The Dark Vigil's Mantra
Rainbow clung to the rock's edge, coiling her wings to her side in order to make her body appear smaller... less noticeable. She climbed up, stifling her grunts and heavy breaths. At last, she crept up to the edge of the trench and peered over, flattening her ears in the process. Not long after, Seraphimus and Wildcard joined her, exercising more or less grace.
The three of them gazed straight towards the Omega horizon. The first thing they noticed was that the "moon" had dimmed noticeably. Its surface was still pale and luminescent, but the unearthly glow had dwindled and the trio could spot a patchwork framework of opaque material holding the floating object together. At the present, it was slowly lowering at an uneven pace, swaying slightly left and right during the descent. It eventually vanished from sight, hiding behind a massively towering structure that was obscured by distance.
The pale sheen that had momentarily bathed the landscape was gone. In its place, a flickering aura of amber flamelight rippled over the serpentine ravines and trenches that pockmarked the earth. It was only now that Rainbow Dash surmised that the same high-concentrated blast that had sent them all into hiding was likely responsible for the countless scars and fissures carved into this part of the plane.
There was—however—a stretch of stone plateau virtually untouched by the "lunar" blight. Currently, a wall of flames acted as a temporary border—both in front of the group and somewhere behind them. It cordoned off the edges of the visible plateau with smoldering chunks of loose rocks. Rainbow and the two griffins watched as a living field of stampeding ceatures filled the space in between, veering left and right in fear and madness. The sky was no less filled with wildly flapping creatures, seeking refuge from the fresh smoke and ash billowing into the twilight.
Rainbow's brow furrowed. She looked left and right, her ruby eyes sweeping the purgatorial scene. A few seconds in, she heard a whispering sound to her right. She glanced aside to see Fluttershy. With a worried expression, the ghostly pegasus gestured up high—towards Omega.
It was at this precise moment that the chanting sound that had drawn Rainbow out of hiding formed a distinct pattern. As the thunder of the incendiary phenomenon diminished, a series of deep bass voices ripped the sky into sonic slices, penetrating the hearts of those who listened:
"Thymm wynn symm, myl nym thrymm. H'Luun d'lyassa wyll nym drym."
Despite Fluttershy's directions, Rainbow and her other ghostly friends were having trouble locating the authors of the dark, dark song. Seraphimus appeared no less mystified.
At last, Wildcard pointed with a talon. Rainbow saw dark shapes reflected against his shades. She and Seraphimus turned to look—and finally they saw them, piercing the twilight, carried aloft on leather wings.
"Thymm wynn symm, myl nym thrymm." The melody rose and fell, undulating with their piercing howls. They formed a line at first, devouring the stars in a swath of blackness. Then—seemingly—they multiplied by a factor of fifty. Rainbow realized that multiple squads were breaking formation, and now they were spreading outward at an alarming rate. They must have numbered in the thousands; there were very few stars left to shine. Somehow, the fliers all sang in the same cadance, channeling thunder into the sky with their sheer vocal cords. "H'Luun d'lyassa wyll nym drym."
Pinkie Pie and Rarity shivered. Twilight and Applejack watched with jaws dropped.
As the lunar wave grew closer, Rainbow sensed a ruby glow nearby. Luna's spell was reacting. Swiftly, she covered her pendant with a fetlock and crouched even lower.
The vocal mantra picked up tempo, sending tremors through the air. Separate squadrons alternated lines—almost as if they were hollering at one another. Challenging one another.
"Thymm ryss kymm, myl ryn fym!"
"W'ynlppa wyll nym drym!"
A flash of leather. Thousands of smooth wings reflected the sheen of the firelight below. A singular line boomed outward in one direction, unbelievably sourced by one single vocalist at the head of the unfathomably huge flock.
"H'Luun'lynna thrym—"
Then—a thunder rolled like never before—with every winged soul shouting at once: "Fy'rym! Fy'rym! Fy'rym!"
