Up ahead, a blue aura hovered over the central dais where the flame of Yaerfaerda hung frozen in ice. The light grew more and more intense, shining off the metallic surfaces of every machine part lingering dormant around the chamber.
Rainbow gnashed her teeth. She wrenched her eyes off the blue beams, choosing instead to throw her gaze left and right. “Twilight... Rarity...” The mare gulped, and her panicked voice took on a sobbing tone. “Please... say something... anything...”
“What in tarnation is goin' on here?” Bard stammered. He heard loud pounding, then turned to snarl at the griffon struggling with the shut door behind them. “Dubya-Cee! Quit it! T'ain't no use!” He swiveled yet again, eyes darting towards the dark recesses in the ceiling. “We're dealin' with somethang far... far beyond us right now. Ain't that right, Rainbow?” Silence. The stallion looked aside. “Rainbow...?”
“If you guys are still here, then just listen...” Rainbow panted and panted. “...it's... it's the chaos metal. Yes... yes it has to be blocking us from each other somehow!” She shivered, trying her best not to whimper and bawl foalishly. “How it got here is another matter. But I smell Verlax. In everything, I friggin' smell her!” The mare growled. “She could track Chrysalis... so what's to stop her from tracking me?”
“Rainbow, darlin', talk to us!” Bard insisted, marching in front of her. “You've dealt with this sort of thang before, haven't ya?” He gulped. “How do we get out of this mess?”
Rainbow paced past him, stumbling, her gaze jolting in every direction. “What would it benefit her to kill me? To kill us? If she knows as much as Axan does... then wouldn't she realize what a horribly bad idea that would be?” She froze in place, her hooves scuffling over the metal floor, slick with condensation. The mare winced, her eyes briefly flashing red-on-yellow. “Or... or maybe that's what she wants...”
“Rainbow...” Bard placed his hooves on the mare's shoulders. “...if this place... if this whoever wants you, then nothin' is gonna happen if ya just pace in circles, spillin' yer collective thoughts all over the floor.” He struggled to speak firmly through chattering teeth. The temperature of the room was dropping even more than when they first entered. “Try'n'focus, darlin'. What have ya done to get out of a place like this before?”
“That's just it...” Rainbow shook, legs buckling. “There's never been anything like this waiting for me inside the Machine World before.”
“Then it's a trap?”
“It's... it's...” Rainbow suddenly quivered, her eyes flickering brighter than ever. The pendant around her neck pulsed, and she gazed thinly past Bard. “...something's coming.”
“Huh?” Bard turned around.
Beak clattering, Wildcard turned from the chamber door. His goggles reflected blue light, growing brighter and brighter.
Liquid poured down from a frozen alcove in the chamber's ceiling. At first, it was just a trickle. Then, it came in a deluge. At long last—as the entire niche above melted—
Cl-cl-cl-clangggg! Several strips of bone-white metal fell to the floor, forming a pile above a puddle of frozen ice.
Bard, Wildcard, and Rainbow Dash stared, dumbfounded.
Then—with the grace of marionette strings—several blue bands slowly fountained out of the block of ice in the center dais of the room. They all roped their way into the metal strips littering the floor before the trio. One by one, the metal plates shook, rattled, then lifted up.
Startled, Bard extended his metal staff and Wildcard unsheathed his nightsticks. They stood side by side, muscles tight as they fidgeted in place. The two mercenaries exchanged silent glances, then faced the phenomenon straight ahead.
Rainbow peered through the bounty hunters, her lips pursed.
Encumbered by the blue aura, the plates rose off the floor, levitating, coming together to form an equine shape. Soon, the three infiltrators bore witness to a lumbering suit of armor. The joints were fused together with thin seams of glowing blue ice. A tail of frost billowed out the rear, flicking with eerie ease. At last, a plume of vapor came out of an enormous hollow situated at the front of the armor's helm. The mist coalesced with loud crackling noises, until the frozen effigy of a horse muzzle took shape, occupying the space within the exposed headpiece. A translucent nose and a hollow set of eyes loomed before the group, and at last the black-armored golem was complete.
Rainbow and her two companions could only gawk.
Silence...
Suddenly, the thing's hollow eyes glowed with two fixed points of blue light. Snow materialized overhead, forming a trail between them and the armored anomaly.
“Guhhh!” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth, nearly falling over.
“What?!” Bard panted, struggling to not wrench his eyes from the sight in front of them. “What's the matter?”
“This... this much chaos...” Rainbow hissed. “I... I-I should be collapsing by now...” She looked up, sweating heavily despite the intense cold. “Unless... unless it wants...”
