—and the top dredger flinched, rolling across the bulkhead... for Rainbow Dash's hoof had just kicked him out of the way. Sputtering for breath, Skagra stared up past a curtain of sweat.
The vent continued expelling vaporous heat.
And then Rainbow swung the lever back in place, cutting off the flow of steam completely.
Skagra blinked... then watched from a slumped position as Rainbow Dash marched around the platform, standing high before the crowd. Tilting her head up with a glint of her pendant, she spoke loudly... boldly before the ponies of Red Barge.
“Blood! Suffering! Slavery!” She hollered into the polluted mists. “That's what this entire place runs on! I mean... it ain't dredge coal!” She waved her forelimbs. “It's just one stupid friggin', endless cycle! Huh?! One jerkface rises up to the top of the muck pile and kills the guy bossing him around. And then that guy gets offed by another pony even more ugly and pathetic than him! Before you know it, your entire legacy is just one scrap of melting flesh after another! But to what end?! Like, do you guys just adore having some cruddy plop bucket shove his jerkfacedness into your lives without question?! When did all this crap start, anyways?! And just when did having a license to be crazy become having a license to rule the rust?!”
She turned around, gazing at the crowd—and even at the few limping figures gathering along the edges of the Southern Strut. She recognized the faces of Digiff and Nixkit, and she gave them the same iron glare.
“A lot of you have heard some nasty crud about me. The 'Rainbow Rogue' this and the 'Monster from the Blight' that. Well, yeah, I've done some pretty monstrous stuff, for sure... downright cruel, even. But this jerkface you see before you is not gonna be your new Top Dredger! Nuh uh! It ain't gonna be that easy! Not anymore! After all, the easy way is the lame way, and you guys are made of stronger stuff! You know this! You power up an entire friggin' Continent, for crying out loud!” Frowning, she brushed a hoof across her chest and placed it against her left eye. “I swear on my wings that you guys aren't going to have a Top Dredger ever again! Because... come on!” She pointed at Skagra's figure. “You see this?! This right here?! You all deserve better than this garbage! I mean... who would want to live under that!”
“Snrkkkt... they... they won't listen to you,” Skagra sputtered. “Once sea foam, always sea foam—”
Whap! Rainbow kicked him, causing the dredger to yelp. “Shuddup. Heroic monologue here. Ahem.” She tilted her head up to face the crowd again. “All your lives, you've been told that you're nothing but muck... scum of the seven seas... boils on the butt of the world—or whatever. I dunno. Doesn't matter. It's all lies! Complete and utter horse hockey! Now I dunno who made you think that way about yourselves to begin with. Maybe it was the guys who buy your dredge coal. Maybe it was all of Rohbredden. Maybe it was Verlax herself. Doesn't matter. The ponies who need to stop calling you that is you.” She pointed. “And unless you pull yourselves out of the trash that jerkfaces like this scumbag have made, then you'll never go anywhere! And this crud...” She pointed at the blood stained bulkheads. “This right here?! It will never... end.”
Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity hovered close together, watching as Rainbow Dash stepped down and started pacing before the circle of onlookers.
“I know it seems impossible to live life differently. But I'm telling you... it can be done! I've been to a lot of places in my travels, and I passed through many kingdoms—some of them as bad off as this place... if not worst. Maybe you don't believe me. You don't have to. But believe this.” She scuffled to a stop, pointing. “Most of these places I've been to? They had the power to change. And it sure as heck didn't happen easily. Most of the time, it didn't happen overnight. But places... nations... ponies have the power to change! So long as they don't give into despair... so long as they don't accept the horrible elements around them as... as...”
Rainbow bit her lip. She shook... shuddered... then exhaled.
“...as fate.” A hard gulp. “And a pony's fate is not up to anyone or anything but that pony herself. I... lost track of that for a while.” She turned and looked at her four friends with glazed eyes. “And I would do anything... anything to undo the mistakes I made in my despair. But... thankfully... I have a new chance to make things right... if not for me... then for the ponies I continue to meet in my travels.”
