"I don't like this," Bellesmith stammered, squatting on her haunches before the edge of the cave. She peered forlornly down into the depths of the cylindrical descent, her chestnut eyes squinting in desperation for any sign of Rainbow Dash. She was unsuccessful. "We should have contrived some way for us to message each other if something went bad..."
"Belle..."
"We should have given her a rope!"
Pilate actually blinked his cloudy eyes at that. "A rope?"
"Yes! Any pony with a lick of sense would bring rope while navigating a sharp descent!"
"Uhm... Beloved?" The zebra marched over, smiling, and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "Have you noticed that our beloved friend possesses wings?"
"But still?! It's so dark and jagged down there!"
"Considering the enormous amount of things Rainbow Dash has encountered prior to when we woke her up, I'm quite certain she can handle whatever that cave has to toss at her."
"But.. But..."
"And I seriously doubt that a giant, razor-toothed, dragon goddess could even fit in there."
Belle sighed, her mane sliding over her golden face in the afternoon light. "She's not invincible, y'know."
"Sometimes I wonder. I mean, she survived death itself, yes?"
"She was only mostly dead, Pilate. And she came out of that mess because we dragged herself."
"Not my point." Pilate squatted beside her. "Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps Austraeoh is bound to make it to the edge of the world, regardless of who or what helps her?"
"Huh?"
"What if other ponies were Eljunbyro, and not us?" Pilate shrugged. "What if some other event had caused her to recover from her excessive injuries?"
"But something else didn't happen, Pilate. It was us..."
"What I'm getting at, beloved, is that maybe Rainbow Dash is destined to make this journey to its fullest, against all odds, regardless of what form of help she gets or doesn't get?"
Belle bit her lip. She gazed off towards the distant, green line of Foxtaur. "It could be possible. I mean, it seems as if a great deal of what's been happening was... was prophesied—I don't know."
"I don't know everything either, darling, but I think there's something bigger than us helping Rainbow Dash make this trip." Pilate took a breath, then added. "And bigger than her as well, though she would rather die again than admit that such a divine thing bigger than her exists."
Belle squinted at him. "I thought I married a scientist."
"Did you now?"
She chuckled. "Since when were you an avid believer in fate?"
He leaned over and nuzzled her. "Because long ago, more than anything else in this crazy, confusing, cluttered world, I chose you and you alone to put my trust in." He kissed her ear and added, "And my life has yet to turn to shambles. I doubt that it ever will."
"Mmmm... You have way too much faith in me, Pilate."
"And you have too little in Rainbow Dash." He said with a wicked smirk. He motioned towards the cave. "Give her some more time. She's more patient than the both of us think. If worse comes to worse, I have enough juice in O.A.S.I.S. to fetch her. In meantime... just have faith..."
Belle leaned against him, shuddering slightly. "It's just so hard to at times..."
He nuzzled her. "It only rewards in the end."
High above the two, several hundreds of meters away, descending at a rapid rate, were three glinting shapes. Six ponies clung to the metal spines of three gliders—two pilots apiece. When they saw the two figures down below, the copilots signaled to one another.
After a mutual nod, the airborne Enforcers fired bright orange flares into the skies, banked their gliders to the southeast, and dove towards the cave... and the unsuspecting couple seated in front of it.
Run, Belle! Run, Pilate!
Pilate makes a good point, though. It could have very easily been any two ponies instead of them.
Dat reference.
uh oh...
Oh damn. Shitstorm inbound.
Speaking to us, are we?
Also, Holy shit! ):(!!! Twenty-five push-ups for that fucking cliffhanger, then twenty more for the incoming shit mortar! Knock 'em out!!!
Kind of a lackluster chapter, but ah well, can't all be gems.I changed my mind, it's not a shining example of a chapter, but I'd rather hold onto some dry theorizing and myth building than have none at all.This skirts awfully close to the 4th wall again, not unlike a particular moment a few chapters ago and a few in this one, too. It could have literally been any two characters to fill the role, but it happens to be these two. Dash will make this journey because she is being written to do so, the higher power at play is the keyboard of the author.
Meanwhile, I'm just going to go with the flow for a bit and hope it pays off with exposition and a minimal amount of bloodshed.