The icy muzzle of the beast opened wide.
Wildcard took a deep breath. Thwissssssh! He sailed straight forward on murking wings.
“Dubya—NO!” Bard hollered.
It was too late. A reverberating voice billowed from the golem's muzzle, carried by a snow-white breath. “Be still.”
In a flash, Wildcard dropped to the golden floor like a statue, every feather frozen blue and solid.
“Dammit!” Bard twirled his staff and galloped forward, snarling. “Dammit to Hell—!”
“Wait!” Rainbow's voice cracked.
The golem's head pivoted towards him. “Humble.” FLASH! Bard's body locked in mid-charge. He rattled to an icy stop beside Wildcard, just as dead-still and frozen.
“No... no!” Rainbow scampered over to the two mercenaries. She crouched low, reaching for Bard's shoulders. “Guys! Dude, speak to me—” As soon as she touched his icy flesh, she regretted it. The contact could just as well have been scalding. She drew back with a stifled shriek, wincing all over. Before she could savor the pain, her eyes flickered again, and she looked straight forward, tearing.
One thudding horseshoe after another, the golem marched towards her. It came to a stop, its black metal plates grinding and scraping against one another. Exhaling vapors, the thing braced itself against the Machine World's floor. It hunched back, paused, then jerked forward—its frozen muzzle gaping wide.
Rainbow flinched, expecting to turn into a block of pony icicles. Instead, a chilly mist of powdery snow flew past her, coating every square inch of her body before tapering off towards the far walls of the place. Just as quickly as the breath was made, it drew back, yanking the frost and vapors along with it. Rainbow leaned forward, gasping, feeling the air shifting... as if carrying her essence back with it... and straight into the automaton's frozen nostrils.
The suit of armor stood in place while the translucent muzzle sniffed, flexed, and relaxed. The blue points of light blinked. After an eerie pause, the thing spoke yet again in its ethereal voice, monotone and metallic. “Austraeoh.”
Rainbow stared at the thing, breathing and breathing. “... … ...Verlax?”
The frozen nostrils flared. The suit leaned back, like a foal sitting casually on its haunches. “She proposes a game.”
“... … ….” Rainbow's ears drooped. “A game.”
Armored plates scraping, the golem nodded. “A game of riddles.”
Rainbow's eyes darted between the walls of the place and the automaton itself. She gulped hard. “The prize...?”
The frozen head pivoted aside, and for once the voice took on a slightly melodic tone. “The wind.” The blue forehead flexed, crackling. “Your friends.” Vapors and vapors. “Urohringr.”
Rainbow Dash panted and panted. “And...” She gulped. “...if I lose?”
The suit of armor slowly shook its head. “She does not believe that you will want to lose.”
I don't think Rainbow is very good at riddles.
Given all the weird and crazy stuff that's happened in the past, I half expected that golem to end up being Pinkie. I was wroooooonggg...
Ha.
That is evil that Verlax took the riddlemaster out of the picture. I mean Twilight is necessary for a riddle-off.
...Well at least it didn't eat them.
Well..That's not good.
I'm concerned by that last line.
What is the price of failure?
Are Bard and WC going to die if she's wrong? Will she be frozen in the machine world? Or will Twilight and Rarity be re-sealed in the pendant?
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
hmmm, so Saw and the Hobbit. She wants to play a game answer the riddles get all he good stuffs, fail....well, don't fail.
Riddles in an ancient crypt?
Whatever you do, don't choose the gold and gem studded grail Rainbow!
6373310
I think if she fails, she will be stuck in the frozen part of the Machine World so she won't be able to bring back her other friends, and thus not be able to relight the spark, thus the world dies.
IT mentioned "The WInd".
Pretty sure that means Eljunbyroh. This scares me. I always thought that Verlax wanted to test Rainbow with these challenges, but NOT like that. Not those three.
Oh, this will be easy! Twilight's probably great at rid--
...
...well, shit.
This is an interesting obstacle.
I'm going to bet that she loses the game. Obviously, she's going to rescue Pinkie Sprite somehow, but...
Still can't figure Verlaxion out. If she just wanted to kill Rainbow, why bother with games? Maybe I was right before, and she is just wanting to test Rainbow. But why? To see if she's worthy?
... We don't know what "Ynanhluutr" refers to, do we? Or am I forgetting? Maybe the answer lies in that.
Warning MAY be loud!
I hope the game involves fact checking
I don't understand what the point of this is. Verlaxion is a rather confusing character at this point.
