"Hang onto your stripes, Pilate!" Rainbow Dash plunged over the platform's edge, spread her wings, and soared after the gliding shape and the hostage in tow. "I'm coming for ya, buddy!"
The zebra's voice could be faintly heard bellowing from a distance, "Sounds like they're using st-steam modulated wind gl-gliders! You sh-should be able to outfly th-them once you hit a straightaway!"
"Save the friggin' science lecture for after I've royally kicked their flanks!" Rainbow Dash snarled, angling her wings to accelerate after the cloaked pony with the blind stallion in its grasp. "No sir. I am not about to lose my friends to the Emo Cloak Crew!"
As if hearing her words from afar, the zebranapper angled its wings and banked left, soaring over and under an array of bridges attaching the Bronze District to the Gold District's platform. Bustling ponies gasped and flinched as the two blazed past them. In her desperate bid to catch up, Rainbow Dash nearly knocked three equines off a bridge. She grunted as luggage, metal airship parts, and multi-colored fabrics exploded all around her. Gnashing her teeth, Rainbow twirled through the mess and caught sight of her target soaring to the right and into the mid-level section of the Gold District.
With the wind screaming past her ears, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and shot hard right. She and her target threaded through a thin space full of cramped market shops and flickering neon lights. Ponies dodged every which way as the two thundered through the claustrophobic compartment, blazing past angrily shouting vendors who tossed their less expensive wares at them.
Sooner than Rainbow Dash would have expected, the compartment opened up to pure sky once again. The world exploded with light, and when Rainbow's eyes refocused, she saw a thick line of puttering steamships hovering in dense traffic.
"Luna Poop!"
She veered hard left, barely avoiding the surface of a lumbering dirigible. Swiftly skirting the far edge of the craft, she found herself soaring head-on towards a solid line of airships. Somewhere far ahead she spotted Pilate's stripes, and the billowing cloak of the figure that had enveloped him. Her target was fearlessly flying against traffic, and somehow making good speed doing so.
Gritting her teeth, Rainbow Dash accelerated, daredevilishly flying against airship after airship. Startled pilots gasped and yanked at their controls, causing the line of densely packed traffic to weave back and forth in the air. Rainbow paid the nearly-colliding airships no heed, instead doing all she could to gain distance on her elusive target.
At one point, the cloaked figure set its hooves down on the top balloon of a large airship. Dragging Pilate along, the pony flicked a rear hoof, and a series of metal spheres flew out from underneath its brown coat. The ball bearings bounced off the airship, swished through the air, and soared towards Rainbow's skull. In expert timing, they exploded with bright flashes of light and smoke.
"Gaaagh!" Rainbow winced, momentarily blinded. As soon as she reopened her eyes, she found herself soaring straight into the windshield of a large passenger aircraft. With no other option, she stretched her body out like a living torpedo at the last second.
The world around her shattered. She flew through the glass, barreled through a compartment full of gasping pilots, soared down several rows of screaming passengers, and burst her way out a porthole near the stern.
With a twirl, Rainbow pulled back up in the open air, sailing towards the northeast side of Gray Smoke, a hulking platform full of smoldering smokestacks and spinning metal windmills. Hyperventilating, she shook the shards of glass off and looked past the nearby array of hovering aircraft. "Nopony—and I mean nopony craps grenades at me and gets away with it!"
Up high, passing the glare of the noonday sun, she spotted Pilate and his abductor at a great distance. After climbing sharply, the two dove low, gliding towards the underbelly of Gray Smoke's industrial district. The smog there was dense, and—combined with the shadows of the large metal platform—it was only a matter of seconds before Rainbow lost sight of her target entirely.
"Oh no you don't!" her voice cracked in a fit of anger. She shot past the last streams of dense air traffic and dove after the attacker. Her athletic body parted the smog down the middle. It was getting harder to breathe with all the smoke. So, taking a page from her sudden nemesis, she decided not to. She spread her wings to her side and simply glided, angling herself past the burning exhaust ports and weaving through the dangerously sharp windmill fans lingering above her now.
