbow described in her vision—they sound downright impenetrable!" "No army is without a weakness!" Twilight Sparkle frowned. "Rainbow's history with Rohbredden, Ledomare, and Chrysalis' minions should teach us of that! There's got to be a way to procure these Shards from the three Factions!" "Yer optimism is mighty appreciated, Twilight," Applejack said. "Honestly, it is. But let's not gallop into this blindly here." She waved a forelimb. "Rainbow's just one pony." "With five ghosty-besties!" Pinkie Pie cheered, side-nuzzling Fluttershy Applejack rolled her eyes, albeit with a smile. "True. Granted. But..." She looked back at Twilight. "Even with the Herald, that makes us six sets of legs at best! Seven if—somehow—the death buzzard feels like taggin' along." "I understand, AJ—" "We already done lost Mortuana, Bard, and Axan—and that was all in just tryin' to cross the dag-blame'd edge of the world!" Applejack breathed heavily. "I want Rainbow Dash to save the world. Really, I do. But it's just so dang much to go up against. I mean... where do we even start?" Twilight Sparkle merely bit her lip. She was at a loss for words. As Rarity and the others began to hang their heads... "Abaddon believes in me..." The five ghostly mares looked at their anchor. Rainbow Dash slowly looked up at them, hugging her blankets tighter. "...not just her, but her Children too. And Gardez. And... and..." A gulp. "Ilrifa." Her gaze hardened. "I don't know precisely what it is that they expect me to do, but everything has been set up for this moment... for when the Spark—for when I arrive to do something awesome in the right place and at the right time." She looked at Applejack. "Isn't that enough for me to go by?" "Rainbow, sugarcube..." Applejack smiled sweetly. "I believe in you too. We all do... and we lurve ya somethin' fierce..." She sighed, and her ears drooped. "But—at the same time—we really dun wanna lose you." The rest of the mares nodded in agreement. With a steady voice, Rainbow Dash said, "Nopony can afford to lose me. If I'm gone... all of Urohringr is gone too. Then we've got nothing." Silence. "I have to figure out something," Rainbow Dash said. "I must give it a try... even if it does seem hopeless." The girls exchanged glances. "Where..." Fluttershy found the nerve to speak. "...where will you even start?" Rainbow Dash breathed calmly. "First thing's first..." She pushed the blankets away and hobbled up to her hooves. "...I gotta talk to the Herald."