Rarity sniffled, hugging Fluttershy closely. Pinkie grinned while Twilight exhaled through a soft smile.
“But...” A meager voice spoke up.
Rainbow Dash spun around.
Whony fidgeted where he stood. “But how can we even begin to change?” He gulped, waving at Skagra, the rust, and the muck beyond. “This is all we know.”
“Look around you, kid,” Rainbow Dash said. “With all the stuff that's gone down...” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you the same pony now that you were hours ago?”
Whony merely blinked at that. He stood up tall, jaw tight.
Rainbow gazed at the others. “This place just... doesn't have to be so stinkin' awful!” her voice cracked. “I mean... other ponies are getting along fine, aren't they?! Rust... Shoggoth... the other Barges...” She pointed. “Was it really so bad to dredge coal shelves before psychopaths like this melon fudge right here started crapping into everyone's mailbox?!”
The citizens of Red Barge murmured with one another.
Voices—young and old—rang across the bulkheads.
“With... w-without Skagra...” A stallion muttered, “Who will designate the new labor assignments?”
“Who will give us nibbles?” voiced a colt.
“Where will we establish housing?” asked a mare, nuzzling her child.
“And who will work the harvest chambers?” asked another stallion.
“Dude...” Rainbow Dash shrugged her forelimbs dramatically. “You guys will decide! As a group! As a team! As friends!” She turned around. “Running a Barge... running anything doesn't have to be so friggin' cutthroat!” Her glaring vision fell on the likes of Nixkit and Digiff from afar. “And it certainly doesn't need a bunch of idiotic thugs telling other ponies what to do! Does it?!”
The few dredgers conscious on the Southern Strut blinked at that. Many of them exchanged anxious glances. Some collapsed on their flanks in a contemplative stupor. Others, weary and winded, limped forward... blending icily into the crowd.
Among them was Nixkit. The bruised, lurching stallion made a sluggish bee-line for Rainbow Dash.
Keris watched warily from the sidelines. His wing muscles coiled, ready to spring at any moment.
But once Nixkit reached the pegasus, he looked up at her... then stripped off his vest and all of the tools and weapons stowed away in it. “Honestly...?” He slumped to his knees beside Skagra, sighing. “...I'm just so mucking tired of everything.” He gulped, then glanced aside at the crowd. “It's over, boys. It's been over for ages now...”
To that, Digiff and several of the other dredgers hung their heads. Meanwhile, a strange sound of elation bubbled through the crowd.
“Mrmmmfff... coward...” Skagra hissed across the bulkheads as he glared at Nixkit. “They shoulda named you 'Pixie.' You're about as fleeting as a fart, anyways.”
“Yeah yeah... chew on shit, ya whalemuck,” Nixkit hissed back. “It's the only thing you're good at, anyways...”
Skagra blinked.
Meanwhile, Whony and several orphans around him broke into insatiable giggles. The oldest colt bore a dumb grin on his face.
“But... but Miss...” A pony spoke from the crowd, forcing Rainbow to spin around. “So much has happened to Red Barge...”
“How will we recover?” asked another.
“What if the pirates try attacking us again?!”
“Without a Top Dredger, we... we j-just don't know how to work!”
“How can we control the Barge as a group?”
Rainbow took a deep breath. “These... are all very good questions.” She gulped. “Very important questions. You guys don't just need each other... but Rohbredden itself needs you! Which is fortunate...” She turned and looked across the way at Keris. “...because we happen to have a member of the Right Talon of Verlaxion right here in our midst.”
Murmuring, the crowd turned, following Rainbow's gaze.
Keris blinked as Croche and Swab looked up at him.