Milliseconds later, the sky fell all at once—in that the squadrons plunged, sailing earthward on coiled wings. Velvety bodies twisted and spiraled in the hellish flicker. A wave of glistening fangs opened at the bottom of the dive, and soon the dark bodies carved their way into the stampeding sea of flesh.
Screams and howls redoubled. Bodies and limbs went flying. Half of the galloping population instantly fell over... and a cloud of ruby light erupted like a volcanic plume, so bright and luminescent that it glistened off the talons of the griffins on either side of Rainbow.
Fluttershy literally wailed. She clutched her skull as her entire body writhed and shook—echoing the bloody eviscerations happening half-a-mile away. Twilight and Rarity were quick to hug her tight, hiding her eyes from the sheer massacre unfolding. Pinkie and Applejack continued gazing at the bloodbath, dumbfounded. Seraphimus remained still while Wildcard gripped the edges of Bard's staff tensely.
"Holy sh-shit..." hissed a voice from behind. Ariel had joined the group just in time, and her muzzle opened wide to pronounce something even more ghastly.
Thap! Wildcard's lion's tail pressed into her face. Clamming up, Ariel squatted silently between him and Rainbow Dash, trembling in nervous silence.
From afar, the stampede could be seen splitting into two massive herds. The sarosians had struck the very center of the charge, and they continued their violent melee under a fresh cloud of ruby haze. A gaggle of creatures managed to run away, only for fanged hunters to leap after them and flank them from the sides. High-pitched shrieks and chirps lit the air as more and more animals were ripped, shredded, and pummeled to the ground. A few of the straggling squad members were slow and casual about it, playing cat-and-mouse game with the fleeing beasts. More than a few of the animals chose to leap directly into the flames of the lunar discharge—rather than face the agonizing fate of their brothers and sisters. This was rewarded with high-pitched shrieks that resembled laughter, echoing broadly across the plateau of carnage.
Rainbow grimaced. Ariel struggled to keep her lunch in. Seconds later, they heard loud shrieks from above. Reluctantly, they glanced upwards.
Spotting the fate of the animals below, many of the flying flocks had doubled about, attempting to fly back towards Alpha. They were swiftly intercepted by velvety figures—who leapt onto their backs and bit into their necks and shoulders. A few of the sarosians were simply keen to rip the wings off of some of the creatures and watch gleefully as they spiraled—thrashing—towards the pulverizing landscape below.
Fluttershy let loose a whimpering noise. Scouring the sky, Rainbow Dash soon found out why. One particularly large creature—a long and narrow cross between a dragon and a whale—flew diagonally towards Omega via dorsal sacs filled with some sort of buoyant gas. The animal was far from alone; at least a dozen smaller, identical copies of the specimen flew along with it. A mother and its children. The animal and its calves were picking up speed, about to make a break for the Curve.
A loud shout filled the air—amplified by some lunar enchanted means: "Ny'lymwysym h'lyssa ha'mym sym!"
Voices shouted back. Within seconds, Rainbow and her friends watched as a squadron of sarosians barreled through the sky, sailing after the mother and her calves. Something glinted in their grasp; they were armed with hoof-held cannons. Seconds later, they shouted into the runes of their devices. A loud pop reverberated, and the assembled Herald watched as multiple nets flew towards the fleeing creatures.
They netted one of the calves. The young animal let loose a bass cry of distress as it fell towards the ground, twisting and thrashing in the net's material the entire while. When it landed, it struck the ground hard, sending chunks of broken stone sailing skyward. The beast twitched and spasm'd, its spinal system obviously shattered.
A ripple of bioluminescent color rolled up the body of the creature's mother. A loud roar filled the air. Slowly, it turned around, flew in a wide bank, and dove towards the fallen creature.
Rainbow could hear Pinkie and Fluttershy murmuring... pleading into the air. While some of her friends covered their eyes, she continued watching. Silent. Observing.
