Rainbow Dash traverses the perils of the Dark Side of the world to reach the Midnight Armory.
"I've tried to put her behind me," Logan said, staring vacantly into the stone floor of the common room between himself and Seraphimus. "Whenever Flynn or Ariel ask how I'm doing. I tell them that I'm 'carrying on just fine.' That the past is behind me. That I've left all of my business back in Rohbredden long before we ever crossed paths with the Austraeoh."
He took a deep breath, slouching back in his seat.
"But not a day goes by when I don't think of Sariah..." He gulped. "Of Luram." His ears drooped. "Of the life we almost had together. But... then again..." A bitter smirk, cast sideways. "What kind of a friggin' life would that have been? Cowering in the caves and alcoves of Storm Prefecture? Hiding from Wendigoes?"
Seraphimus stared at him in silence.
"Bergen's no idiot," Logan muttered aside. "He'll drag his family out of their padded rooms and take them someplace safe. Someplace closer to Frostknife." He inhaled slowly. "And those Wendigoes aren't the end of the world. Rohbredden will move on. They're down one foppish fascist anyways."
The room was quiet for a while.
At last, Seraphimus spoke: "Verlaxion is no longer around to protect them."
"Yeah, well..." Logan squinted at her sideways. A glinting eye. "When the Hell did she ever protect anypony?"
The former Talon Commander had no response.
"You've spent all your life defending and worshipping a Goddess you've never even seen," Logan murmured. His brow furrowed. "Did you ever once stop to question if you should?"
Seraphimus' response was swift. "No."
"Hmmmm..." Logan slowly nodded. "I've killed countless ponies in my life. I irresponsibly banged up a mentally-challenged young mare. I brought an innocent foal into this world then ditched her far away in a country plagued by frozen horse ghosts. All of those horrible accomplishments under my name... and yet still... I pity you."
Seraphimus blinked.
"Because—even if I'm some horrible goddess-damned monster..." Logan stood up from the table. "I still found some beautiful moments to live. And I don't regret them one bit."
"I loved my family," Seraphimus hissed. "I've 'lived' no less than you, cretin."
"And if by some dayum miracle they were to come back today, they'd pity you all the same."
Seraphimus opened her beak... but she had nothing to say.
"It doesn't matter how we live when things are all nice and peachy," Logan droned. "What truly counts is how we carry on when shit sucks." He picked up the armor in one hoof and pointed at her with the other. "And you—lady—have proven to be nothing more than a real shit-sucker."
That said, he turned tail and trotted out of the common room.
With a breath, Seraphimus craned her neck and spoke: "Wait..."
Logan shuffled to a limp stop.
The griffon's brow furrowed. "Why... did you tell me all of this?" Her headcrest drooped halfway. "Your veritable life's story..."
Logan's shoulders hunched slightly. "I dunno. Kinda figured there was a spark hidden under all that dullness of yours. I've carried that same color before. Hell, I'm still carrying it now."
"Do you honestly believe that?"
Logan glanced calmly over his shoulder. "You're asking me, aren't you?"
"... ... ..."
Logan left.
Seraphimus sat alone, staring at the stillness all around. The chains around her hung limp. Weightless. She didn't say a word.
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That is it Logan, ask the questions she doesn't want to answer, maybe you can turn her into something beautiful again, and prove once and for all that Verlax was wrong.
Can't agree with you totally there, Logan. How we live at all times matter. When its good, when its bad. Every second of it counts. By you're logic all the ponies living fine, peaceful, happy lives in Equestria aren't really alive, and what they do doesn't matter. Sure, when the shitstorms hit we can get stronger from it, feel more alive, but never get your head stuck so far up your own tailpipe that you start believing those are the only moments that count for anything, otherwise you'll find yourself looking for them and making everyone else's life more miserable as a result.
Still, points for getting Seraphimus to think.
Well, it looks as if Logan's initiated Phase Two of Operation Saving Commander Catbird: Backstory infodump.
And now she has, even more, to think about. I honestly wonder how much longer it's going to take to get through to her it can't be too much longer now.
Getting her to think just a little bit more, bit by bit...
Still doing Verlaxions will. Denying her to kill you inside so you can fight the way she wanted to the destination she wants you to achieve and claim it, So she can say, I made her be able to do that.
8378180
Don't you mean Operation Defrost Birdy McBirdface?
This chapter really lives up to its title.
I can feel it in the air. That smell. The smell of a cold-hearted character finally taking the time to look at their own life choices. And it's fantastic.
And so very clever too, making Seraph the one to ask the final question of her own sanity, beliefs, and morals.