“This is Lieutenant Keris,” Rainbow Dash said. “He may not look it at the moment—but he's one of the wisest, most badflank griffons in Rohbredden security. His beak holds—like—super authority in the continent n'stuff. You want guidance?” She nodded her head towards him. “Keris here will be here to help you get on track... to transition into something that's... y'know... friggin' sane. After all, it's his duty to look after the innocent citizens of Rohbredden, be it on land or in the seven seas beyond.” Her ruby eyes narrowed. “...isn't that right, Lieutenant Dude?”
“Is what she saying true?” asked a citizen.
“Will you help us?”
“Do you have Verlaxion's blessing?”
Keris stood with all eyes upon him. Wincing a bit from his wounded talon, he nevertheless took a deep breath and gradually said, “As a member of the Right Talon of Verlaxion, I am bound to protect the citizens of this kingdom, yes. That being said, I am also bound by the rulings of the Council of Verlaxion. At present, I've been charged by both the Council and my superior Commander to track down the Rainbow Rogue and bring her to justice.”
Swab bit his lip.
Rainbow stared back, silent.
Keris exhaled, his headcrest tilting back. “However... due to having suffered... grievous injuries in the line of duty...” There was a twinkle in his magenta eyes. “I was... unable to fulfill the duties that were physically required of me in apprehending the suspect in question.” He swallowed. “Therefore, it is my obligatory decision to act as supervisory counsel for the citizens of Red Barge while they recover from a major event of social upheaval—as it is within my mental and emotional faculty at the present to do so.”
His last few words were nearly drowned out by an uproar from the crowd. The air rang with voices—most of them jubilant and enthusiastic.
Rainbow Dash smiled from afar, and Keris grinned slyly back.
The four marefriends spun in a floating hug, meanwhile Croche and Swab exchanged squealing grins.
Clearins his throat, Keris tossed his booming voice at the crowd, “And my first advice is this—namely an order!” He pointed at the surrounding decks with his good talon. “That the chambers to the harvest machines be opened! And that we retrieve every single body that's slaving away down there! That we distribute them food! Water! Anything we can supply!”
“But Lieutenant...” A stallion wandered up to the griffon. “Our resources are stretched too thin. We barely have enough nibbles to spare even the ponies you see before you!”
“He's right,” Nixkit muttered, lifting his head slightly. “Hoofing over the Rainbow Rogue was supposed to get us the bars for resupply.”
“Very well then...” Keris turned about. “Who here can fly?! Any able-bodied pegasi?!”
After a few seconds of silence, one... two... three dozen hooves raised from the crowd.
“Step forward!”
Several mares and stallions nervously complied, dwarfed by the earth pony majority.
“Listen to me carefully,” Keris said. “I want you to fly north. Head to White Barge. Ask for a stallion named Elsaack. The ponies of that Barge want to help you... they've been wanting to for years, and chief among them is Elsaack. Tell him to bring food... supplies... medicine—hell—the whole damn Barge. We all know these rust buckets can move.”
The crowd broke into louder and louder commotion. All the while, stallions, mares, and workers alike galloped towards the lower holds, opening the doors with loud, metallic clatter.
“We'll unite their barge with ours!” Keris exclaimed above the chatter. “And working together, this day forward, we will clean the muck from the seven seas. As Verlaxion is our witness.”
There was scarcely a spot left on the platform to stand straight. Ponies were rushing in every direction to gather supplies and prepare for the influx of needy bodies from below. Meanwhile, three dozen pegasi formed groups and took to the skies, flying due north as fast as their wings could carry them.
Rainbow Dash watched all of this in silent awe. At one point, Twilight floated down, hovering behind her.
“For a second there...” The unicorn shuddered. “...I really thought you were going to go back on your word. I thought you were going to kill the stallion.”
“Would you have blamed me for it?” Rainbow muttered.
Twilight hovered... floated... and then her voice blurted: “No.” She shook her head. “Not anymore. Not with this stallion.”
“Well I would have.” Rainbow droned. “And I think that's what matters.”
“I'm... I'm very proud of you, Rainbow,” Twilight said.