The mother touched down with a heavy thud. Shimmying on its massive belly, it shuffled like a beached walrus towards its injured young. A trifurcated mouth opened up and a probiscus extended, attempting to remove the net—
"Hy'lessa!" an amplified voice shouted.
Out of the ruby haze, no less than thirty velvety bodies dove down at the large beast. They shouted into their cannons, covering the mother from head to toe in thick netting.
Unable to reach its young, the massive whale-shaped creature shook and thrashed... but to no avail. Its roar was one of distress, because within seconds...
...the remaining litter of her calves came down to join her. The sarosians instantly pounced on these younger specimens, stabbing them and piercing their dorsal sacs. Tufts of multi-colored gas filled the air as the weighted children fell like sacks of meat—helpless to the hacking blades and slicing fangs of their hunters. Within seconds, they were reduced to wet carcasses, and their bodies jetted plumes of ruby light in a somber halo around their wailing mother.
Wildcard clenched his beak. He hand-signed into the air beside Rainbow Dash: "They are not slaying the mother."
Seraphimus nodded. Rainbow observed as the former Commander gestured back: "Of course not. She can live to give birth to future prey."
Ariel stifled a whimpering sound.
Rainbow watched and watched. She felt a tingling sensation around her fetlock. Looking down, she noticed that her pendant was glowing with an even brighter intensity. It was getting difficult to blot out the light with her fetlock at this rate.
Wildcard glanced curiously at her, his dark shades reflecting the pulsating Element. Just then, another amplified shout filled the blood-tinged air. He and the other three stared back out.
Rainbow Dash's eyes squinted. As the tingling sensation intensified, the hairs on the back of her neck rose on end. She didn't know why, but her gaze was being drawn towards the air just above the merciless slaying.
A hitherto unseen squadron of sarosians was descending. Rainbow spotted a cluster of velvety bodies descending in a tight circle. As they landed, the outer layer of hunters spread out. There were two distinct figures flying in the center... but Rainbow's eyes centered on one in particular. There was a shine to the sarosian's body... something that glinted with virtually the same intensity as the "moon" the Herald had fled from earlier. On nimble hooves, the figure landed gracefully in the pool of blood left by the countless kills. Rainbow watched as the sarosian marched through the eviscerating crowd. At a distant profile, the body proved quite cryptic. The forward half of the sarosian was pale as bone while the flank and wingtips were black as night. But there was something more—something Rainbow couldn't quite put her hoof on. She tried to make out the figure's mane, but had a great deal of difficulty doing so. Something on the sarosian's head was obscuring... out of place... distracting.
Twilight and Applejack looked curiously at their anchor. One of them said something, but Rainbow Dash was too mesmerized to hear their words.
She watched as the figure approached a squadron leader. Words were exchanged. Gestures were made. The voices were too distant to be discerned, but Rainbow heard more than a bevy of victorious shrieks. At one point the figure nodded, then motioned to his wingmate. Intimate words were exchanged, and the wingmate gave a salute before taking off. Satisfied with the scene at hoof, the monochromatic sarosian prepared to take wing as well...
...when he suddenly froze in place.
Still. Silent. Contemplative...
...and then his head turned to look. All the way. Towards Rainbow Dash. She saw a flat rectangle of white from a great distance. A plate. Tombstone smooth. In a blink, it almost looked as though the headpiece was flashing with lunar brilliance.
Simultaneously, all of Rainbow's ghostly friends vanished from view.
Rainbow gasped. She spun about—
In the next second, Twilight and the rest reappeared, visibly shaken and confused.
"!!!" Without a word, Rainbow Dash dove back down into the trench. Hyperventilating. The claustrophobic space of the alcove was pulsing bright red. It was Rainbow's Element of Loyalty; the necklace flickered at a maddening pace.
Startled at her sudden movement, Wildcard and Ariel dove down along with her. Seraphimus slowly joined afterwards.