Why do I have the feeling she will inevitably die sacrificing herself in a way none of the ponies there would ever expect in a show of redemption? Or even just do something epic without dying that will take everyone by surprise, including herself?
A nice chapter for sure.
She seems to do a lot of that lately.
It looks like the ship is green across the board and sailing at full steam :3
*Windigoes
8378339
Why are you?
I just heard this in my head as I pictured Logan trotting off and leaving Sera to her thoughts.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
8378174
What I took from that wasn't that people are only alive when they're living on the edge. But more that a person's character can only truly be judged when they are taken out of a place of comfort.
It reminds me of this quote or something from that movie The Mist. He said something along the lines of all the people you know in life are only as good as the world lets them be. You take away their electricity their running water, you take away food and safety, and you'll see what kind of people they really are. Or something like that.
Little by little, the ice cracks and thaws.
I have to admit, I'd been wondering why Logan, of all ponies, was chosen by the narrative gods to "bond" (for lack of a better word) with Sera, but after everything we've learned, it all makes sense. Sera probably has more in common with him than any of the others, shared membership in the Talon with WC notwithstanding.
8378445
I can see that interpretation, yet the sentiment feels half baked to me, and short changes the lives people live that aren't filled with danger or horrible tragedies. I think you see the real quality of people in good times as well as bad. Its just the human (and pony) condition has this habit of putting negative elements on a higher value on the scales than positive ones. I don't agree with it. A person isn't something you can judge the "true" nature of, because I don't think we have true natures. We change constantly from our experiences, and the good ones weigh into that just as much as bad ones, and I'm not a fan of the idea that the good times and the things we do during those times are some less "true" than the shit that might happen when things get rough. Sounds wrong to me, or at least flawed thinking.
There is no one test in life that defines you.
How you live every day is your test.
DAMN! That's gotta be the single most hurtful thing Logan could've said. Fortunately, it's probably the most helpful.
8378496
I just noticed, I seem to always be replying to your comments, or getting replies from you to my comments. You have such interesting and atypical points of view as I see it. It really makes discourse with you enlightening, and proves the old adage that you don't have to agree with somebody to to find wisdom in their arguments.
I look forward to disagreeing with you in the future.
8378673
Always happy to discuss and debate stuff with people. Lots of interesting people around this comments section to do that with, yourself included.
And given the way the Dark Side arc of this story is likely to continue going, I imagine there's going to be plenty of talking points to come. We haven't even scratched the surface of any of the heavy stuff yet, but I don't doubt its coming.
i.imgur.com/tyTc1Nl.jpg
Logan does a great job to reach out for her. We will have to see what she makes out of it.
She's managed to go a record time since calling someone an Infidel. Logan must be getting to her :)
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone.
No more crawling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden.
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love,
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love,
No more dreamining like a girl so in love with the wrong world.
8378496
8378445
I think Logan is right, but not in such a grand way. Anybody can be a good person, if they live in a nice house with picket fences and a good income and a maid and happy kids and nice neighbors and plenty of food.
But if you add something stressful to the mix - maybe something as mundane as too many chores. Dishes and laundry piling up, lawn getting shaggy... then you might see someone change. Plenty of folks have not managed to "carry on" when things didn't go their way, even in the absence of catastrophe. Then again, plenty of folks have managed to be complete failures when they started out in the nice house with a picket fence and a maid, too.
That's friendship now. If Logan were to die, I bet Seraphimus would grab his axe and start gaining weight.
8378610
SAVAGERY ENGAGED
8379146
Don't jinx it.
8378991
It may be easier to be a good person in peaceful times, but does that negate its value or importance? I'd say that the way a persona acts when not being pressured into any other action by stress or danger is more reflective of the kind of person they are than how they'll behave when their mind is being clogged by survival instincts, adrenaline, fear, or anger. More to Logan's point and what I'm arguing against, I don't believe that the moments when shit has gone wrong and the chips are down are somehow more important or the ones as he say "truly matter" more than the moments than when things are good. Why would they? They don't reveal any truths about who you are, since who you are is a constantly changing thing. Being able to "carry on" under stress is something anybody can learn to do, but different people learn how to do that under different circumstances and require different means to learn it. Just because one person learns how to handle stress in one way (say by starting out life early on as a mercenary and diving headfirst into the shitstorm) doesn't mean that that method is somehow better than another way to learn how to deal with it (say by spending a peaceful life meditating and improving oneself through personal means).