Rainbow turned towards her. She exhaled in a squeak. “And I'm just sorry I couldn't get you to say that sooner.”
Twilight smiled tearfully.
“Grnnffff...” Skagra grunted.
Both the pegasus and the spectre glanced down at him.
“Mrmmfff... should be dead...” Skagra shook his head, eyes clenched tight. “I've g-got nothing being alive. Mrmmmfff... just years and years of misery ahead.”
Rainbow leaned forward. “I know,” she cooed. “Plenty of time to meditate on it.” With a flick of her tail, she trotted off. “Shiny... shiny dolphins.”
Meanwhile...
Chandler panted... panted... huffed and puffed...
He ran along the mostly empty decks of the eastern strut.
Until... at last...
The Consortium Executive came to a slumping stop.
He bent over, panting... wheezing...
Then he looked up, his eyes framed with sweat, widening more and more as he gawked at the empty decks before him.
“... … …!!!” Muzzle gaping wide, Chandler flailed his forelimbs and hollered: “Where the Hell is my boat?!?”
“Heh heh heh heh...” Monket grinned, his green dreads flouncing in the warm sea breeze. “Hmmm-hah hah hah hah hah!” He gripped the rudder wheel and steered towards the northwest.
Across the deck of the Consortium steamship, several slaves and servants aimed crossbows at a tight group of surrendered workers. As the ship rocked, a stallion turned towards the Slaver of the Waves.
“Boss...” He cleared his throat. “Do we slit their throats and dump them, or...?”
“Shut your muzzle, runt,” Monket grumbled. “It's a calm sea, and you're still full of Skagra talk!”
Nevertheless, Chandler's crew shivered where they were forced to sit. “What are you going to do to us?” one stammered. “Sell us to Mudtop?”
“Are you kidding?” Monket flashed them a crooked-eye stare. “With all the bars in this ship's hold, I've got the money to buy Mudtop ten times over! Including every family birthed beneath!”
“Wait... boss...” One servant gaped at him. He turned, squinting through a spray of ocean mist. “Does this mean...?”
“Paradigm shift, my little ponies!” Monket's voice boomed as he twirled the rudder wheel again. “Mudtop is getting a brand new polish! What you do with your putrid little lives after we sail into port is no difference to me.” He took a fresh breath of the western winds and grinned to himself. “At least I'll be sitting atop the muck by the time I die.” He grasped a cord to the foghorn for the heck of it. “What other flankholes in the seven seas can say the same? Savvy?”
And he pulled the cord, serenading the ocean with laughter.
Yey~ New chappie~
So...now what? Red Barge begins to heal, but I don't think RD's going to stay to see that. She's going to say goodbye to Kera 2.0 and Kera 3.0. But then there's her being the Rainbow Rogue. Will Keris just let her fly away? Or, the rest of the Talon arrives, will RD surrender peacefully? And what of the blonde unicorn? Will she hunt RD down? Will she be the new Shell?
I'm very okay with this.
Very few things lately in this darn book have made me laugh as hard as I did at this.
[Captain Jack Sparrow]
[/Captain Jack Sparrow]
Yep. Figured that wasn't the end of him.
I'd say everything turned out pretty well.
(Though something could still happen at any moment...*cough*Longaze*cough*)
Two barges soon to unite - one red, the other white. A gauze to aid in healing the bleeding wound that was left on its people.
And good guy Keris is at the helm.
And then Monket was Jack Sparrow.
He's still a slaving scum and what he's done is unforgivable. However, it looks like he's changing too.
Fuckin' called it.
Well, so long as Monket isn't going to be trouble (that's what I gathered, but maybe I was reading too quickly and missed some detail), I couldn't be happier with how all this is playing out. I could slap myself for saying this, but it looks like everything is going to end happily for Red Barge.
Yaaay. I lived!
i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/Thatlittleskitty/didja%20redo%20stuff/why_zpsyhophuur.png
What did I say two chapters ago? Dash is gonna do this motherfucker a cruelty by showing him mercy.