Soon, it became dark as night from the huge mess of metalwork looming overhead. From Rainbow's perspective, it almost looked like she was flying upside down over the horizon of a metal world. She slapped herself once or twice to keep her focus, all the while not inhaling too much of the fumes pumping all around her. Her glazed ruby eyes scanned the blackness above her, and at last she saw a streak of movement.
With bursts of steam, the figure was propelling herself upward, eventually threading through a crack in the platform. Birds and bats flew out, frightened from their hiding places with errant shrieks. Rainbow Dash flew through the flapping flocks, gritting her teeth as she bore the brunt of their leather and feathery wings. At last, the world turned pitch black, for she had entered the bowels of the industrial district. Steam pipes and boilers churned all around her, shooting gusts of gray mists against her sweating body.
Coming to a gentle hover, Rainbow stretched her forelimb up and rubbed a hoof in gentle circles over her pendant. The Element of Loyalty glowed, shining a crimson spotlight forward through the grimey domain. Rainbow Dash made a face as her pendant illuminated slime-covered pipes and rusted, rotating gears. Spiderwebs dangled from connecting manaconduits, and various small, gangly things skittered away from the light, hiding in the extreme corners of the place.
"Pilate?!" Rainbow called out. Her echoes were swallowed up by the bass reverberations of grinding gears and rattling chains. She flew over conveyor belts, pulley systems, and hissing steam vents as she flew towards a dimly-lit part of the domain. "Pilate?! Are you there?! Give a shout out!" She started to pant, her face sweating from more than the sheer heat of the place. "Oh jeez. Oh jeez. Please tell me I didn't lose 'em. Please, Celestia. I swear. I'll do anything—"
"R-right here, Rainbow D-Dash..." A voice sputtered from below.
Rainbow spun, eyes wide. She dove down, threaded her way through two webs of criss-crossing pipes, and came upon a platform made of stationary gears looming beneath a wide stretch of translucent windows aglow with golden sunlight. Sitting perfectly in the center of the dim halo was Pilate. The stallion rested on his haunches, clutching the O.A.S.I.S. sphere to his chest as he tried to regain his bearings.
"Pilate! Heck yeah!" Rainbow touched down and placed a pair of hooves on his shoulders. "You're in one piece! What are the odds—?" She froze, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Spinning about, she snarled like a canine into the darkness beyond the halo of light. "Where is the punk?! Where did he go?!"
"I... I don't know..." Pilate stammered. "As soon as we entered this... this pl-place full of heat and noise, she dropped me!"
"Why in the hay would he simply just drop you after all of that—?" Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "Wait, did you say 'she?'"
"This... was definitely a mare..." Pilate muttered, still panting for breath.
"How do you know?"
"Because she spoke to me, Rainbow..." Pilate gulped. "Right before she dropped me here, she said 'It's not you we seek. You are just a means to an end.'"
Rainbow Dash bit her lip, standing up straight as her wings coiled up defensively. "Then somehow I doubt that we're actually alone right now..."
"No, you are most definitely not alone," a voice said from beyond the clattering noise. "Not so long as we are here to mind the wind that carries you aloft."
Rainbow Dash spun around. "Who are you?! Show your face so I can smash it back to your mother's womb!"
"Rainbow," Pilate hissed. "I don't think we even remotely have the drop on her."
"I'm not gonna just let punks like this lecture to us from the shadows..." Rainbow reared her head. "You hear that?! You wanna chat?! Come out and let's talk with our hooves!"
"You need to hear what we have to tell you, or else you will surely endure nothing but suffering... Austraeoh."
Pilate gasped.
Rainbow Dash went pale. She fidgeted, ultimately lowering her haunches to the rusted gear beneath her and her friend. "Alright..." She muttered. "I'm listening..."
Wrong A word.
Yup, definitely related to Austraeoh, and apparently Innavedr as well. Stupid cliffhanger.
~bass
Saying I'm not confused right now would be the biggest lie I'd tell in my entire life.
What the hay is going on.
3253637 Seems like the Rainbow Cult of Zadubadabu has some business with Austraeoh and Innavedr.
Somepony's got a hell of a way of delivering a message...
3253624
Eh, close enough under the circumstances.
Jog in place for five minutes, high knees. Knock 'em out!