Moreover I don't agree with putting the way people react and behave under extreme situations on a higher scale of importance than the way they do under peaceful ones. Stress doesn't reveal anything, it merely alters, and not in a way that makes one more or lesser than one was before the stress occurred. Its like having a ball that you squeeze. If its a soft, squishy ball it might change shape under the squeeze, but its still the same ball, its just been compressed into a different shape, and the moment the squeezing force is gone it'll return to its previous shape. You might have a rock (like Logan) that retains its shape better when squeezed, but squeeze hard enough and the rock breaks, shattering to dust, and isn't nearly so easy to put back together. Different people reacting differently to the same squeeze, but neither of them or more or less due to those reactions, and... really this metaphor is kind of a gross oversimplification of something that's infinitely complex, which is the way people's minds develop and change over time due to a multitude of experiences, both positive and negative, that add up to the ever changing "present you" who probably won't quite be the same person tomorrow as we were today.
You can't distill something that complex and dynamic into a single sentence denoting which moments "truly matter". They all do, to varying degrees, and those degrees change depending on the person and the circumstance.
If anything Logan is right, but only for himself. The shitty moments might be the ones that "truly matter", but only for him. And maybe Seraphimus. Its a mindset that she might learn to share, and that is one thing that does remain valid about any given viewpoint is that when discussed you'll probably find at least a few people who share the sentiment, or can grow to learn from it.
8380076
You're kind of getting into the question of "what does it mean to be a good person" which is a valid question in and of itself.
I'm just saying that anybody can pretend to be nice and good when it's easy to do so. You can't see what's inside a teacup until it's bumped, and what's inside spills out. You don't realize your neighbor is an abusive spouse until he gets stressed enough to actually beat his wife. You don't notice that you have an anger problem until your friend makes you upset enough to blow up.
8380106
Well, yes, what does or doesn't make a "good" person is a valid question, and a nearly impossible one to definitively answer since the qualifications will change vastly depending on the viewpoint, culture, experiences, ideologies, ect of the person trying to answer it.
That said, in regards to what "truly" shows whats inside us, what I'm trying to argue for here is the idea that there isn't a "true" part of us that comes out under times of high stress, anger, or fear, but rather what happens in those instances is a natural alteration of thought processes, emotion, and behavior that doesn't denote a more raw, true, inherently "real" self that we've been hiding behind a mask. I don't think we "pretend" to be good people when times are calm. I think that we act as we naturally try our best to act whenever the situation allows for it, and when situations don't allow for it while we are still fully capable of making choices, good and bad (and I literally spent pages of comment space tearing into Bard for making what I viewed as a "bad" set of choices while under stress) I do acknowledge that situations with high amounts of adrenaline, anger, fear, and even hate can push us and influence us towards making choices we otherwise wouldn't have made. We still must own those choices, but I don't think those choices somehow demonstrate how we "truly" are, anymore than how we act when sad or depressed show who we "truly" are, or when we're happy and joyous. I'm saying that all of those things combined, and the gradual changes we always keep making in ourselves as we live is who we are, and that we are truly alive in all of those moments, from the intense ones to the boring ones, to the ones of horrible mistakes to the ones of perfect clarity. My argument is against the notion that some of these events or choices somehow matter more than others, or that its the negative ones that somehow "truly matter", as Logan is saying.
8380160
That's fair.
Finally somepony begins to get through to her.
Of course Logan would be the one to convert her. He was the one calling for her head not too long ago.
"Short and Not Sweet"... yet it still warmed my heart a little. There's always hope :)
She's half a world away from the Wendigoes and finally starting to thaw.
Asking the tough questions. Good on ya, Logan.
You're a good writer, ):(.
Maybe this is what Sera needed to hear. Maybe Logan being the pony to spend the most time around her is just what she needs to break her mindset. Nothing seems to have been working thus far, and for this journey to work, they need as many able bodied people as they can muster. Having Sera along for the ride has been a hindrance to this from the very beginning.
I'm Excited for the next few arcs, I have a feeling, Seraphimus is gonna get a lot of screen time
We all know Seraphimis is going to turn around eventually. I guess the only question left is how long until that happens.
Im likeing Seraphimus a lot more know a days. At first I was read to get rid of her but now I want her to join the team and sadly there are two open spots.
I have to wonder if Logan was once a believer in Verlax too, and then his life went to hell. He asked the questions in the chapter to himself, and lost his faith when he found the answers. However, unlike Seraphimus, he chose to find something else to fight for, another reason to go on. Perhaps he can help Seraphimus do the same.
11/14/2019
00:56 UTC
Thank god for the girth
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Exactly. Seems like Verlax led you all to shitty lives, in my opinion.
Man, these two really are the same and yet not.