-In the end isolation, hunted by a nation. Utaan.
Called it, he isn't dead. Anyways
It is about time that the she realizes the reason that she takes this journey is because SHE WANTS TOO, not for a world or a prophecy or anything else. She has found Ynanhluutr, or at the very least is on the way to finding it.
Gotta love that kind of BS, I only hope that Keris isn't grilled too badly when the rest of the Talon get there
Well, it is a start from the hell that he was. Did he actually listen to Rainbow's little speech, or did something else change him?
With all this out of the way I guess the only question is 'what now?'
Ahhh... First off:
Mmmmmmmm....Houston, we have no problems.
This, for me, is pure philisophical satisfaction. I really cannot state how much it pleases me to see this conclusion. Screw determinism Dashie, you're at the helm.
Speaking of helms, that last scene with Monket...is it just me, or is he suggesting he'll let the slaves go? Either way, him stealing Chandlers boat had me laugh from a good, healthy place.
And I guess Keris has bureaucratic training. Wow, they cover everything in Talon school.
Maybe now we can FINALLY leave Rust. And without a battle with Seraphimus! Whouda thunk it?
... Goddess damn it, Monket. Playing both sides against the middle and coming out on top? Friggin' genius.
Boys and girls, this is Keris. He is a Griffin. He is cool. He knows how to organize things.
"Water for you and you and you and you. Yeah slap those barges together!"
Cheer that no one is dead?
[Nelson Muntz Voice]Ha! Ha![/Nelson Muntz Voice]
So Keris is letting Rainbow go, helping out with Red Barge; Monket looks to be turning a new leaf (didn't see that coming but cool anyway) Chandler is trapped and seemingly can't get away and things look to be going well for Red Barge for the first time in a long, long while. All in all a good end!
Is Monket trying to be a Captain Jack Sparrow expie?
"They're stealing our ship!"
"Bring me that horizon."
Dreadlocks.
Villainously cool.
Yup.
So if I'm reading this right, Monket is letting all his servants/slaves go free too?
Hmmm, this shaped up nothing like I'd predicted way back when. The only question that remains: Rainbow Dash, what will you do now?
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"Kill them with kindness", I always say
TWO CHAPTERS!
Also heros are allowed to monologe?
And thats just perfect for chandler
Longbow lives!
That's fuckin brilliant
6693630 pff, whaddya mean 'what she gonna do now'? she gonna do what East Horse does: she's gonna try and start flyin east
I'd imagine it would be pretty damn hard to work with torrurers as a friend. Hope Kerris can dish out at least a bit of punishment.
That ending tho.
Good to know Red Barge has a happy ending. Assuming the Right Talon doesn't come in and somehow force Keris to not aid this place anymore because it's "outside of Verlaxion's grace" or whatnot. Also, who's to say what Chandler or Longaze are about to do?
Oh yeah, and Rainbow is still known as the 'Rogue' outside these parts...
When keris sees chandler its a wrap.
Big boss taken down and the good ending. Next levels here we come.
I did not expect such a clean ending to that arc.
Skagra and Chandler seem to be done, i can't really see any of them recovering from that blow, with Skagra in custody Chandler could even pull off an escape somehow and still would change nothing.
Monket got what he wanted and will probably live a happy ever after unless stabbed by pirates.
I would have wished for Keris to accompany Dash a bit longer, (for complete egoistical reasons of course ) but i guess that spot is still taken by wildcard.
Also no coal dust cure, that means the inevitable confrontation with Seraphimus probably wont have an easy fix because both sides are on clashing quests to revive their loved ones.
So i guess we are going to see some new locations and hopefully the orange apple horse of truth (and lie detection ?) soon.
Sounds like Chandler could use a drink.