I had my suspicions... Rainbow fan club has been following her..
Okay, so maaaybe they don't want to murder her and weave her mane and tail into some kick-ass bracelets.
Still don't trust 'em quite yet though...
3253776
If this group wants to help her, there must be some benefit to them. No group with selfless intentions takes this approach (no duh, Aqua...)
Weirdos. The other half of Eljunbyro and Innavdr want a word with you guys.
Confused again. That didn't take long.
So, they know about Austraeoh and Eljunbyro, that most likely makes them Xonan.
...
called it.
Hmm.. bait and split. Check.
Talk, intresting variations but not too low probability.
Why does this remind me of Laputa?
New sidequest arriving in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
What.
Uh oh. Someone knows Dashie's little secret.
pegausususus!!! yay.
Looks like I was right about them using Pilate as bait (like it's a big surprise). Although, those grenades were a funny way of saying, "Hey, follow me!"
Looks like we were also right about them having some kind of knowledge of the deeper goings of the story (my money's on them either having connection to the Xonans [read: the weird princess lady], or on them being like the modern-day descendants / spiritual successors of whatever group the dead pegasus in the hole belonged to). At the very least, there's a chance their intentions may be good. But there's also a part of me that thinks, after the relatively easy time Rainbow & Co. have had so far, they're due for drama.
Also, I have to say I'm digging the steam-punkish imagery here. It's like Miyazaki meets Scale.
3254736
I made a comment like this a few chapters back. Especially since the term 'yahoo' has been thrown a few times as an insult. I'm pretty sure it's a coincidence, though.
I think, dear rainbow cultist...
3255547 I will eat my socks if their intentions aren't good. They had the perfect opportunity to assault her and let it slip to address her instead. They manoeuvred her into a situation like that just to speak in private as it seems - and if they are truly aware of her true nature, they'd be utterly mad to antagonize her anway.
3253624 Austrawesome.
3255775
That's what I'm thinking. Chances are these guys are legit. I guess I'm just paranoid. The sailing has been a little too smooth. It makes me twitchy.
Ok so maybe mysterious cloaked ponies aren't bad guys after all. Still, couldn't they have just, oh I don't know, talked to Rainbow without kidnapping Pilate??
Steam powered wings, feather jewelry/ornaments, they know about Austraeoh....
soooo.....
Pegasus cult after all?
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Okay, them knowing of Austraeoh proves it. They're a pegasus cult of some sort. I imagine that, to get Austraeoh into a secluded place, they used Pilate for leverage. But the question remains - do they wish to help Austraeoh or oppose her? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Drama llama in the hiz-ouse!
You think Rainbow would know by now that inanimate voices echoing around dark and unknown chambers are kinda hard to punch in the face. Still...are these weird culty ponies even evil? Annoying, sure, but Pilate is still in one piece, and so is she - for now. Maybe they just want a nice private chat? Sure, they don't get any points for decor, but chatting in a dingy underground gear-room after a kidnapping is probably better in the long-run than an attempted beat-down in a dingy underground gear-room.
Well, I've been slacking the past couple-a weeks - Onward to unveiling the mysteries everyone else has already solved!
Well, looks like Scootaloo's fan club has farther reach than previously believed.
awww, I was hoping to go to bed, not read ten more chapters! OH WELL!
Oh my. So they know about Austraeoh. However, we know that Belle is Innavedr, Belle and Pilate are Eljunbyro, and Dash is Austraeoh. Maybe they have something to do with Odrsjot?
-Spirit
This is an interesting turn of events.
3253624 lol
Haha! I was right. Paintbucket Appreciate Society shall now impart its wisdom.
Damn Skirts, you have a regular womb fascination going on...
I still wouldn't trust them, if you want to talk to someone you don't try abducting them in the streets. Benevolent my ass
They know stuff, but that does not mean you can trust what they know.
My guess: they're descendants of the old Austraeoh cultists that could access the machine world.
Well, they seem to mean well.
Doesn't matter they're not crazy, though...
I readthe wiki before, and I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you they think they are Eljunbyro.
It would explain why they said their wind carries her.
8702236
I had an inkling as soon as they called out to 'Austraeoh'.