Ooooooh, and there's no RD to protect them. Sucks, Eljunbyro.
Guest chapter? Written not by IC?
Something tells me things are going to get very hard, Belle...
Dat foreshadow.
QUICK! JUMP INTO THE HOLE BEFORE THEY CAN GET YOU!
YOU'LL BE TOTALLY SAFE!
Calling it now - Belle and Pilate will be captured and Shell will try to use them as leverage against Dash. No idea if they'll survive, though. I hope they do. Everyone loves our favorite zebra. Oh, and Belle. Her too, I guess.
Hmm... gliders...
Pfft. Well, it is a dark, jagged thing!
1967698 shhh...
1966388 Yes, this is a great idea and one that I fully support because it cannot go wrong in any way whatsoever. Though honestly it would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to navigate a glider in that small cave.
What's that? We're being chased into the machine underground again? Yay!
RUN YOU FOOLS!!
Oh boy. They're back.
Well, shoot. It'd be super helpful if Belle actually had a functioning horn - then, you know, she could just teleport herself and Pilate away. I suppose she could still stab someone with the rest of it. Or Pilate could try chucking her at the enemy - I've heard wife/beloved throwing is super effective against flying things. In any case, they'll need to come up with something. Dash is busy spelunking ala Daring Do and probably won't surface until its too late. Welp, I'm at that lovely point where I've got a few chapters in the bank, so onward!
Can't take this chapter seriously, I'm listening to The Living Tombstone's "Good Ol' Days"
This is Australia...
Hello good sir and madam, may we borrow some of your precious time to speak about our Lord and Savior from the sky kingdom named Rainbow Dash? If you follow our vision, we can guarantee you an awesome life filled with thrill, suspense and excitement in your life.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, it appears that Pilate has caught on to Imploding's schemes! Even his own story is turning against him! Wahahaha...ahem. Err, right.
So now that a character in the story has mentioned the theory of Austraeoh being Dash's destiny that she is meant to do, I'm going to accept that theory as one that is possible canon to the series. Imploding rarely gives the reader factual information and concrete evidence on which to make assumptions, but this time he comes close. It isn't official yet, but the theory has become all the more likely. Also, that line about Dash and divine beings is pretty funny, seeing as how the Divine Five are going to aid her later on. And it appears the scouts have reached our trio as well. My guess is that Belle and Pilate will dive into the cave for cover and meet up with Dash there. And then - I'll figure out what happens when we get there. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
I get the feeling, that Dash my be going through a certain ominous stone wall at the bottom of a chasm.
What? She's done it before....
Onwards! Through a wall! A stone wall! A hard stone wall! A cold, hard stone wall! An impenetrable, cold, hard, stone wall!
Yeah, thats what I thought.
1965935
I wonder, if IC took these pushups to heart...it has to be good exercise.
Oh no
Oh no no no no no
Run! Run run run!
Going into the cave? Going into the cave. Let's do this.
Now would be a good time to run.
Dont look up
At least SOMEONE has a lick of sense here
I not sure that's how causality works, Pilate. Well, unless it is where Rainbow is concerned.
Dat cliffhanger.
Been a while since I've seen that movie.
The references and use of names are very well handled, in that while they're recognisable to those familiar, they don't offer any detriment to the story itself.
So kudos on that.
1966388
For example, I had no idea there was actually a commenter named Ledomare.
Hiya!
Yes. Rainbow Dash will reach the end of the world because PLOT ARMOR!!! :D
7307977
I had the same realization a few chapters back on seeing a commenter named "Pilate".
Is Bellesmith also a reference?
8053730
I always thought she was a reference to Belle from Disney.
8053730
I check the comments a lot, and I've never seen anyone named "Bellesmith" or anything close to it, so I'm pretty sure she was just named after Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
8440240
That seems likely given it's Skirts, but I'm not sure where the "Smith" comes in...
8440240
I wish there was a pony named FOXTrot, or simply The Fox
That is no reason to be passive, prophecies only get fulfilled when someone chooses to fulfill them.
08/29/2019
15:49 UTC
Wait, is Rainbow Dash reading in the dark? She’s gonna hurt her eyes like that!
Belle's polycule confirmed