Rainbow slept in the Noble Jury’s observation room. That dawn, like every morning previous, she dangled precariously over the edge of a swaying hammock, snoring doggishly towards the rattling bulkheads.
Beyond the bubbled windows, the clouds parted, and the rays of the rising sun tore in through the glass frames as regularly scheduled. Their golden beams swam over the wall, the hammock supports, and finally over Rainbow Dash’s blue coat. Her muzzle twitched from the warming touch. She flinched, clamping her drooling mouth as she curled up into a fetal position with a trilling sound of protest.
There was no escaping the dawn. As always, the sunlight thoroughly engulfed her. With a prolonged groan, she squinted her filmy eyes open, immediately wishing she didn’t. She clenched her eyes shut and sat up, stretching each joint with sloth-like motions. As her limbs crackled, she tossed back her mane of bed hair and squinted towards the source of the rude spotlight.
“Mmmmmfff… nnnghhh…”
She brought a hoof up and rubbed tight circles across her muzzle, flicking her ears as she tossed off the weight of the night, as well as the trailing words of a moon princess who was continents away.
She flapped her wings and prepared to hover. She stopped midway through, choosing to yawn instead. After a thorough stretch of her forward limbs, she gazed lethargically at the window.
Her wings stopped twitching.
With a pensive breath, Rainbow Dash raised both eyebrows. “Httt!” She forward-flipped from the hammock, landed nimbly on the observation room’s floor, and pressed herself up against the glass, squinting.
Her breaths quickened nervously, casting a layer of condensation against the translucent surface. Nevertheless, she managed to look beyond the sheen, the clouds, and the mist beyond. There were shapes in the sky… dark shapes and shifting shapes. Rigid. Metallic.
“Crud…”
Hissing, Rainbow Dash backtrotted, tripping over a blanket that had fallen from one of the many hammocks.
“Crud crud cr-crud!”
Galloping now, she sped into the adjacent corridor and clambered up the vertical crawlspace.
“Megacrud on a crud cracker!” her voice echoed.
Josho trotted limply down the middle level from his quarters in time to see her. “Mmmmf--Hey…” He spoke while telekinetically brushing his teeth. “The lavatory’s down that way if you gotta go so bad, ya windsock.”
Rainbow Dash paid the stallion no attention. She shot into the cockpit like a blue torpedo, almost tackling Bellesmith and Props.
“Whoah! H-hey, Rainbow!” Bellesmith giggled, smiling pleasantly. “Bright and early! That’s new!”
“No time to laugh it up!” Rainbow Dash squawked, pointing a flailing hoof out the window. “Bogeys at twelve o’clock! Ledomaritan battlecruisers are on the horizon!”
“Shhh…” Belle calmly placed her hooves on the hysterical mare’s shoulders. “Rainbow, relax…”
“No time for that! They’re gonna attack us!” Rainbow’s voice cracked. “We gotta pull around and find a higher altitude to speed off from!”
“Will some boomer put a cork in her spithole?!” Floydien grumbled, his antlers sparkling away as he pulled the ship fearlessly towards the floating black masses. “Is too early for paintbucket to spill all over Nancy Jane’s skull.”
“Are you guys crazy?!” Rainbow Dash snarled. “You wanna become flak fodder?!”
“My hometown isn’t gonna turn us into flak fodder, silly!” Props said with a gigglesnort.
“Huh?!”
Props raised her goggles and pointed out the cockpit window. “Take a gander for yourself, gander-goose!”
Rainbow Dash brushed aside Belle to squint over Floydien’s brown shoulder.
The clouds parted some more, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the immediate horizon in greater clarity. The black masses congealed into one singular structure, floating amidst the heavens and conjoined in several swiveling, swaying places. Buildings and platforms came into focus, affixed to gigantic cylinders broiling with steam and mana. Before Rainbow Dash, a floating city port appeared, framed by clouds, swarming with zeppelins of all sizes and shapes, and not a single one of them bearing the flag of Queen Ledo.
“I… I don’t see any enforcers at all…” Rainbow Dash murmured.
“That’s because Gray Smoke doesn’t fall under Ledomaritan jurisdiction!” Props grinned wide. “It’s run by a bunch of smart airheads who know how to keep ahead of the air!”
“Basically, they fly just within close enough range of the battlefront below that the airspace above is nebulously defined,” Belle added. “According to Props, here, they’ve been keeping this up for the past thirty years. That’s how Gray Smoke remains neutral.”
“Making bits off of stabby stabby war…” Floydien almost spat into the consoles. “Would be most sick sick of boomers if it wasn’t so cleverific. Yes yes?”