"Rainbow...?!" Ariel hissed under her breath, eyes wide. "...what's the matter? What did you see—!"
Rainbow frowned, holding a hoof up with angry intensity.
Ariel immediately clammed up. She and Wildcard fidgeted nervously. Seraphimus kept watchful eyes trained at the edge of the trench up above, her talons at the ready.
Silence...
Distant wingflaps... ...
Then more silence... ... ...
A minute passed. Two minutes. Three.
At long last, Rainbow's pendant stopped flickering. All was still and calm, and the bedlam of the massacre had reached a lull beyond the flame-tinted stone.
"What..." Rarity panted and panted, feeling her ghostly forelimbs as if to make sure they still existed in some nebulous fashion. "...what h-happened just now...?"
"Am I goin' crazy?" Applejack stammered. "Or did we just get sent to the Vanilla Zone for a split second?"
Pinkie was shaking her head wildly. "That wasn't the Vanilla Zone! That wasn't any zone!"
"That magic... that power..." Twilight's muzzle was stuck in a lavender grimace. "...it was chaos. It had to have been!"
"... ... ...?" Rainbow Dash blinked with sudden curiosity. She brought a hoof up to her forehead and rubbed up and down. When she lowered the fetlock back down, she saw a faint trickle of blood staining the limb.
Wildcard gazed wordlessly at her.
Logan, Flynn, and Kepler hobbled out of the cave to meet the rest of the group.
"So... what happened?" Logan asked. "What did you guys see?"
"... ... ..." Rainbow looked towards the far end of the niche. "Are the Dihmers still here?"
"Ach." Kepler nodded. "Still prresent."
"Still chopping away at their dinner," Flynn added.
"Good." Rainbow gulped. "From now on, we go where the Dihmers go." She glared at the rest of the Herald. "We follow whatever the Dihmers lead and we get the friggin' heck out of this place..."
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Torture.
I really, really loved this chapter.
And we finally get to see those horrible bats in action. Can't wait until they're all destroyed!
Though Lexxic has some kind of chaos metal plate or something? And he seemed to notice Rainbow's presence. We still don't know exactly what kind of power these bats are working with, but it ain't good. And I suspect that if Rainbow's even going to get close to their piece of Endrax, it's going to take some chaos!Dash to do it. I mean, that plate of chaos metal was strong enough to start drawing out her inner chaos while she was wearing her element. If push comes to shove, I don't think her element is going to keep her in her normal harmonic form, should she run face to face with that monster.
Welp, so one of the Sarosians' leaders (possibly Lexxic) has some kind of chaos cannon on their forehead... I'm worried that we'll be seeing more of chaos-monster Dash in the near future. Also, mindlessly and brutally slaughtering fauna seems to be the most popular hobby on the dark side.
As far as a hunting strategy, that can't be beat. Also, now we know exactly why nothing survives near Bloodwing HQ. Lunar Chaos Artillery. And I've got good money on Lex's headgear being the control for it.
I'm really curious about this... ritual? Hunting practice? I doubt it's just for bloodsheds sake. Not that knowing would make me want to hang out with these sarosians. I too wish to observe from a healthy distance.
Not saying don't contact, but during circumstances where you can run if need be without having an army chase you. Job Squad has had just about enough of that.
Moonbutt may need to consider them a lost cause until she can come here herself and attempt to regain authority over them. And we have no idea if they even care about Dash being sent by their ancestral sovereign.
That's not good. Did he see her, or just sense her?
Well, I guess diplomacy is off the table then?
Silvally Over Sanctifrax?
the Chaos Moon is a structure assembled from fragments taken from the Chaos Crater? But how does that single piece control it, or is it a corrupted piece of the Machine World, which would be how was it aquired, or most likely, to ahve that much power and control?
MDK head canon is Shard Of Endrax?
8830287
Maybe whatever that chaos plate thing is was having a reaction to the Element/Luna's spell? If he'd seen her surely they would have descended upon her, unless he's got a plan that involves letting her go.