Alternate chapter title: Something To Be Expected Of
It's a really nice turn around bit we're still not done with Red Barge. Firstly there's the matter of what will happen between RD and Keris and later on, the Talon. Then we still have Chandler and Longaze on board. Also what will happen to Skagra later. Is he just gonna lie around forever? Barges are going to join together. White and Red. Are forming a Polish flag IC?
6693851 You made me think. What if the big freezer where Seraphimus' dear chicken bits are sleeping, is plugged to Dash' next stop, like the Reed?
i.imgur.com/QN74DHd.gif
That's some nice Dash-tier cycle-breaking.
The obvious choice for keeping this place afloat while he also recuperates. Though if Seraphimus arrives and shows anything but sympathy for his actions and the lives saved here with the exception of for Skagra (hell, would she know that many of them are equally Verlaxion-fearing folk?), it would be a rather frustrating to see such an approach to the situation on her part. That could depend on how honest Keris is about his experience with Her Rogueness.
I'm hoping I don't turn out to be a jerk about this.
I'm not sure about leaving Skagra alive, considering the number of ponies who want him dead I wonder how long he'll last. Their's not exactly a prison out here for him to get thrown into. Nevertheless, it feels good to keep it clean, and maybe this will help send the message Dash wants to send even better.
Still, unleas she's been faking the wing injury, how is RD getting off the barge? Monket's ruined ship? Building another raft? Because those ended so well for her.
Skagra is going to have an intresting time in the brig, given theres not much of a brig left. That, and the open escape hatch at the back.
Wonder just how Loyal, Longaze is going to be, in that is she going to keep fighting for Chandler?
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This is Chandler/Skagra right now.
6693920
*Insert Generic KFC Joke Here*
6693920
Don't you even start.
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The likelihood of this right now is really, really high. So much so in fact it scares me.
Totally called Monket running off with the ship. I didn't call him turning into Jack Sparrow. But well, I think I'll take that as a compliment.
Thank you Monket, I've had enough of that for a lifetime!
I actually stood up and cheered when Twilight said she was proud of Dashie. After the way the last book ended, I've been waiting for them to reconcile to the point where they trusted one another again.
Interesting. I would have much rather expected Chandler to get away, given how he would be a much more influential enemy on Dash's further travels past the main land. Of course it isn't said Longaze won't get him out of there either.
Chandler got rekt hard
Oh, he's Jack sparrow!
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So red Barge is (hopefully) getting cleaned up, and Dash is back to doing good. Does make one wonder where Longaze is though, and what chandler will try to do
Do it the harmonious way, you mothermuckers!
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Now that would complicate things on a Verlax style level.
So the one after applejack that will probably have discord in it could be at their capital thing, i mean it would make sense after all. the place was already shown so its likely that they will reach it at some point.
Since the theme for that one would be chaos, things will probably get really really complicated by then.
Beautiful.
Skagra and Chandler both get theirs? I'm perfectly okay with that.
Alternate Chapter Title: Rainbow Dash Is Best Pony
I liked this chapter a lot. Rainbow Dash is finally get back on track, doing what she does best: changing things for the better.
This no killing thing is full of snuggles and cuddles, but when she falls off the edge and rises on the dark side of the plane, will it be possible? At least her ghostly burdens are getting lighter.
6693920 then they will be yet another unfortunate casualty where the responsibility falls on Dash but the blame can only be put on Verlax.
Finally caught up to the current book. I don't think I can wait for each chapter.
On a positive note I can start my glorious fitness regime once I get caught up. That'll give me something to do while waiting.
Great to see dash back on track, these last few chapters have been awesome
Monket was a slaver to earn money. Now he has all the money he ever needed, he has no need to keep slaves. And he'll let them go because people tend to be generous after getting large amounts of money.
Monket might be a villainous sort, but I can't help but like him despite it.
Rather satisfied with Monket, the infamous slaver, turning into a good guy, freeing an entire town of slaves Didn't even come close to seeing it happen. But crazy satisfied. Now all that matters, is what happens to Chandler and Longaze.