“Hey! It’s how Uncle Prowse always raked in the bits!” Props shrugged. “So long as ponies leave their guns inside their ship, it’s free range to barter, boast, and barf!” She pumped her hoof, cheering towards the ceiling. “Wooohooo! Back home in the heavens!”
“Not so loud!” Floydien grumbled. “Nancy Jane has sensitive ears and so does her beloved!”
“Woops! Sorry, handsome!”
“It’s not very…” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “...’gray.’”
“Wait till you see it from the inside.” Props said with a wink. “The grime is tasty! I promise you!” She brightened. “Oooh! I gotta go tell Ebony! No doubt the smell has woken him by now!” She scampered over to the wall and slid down the nearest crawlspace. “Hey! Ebonyyyyy! Whip out the sky spatulas! We’re home! We’re home! Heehee!”
Belle leaned against a wall, sighing with wonder. “Isn’t it marvelous?” The mare shook her head with a smile. “Amidst all of this chaos and imperialism, some ponies have figured out how to live… relatively free.”
“Yeah, well…” Rainbow Dash fidgeted. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Belle winked at her. “Something tells me you’re about to.”
Rainbow Dash gazed back at her, then looked towards the window as Floydien cruised the Noble Jury carefully into the dense traffic buzzing around the outer docks of the sky metropolis.
I like this chapter. Forward motion, relatively decent descriptive and okay dialogue. All these are good things, but there's something more here that I can't quite put my finger on. Ah, well. If it comes to me I'll say it. For now, I just like this one.
Now to see some conspiration and racism. ONWARD!!
Yea, maybe I'm suspicious but this doesn't sound really convincing. Welp. It's hard to stay neutral when you have several Ledomarian ships aiming their cannons at you, while they are being lead by Shell, the Madpony.
I hope still that the Rainbow and team will be fine.
That's how every single morning is for me. Minus the "crud, Ledomaritan battlecruisers!" part, obviously.
Will be interesting to see Gray Smoke from the inside.
~bass
Oh no -- this is feeling sooo like Lando Calrissian.
It's gonna feel weird for Dash, being in a flying city devoid of pegasi.
Rack 'em up, rack 'em up, rack 'em up...
3190222
Bespin, ahoy!
Fresh Mane of Bed-Hair?
Great chapter today. It feels like a fully-conceived scene, with appropriate symbolism (Rainbow being woken by the dawn) and snappy dialogue.
Gray Smoke's aerial war enclave seems to me like it's allowed to exist more for strategic benefit than geopolitical ambiguity. It's always useful to have mechanics lying around, particularly if you're the losing party.
How does the city float though?
3190219 But wait, you wake up on an airship every day and almost start hovering?
And we're moving right along.
All right, I just found out that my options for reenlistment went from crap to nothing. I'm pissed, everyone pays. Forty pushups and forty situps. Make it hurt so good. Knock 'em out!
Goddamn, the tension is killing me.
When is it going to go horribly wrong, colon? How many peaceful unwitting chapters of happiness and contentment are you loading into that cruel and horrific cannon I like to call a twist?
Every single chapter feels like the calm before the storm. I am just waiting for some sort of hideous bizarre situation to rear up and brutally maul all this uncharacteristic pleasantness.
I was wondering how a non-pegasus sky city would work.
Also, waking Dash is so cute.
Uh oh... things are going to engage in non stop rising action sequence for the next170 chapters. BRACE YOUSELVES
I loved the intro to this chapter; waking dash is adorable.
I do have to agree with her though about the whole living relatively free part. It's hard to imagine that anyone who has embroiled themselves in this conflict really has much say in their own lives aside from those generals/administrators. Yes, yes. Gray Smoke is above the conflict, however, they have become involved in it quite nicely as a result of making money off of it. Also, it sounds like they are pretty much trapped by having to fly above the war front in order to remain unmolested.
Gray Smoke: today, a bustling metropolis in the sky; tomorrow, scattered piles of flaming wreckage.
Sleepy/waking Dashie is sooooo adorable! Dat wing twitch...
I am so looking forward to our heroes' adventures in Grey Smoke. Robo loves sky cities.
3190222 3190257 Why do you say so?
I don't see the parallel between Grey Smoke, a city in the clouds that allegedly remains neutral during times of political unrest between two warring factions, and Bespin.
I really hope Shell doesn't find this place. I don't need another bombed out city. Also, Ebon Mane, I'm watching you, little changeling bugger.
3191226
lessee... I wonder who Josho knows in Gray Smoke. and what game he won against said acquaintance...