Maybe he knows to some degree her mission, and thinks he'd be better served by letting her go and claim the other two shards, then killing her to claim them all? Maybe he'll help them subtly, from a distance?
Or maybe it was just a case of "Was there something over there? Nah." :P
Well, that was unpleasant to watch
Only reinforces the point that just because something is effective doesn't mean it is a good thing. I also don't think such a way can last very long, even if they spare the mothers, eventually they are going to die, and then where will the Sarosians be? At any rate, it is clear that the group before them is past the point of usefulness, the Herald will need to find another less violent faction within the Sarosian camp if they want to get the Sarosians on their side.
Yikes.
I have a feeling this "Diplomacy" idea isn't going to work out.
omnomnom
8830435
oi65.tinypic.com/255s5rt.jpg
If this is what the Bloodwings do when they're hunting...
...what sort of horrifying tactics and weaponry do they use when actually at war?!
8830481
I'm not sure there's a difference for them.
Yeah, they bear the moniker "Bloodwings" for a reason. Hell, these ponies act like a giant living meat grinder.
For a moment I thought it might be a horn.
I don't know what the big deal is. They seem friendly enough.
Chaos amplified lunar magic.
And that's a hunting party, if that's how they gather food, then holy shit, I dread to think how brutal and sadistic they are in actual combat.
They were taking way too much glee in what they just did.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
8830228
Yeah, between your and his today and the Maretian yesterday/this morning I'm feeling spoiled right now.
And that's when the Herald nopes out of there
Well, that was brutal. Very very brutal.
This is an extremely good idea to say the least
R.I.P. Dragon-Whale babies
That was utterly horrible...
I think we've just met Lexxic and Holy [Insert Curse of Choice Here]. Just....Holy [Seriously, Any Curse Will Do].
That has got to top every villain introduction so far. Neither Shell nor Sera nor anyone else has been this powerful, this able to command so many, or this able to terrify Rainbow so quickly. I eagerly await more!
I'm reminded of those flat goggles of Ghost in the Shell.
There was a brief mention of Lexxic's mane, or lack thereof, that makes me wonder if he's rocking Nightmare Moon's armour. Either way he's also got some wicked chaos powers on his side, as most of Rainbow's enemies tend to have. This guy's gonna suck to fight.
Forget Nightmare worship.
Do you want Chaos gods? Because this is how you get Khorne.
Holy crap, this chapter was awesome. The Bloodwings are even more terrifying than I originally thought. This was so cool. I can only imagine what a thousand murderous, chanting voices in the sky sounds like.
And I think it's safe to say that the one Sarosian that Dash was particularly interested in might've been Lexxic.
You know it's loud when it's in bold, italics and underscored. Also, that line looks hilarious in html source.
"oh, trust me, Major. Evil... knows evil."
Ooohoohoooo! Now that's creepy.
This was awesome. Really captured the feel of a horde of sarosians coming down for the kill.
8831393
No villain was really introduced before Rainbow faced them. Zap Naator, Shell, Chrysalis were all faced when the time came. This dude Lexxic is already described as the most badass villain yet and we haven’t met him. This is going to be one hell of a fight.
Chaos strip.
Truly the most intimidating villain yet. Rainbow can tell that she was gazed upon by pure evil.
Did...did they get sent to that Chaos Zone Discord was talking about?
8830237
What the actual fuck!?
Christ. That's one hell of a hunt. And he is most definitely wearing NMM's helm.
Bat ponies incoming!
.....JESUS.
Whelp, yup yup yup. Put that whole "make friends with the Bloodwings" plan on hold. Things went up to 1000% real freaking quick.
Ahhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Great… Just great! He can sense her presence/element from far away. I don’t see a way RD and the Herald can go stealth mode and infiltrate the Bloodwing’s stronghold for the shard. Unless Luna’s enchantment can convince these murder bats to part with the shard, this is a serious wrench in the works.