Ohhhhh no. Asking Rainbow Dash riddles. This will not end well.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
except of course it'll end well because I mean it's a story come on everybody be rational here
right
right??
6373402 Eljunbyro wasn't the flame though. Eljunbyro was Bellesmith and Pilate. The wind it's referring to might be the restorative effects the flame has on her, a sort of Second Wind.
It also mentioned her friends. If Verlax set up a small anti magic field in that section of the machine world, similar to the Choke then it might be blocking Twi and Rar from appearing.
and it mentioned Urohringr. The ring world... the implications of that are..grim. Does Verlax have designs on the rest of the plane?
So if Dash fails.. we can assume she'll lose her second wind, somehow be forced to continue without getting Pinks and without have Twi and Rar restored to her, and it's assumable that she'll be locked out of any other machine world entrances she stumbles across from that point on due to Verlax, and Verlax will start some sort of campaign to conquer the rest of the light side.
6373409
God fucking damnit, I lost The Game.
Of course it's Vexen.
6373462 damn you...
Do you think this was a mother fuckin' game?
6373204
Heh. Thanks, but Silver Flare beat you to it. Whoop!
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw10519_medium.png
For something that's not a game there certainly are a lot of boss encounters and puzzle solving involved. Also has permadeath so its kind of a rouge-like game. And texted based.
6373462 Dammit, I had a 9 month streak going.
Camelia did say a test would here but this? This is crazy. In a good way of course.
Dammit Dash, Dont freeze now.
If Im lucky, Back tuesday.
If I aint.
Well.
Its been a blast.
Once more unto public transport, and relatives.
I FUCKINNNGGG KNEW IT
When the snow first spilled in I thought it was more chaos metal. That would've sucked.
What does Verlax has to do with Eljunbyro? Or maybe The Wind is the flame? Or maybe Eljunbyro is coming again to help Dash, because now that the Grand Choke isn't anti-magic, they can fly through it
Well, at least we might get some idea of Verlax's motives if we're lucky.
I don't think this is a test.
I think this is a lesson being taught the only way it can.
Verlax you sneaky snake!
Hmm so maybe Verlax just wants to know if Rainbow Dash is worthy? Though worthy of what exactly I do not now. Verlax is a dangerous variable.
6373941
Well, its being animated by Chaos metal that fell from the hollow that melted, and it seems to be hurting RD worse being active.
Also, it seems Verlax knows a lot about Chaos metal, perhaps even how to synthesize some with the ridiculous amount she uses in everything. Watch her be MADE of the stuff.
6374110
....ummmmm... Pretty sure a riddle game is a test. True, you can learn from a test, but that doesn't make it any less test-like
6373960
Pretty sure what Verlax is calling the Wind is indeed the flame, as we have already seen how it rejuvenates The Dash. As for Season 1 Eljunbyro, pretty sure we won't see them for a while, until that special episode where an old team partners up with the current team to face some combined villain threat (Shell returns from beyond the grave to help Revan, so the
Space Rangersnew Eljunbyro needs help from theMighty Morphin' Power Rangersold Eljunbyro.I expected the armor to be Rarity, with the color of the magic.
Wouldn't that be cool, have your friends come back as tools of destruction. Bet that Fluttershy would be a pair of cool sunglases and Pinkie a portable orbital (It is Pinkie we are talking about) cake cannon.
This is not good...
AT ALL.
Was anagraming the story names, and Urohringr came out as 'R Hour Ring' - or, alternatively, 'Hour R Ring'.
And Austraeoh renders itself as 'A Star o' Hue'.
Also, Innavedar anagrams to 'N Invader'.
Yaerfaerda = Ear Fad Year
Ordsjot becomes 'Rod's Jot' - or 'Jot Rods'.
And, finally, the anagram of Ynanhluutr is...
'Unruly Than'
....what, precisely?
6375335
Anagrams is it? Well then;
A game of riddles = Maladies Forged
You think this is a game = Okay I am shiniest thug
My thesis regarding lessons learned (6374110 ), grows stronger.
For what it's worth;
Rainbow Dash flies east = Fair, datable showiness
But....
Does Rainbow even have pockets?
"July Boner"
"Darn Vine!"
"A Deer, A Fray"
6376579
"A Deer, A Fray"
Surprisingly fitting
6375335 Unhunt Lyra?
What was that comment about Pinkie just building herself a suit of armour several chapters ago? o_O
Oh shit, well this outta be great.
6375335 wasn't it "nyan looter" ?