3190222
Uncle Prowse started a gas mine after he reformed his gambling habits. 10 points if the gas is purple.
3190507
Done and done. Sorry to hear everything's closed.
I'm sure the neutral colour helps.
Alas, I don't doubt for a second that there's a giant conspiracy in this city. Hopefully we don't get stuck here. In Austraeoh, we covered continents. Eljunbyro, we covered half a country. Innavedr, we covered a forest and a city.
Odrsjot, can we get back to moving a bit?
3191381
Right? RIGHT?
I'm so glad to see the gang moving along, and if they get stuck in this city for more than 10 chapters, I'll go insane.
(And 10 is pushing it.)
3191226
3191314
I was just drawing on the clouds thing...
I'm sure Grey Smoke holds its fair share of secrets, but whatever other Star Wars parallels show up will most likely be incidental.
3191381
I feel, with all the throw back to Austraeoh, that Odrsjot is largely going to be story arc's with the constant pressure of Shell following them after he makes an appearance in Grey Smoke. Transforming the story into world-building and exploring with a constant enemy.
Although with all the time it's taking to get to the world end I wonder if we're going to be seeing a half-transformed Dash flying through all the chaos energy that will appear there, the images in my head are... fascinating.
Can I say I love the 'Clouds to butts' Chrome extension I got? 'cuz I do.
3191467 well, I'm expecting that Josho and Prowse are already acquainted. probably nothing, but there you go.
I think the real questions here are whether Floydian will be frozen in carbonite, and... oh wait. Imre is dead. So no 'laser sword' fight...
the title's chapter made me feel intense, and when I read the whole chapter, i was disappointed, in a good way. xD
Gah, been waiting for this ever since it was mentioned.
Nice. Liked how the characters interacted normally while establishing Grey Smoke for us. That was well done.
Also found it funny how Josho--so slovenly and crude--is the only character in the entire story thus far who has brushed their teeth. The irony would be perfect if he was the only character who brushed their teeth and the rest just viewed it as an eccentric habit.
Still waiting for that Stratopolis, Colon.
Gray smoke is just a cover for a sect of technology worshipping unicorns that uses the war as a means to collect exotic weaponry from either side in hope of eliminating both sides in a grand scheme for power over the whole region. After all, it's hard to overextend when you can just park your capital over any rebellious territory.
Sooo... Does anyone else think about Gulliver's Travels when Grey Smoke is mentioned? I can see the SW parallel with Bespin but some of the name calling that has been going around throuhgout the series included 'yahoo'.
Just thought I'd put that out there.
Mos Eisley spaceport: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
I freaking love floating cities. Big floating cities, small floating cities, high floating cities, low floating cities, black, grey or multicolour floating cities, floating cities in seventy-five different architectonic styles, floating cities with or without handrails, floating ghost cities, floating industrial cities, floating trade cities...
Okay, who am I kidding, everyone who reads this chapter will be envisioning either Star Wars or Bioshock. But how beautiful it is to have it presented by you for once. I saw the spires breaking through the clouds with less clarity when I had them on a screen in front of me.
3190380 heahea.org/img/175-Its_Magic.jpg
3191381
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/223/976/neutral.jpg
I hope all goes well. Dashie needs a lucky break.
3193485 Based on the title, I think BioShock was the intention.
"Bring us the Rainbow, and wipe away the Dash!"
I'm actually kinda shocked no one's pointed that out yet.
Seems like the relatively calm aura of the trip so far is getting to Dash, too. This is probably the longest she's gone without being attacked by something or other.
I'm liking this new setting so far (even though our lovely jury hasn't technically arrived yet). Maybe there'll be less political corruption and sociopathic intrigue going on in this vaporous urban cloudscape? Its not like the only residents we've met so far are either housing deep dark (possibly boat related) secrets or are insane mechanics with odd fixations on their uncles, or anything. And that's discounting the fact that the city itself seems to hover above a war front.
What could possibly go wrong?
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, we've arrived at Gray Smoke! It'll be sad to see Ebon Mane and Propsy go, though...But something tells me that they might stay. Somehow...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
I hope Ebony and Propsy stay on the ship. I really like their characters, and I'd hate to see them go.
3216219 ;_;
3190291 Well this is the story all about how my mane got flipped turned upside down...
3216219 remember when you actually used to write more than 3 sentences?
Stuff is going to happen.
-Spirit
Bring us the Rainbow, and wipe away the debt.
Now, is the rapant racism and social inequality in Columbia here as well, or is IC just giving us an easter egg
So here they are. Now what happens next?