"I can't believe you're being such a thick-headed moron about this, Johnny! I'm not a little filly any more!"
"Ain't my head that's the thick thang here, darlin'. Yer precious to me... to Ray and Kelly and James and the rest. I can't be havin' ya followin' me to the Dark Side."
"Oh—and where would I be better off, huh? You think there's an ember's chance in the Spring Havens of me going back to Blue's Ranch and living a normal life?!"
"Hell no! You can... uhhh... go and sit all safe and proper deep inside Frostknife! We'll send a message to Professor Mane! Ain't that right, Echo? Theanim will take care of ya there!"
Echo's voice stammered: "Uhm... I-I really don't want to be brought into this—"
"Oh hush!" Nicole pouted. "You're already taking Johnny's side! I can tell!"
Rainbow Dash slowly wandered into the cabin. She passed Wildcard, Logan, and Ariel who were all leaning against the entrance to the spacious metal chamber. Bard and Nicole faced each other in the center of the room while Echo lingered off to the side.
"What's going on?" Rainbow muttered.
"The inevitable," Logan huffed. "I bet Flynn ten bits she'd blow up before we even made it to Bleak's Plummet." He stifled a yawn. "Looks like I'm gettin' rich soon... not that it matters at all at this point."
"What's Nicole getting all angry about?" Rainbow asked.
"What do you think?" Ariel glanced aside. "It's not like we're taking her to the Dark Side with us."
"We're not?" Rainbow asked.
Ariel bit her lip.
Wildcard hand-signed.
"The pelican's right," Logan remarked. "Even if she was capable of kicking butt beyond the normal constraints of a simple farm filly, ain't no way in Hell that Bard's going to allow it."
"I... guess I never put too much thought into it," Rainbow muttered.
"None of us did," Ariel said, gesturing at the ensuing argument. "But you can get your pretty feathers we're going to be thinking about it now."
Rainbow craned her head towards the heated conversation, ears twitching.
"Johnny, I've lived in the Twilight lands all my life," Nicole said, stomping her hooves. "I'm naturally nocturnal! Unlike Echo here, I can actually fly. So—lets' face it! I'm more than prepared for the Dark Side!"
"No you are not!" Bard huffed, frowning. "There're way darker evils lurkin' about on the opposite side of this here plane than you can ever possibly imagine!"
"Yeah? So?!"
"There's a whole flippin' Trinary War between mindless changelings... sarosians more bloodthirtsy than the likes of Bleak's Plummet... and a whole mysterious cabal of baddies called the Night Shard! Ain't tellin' how long ponies have been slayin' each other over there in the dark! It's a dang livin' cemetery of murder and ugliness!"
Nicole's slitted eyes narrowed. "Sounds to me like you and your friends are the ones who are clueless about what's waiting for us over there."
Bard blinked. He adjusted his hat, fidgeting. "Uhhhhhh..."
"Come on, Johnny..." Nicole took a brave step forward. "Whatever's lurking on the Dark Side, let us find out together! Face it! You need me! You could use all the help you can get!"
"Ain't nothin' over there that needs you meddlin' with to understand!"
"Oh—but it's just fine and dandy to use me for getting past the Seventh Tribe!" Nicole scoffed. "Is that it?!"
"Hell naw!" Bard frowned, gesturing wildly. "You've blessed us enough with the supplies, ya crazy varmint! As for Bleak's Plummet, Princess Luna's spell on Rainbow's necklace has got it covered—"
"If you believed that for one second, then why did you even bring Echo along?!"
Echo smiled. "What say we agree to disagree—"
"Shut the buck up!" Nicole barked.
"Okay." Echo shrank into the corner.
"Nicole..." Bard sighed, reaching a hoof out to caress her shoulder. "I did not cross the entire ocean, beat the ever-livin' tar outta Tim, and free you from Blue's iron hoof just so you could leap into the jaws of death—"
"Grrrrr!" Nicole batted his hoof away. "And I did not reunite with my favorite brother just so I could watch him fly off on a suicide mission!" Her leafy ears folded. "I know that you're on a very important quest... but aren't you and I important to?"
"Darn tootin'." Bard nodded. "Which is why I want you stayin' here... on the light side." He gulped. "Where it's safe."
"You mean with the windigoes and the sarosian pirates and an entire continent full of victimized xenophobes?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhh..." Bard sweated, gulped, and braved a smile. "...yeah?"
Wildcard facepalmed.
Nicole huffed. "You can't just sweep me under the rug, Johnny. You're better than this. Herald or not... you're my brother..." She gulped. "And I'd rather run the darkest gauntlet in the cosmos than just... wait here to die without you."
"Now dun put it like that, darlin'." Bard smiled nervously. "All we gotta do is get Rainbow to the Midnight Armory—and then we'd all be headed back. You and I will be with each other again! And we can live in a happier... warmer... restored world! Now wouldn't that be snazzy?"
Nicole was deadpan as she said: "You must really think me stupid if you expect me to believe that you... that any of you have a realistic chance of coming back from all of this."
The cabin hung in silence. Thunder and crashing waves echoed beyond the hull. Logan, Ariel, and Wildcard hung their heads.
"She's right," Echo muttered. "You're all idiots."
"Grrrr..." Bard spun to snarl at him. "Why not go make yerself useful and shove yer head into a toilet?"
"I bet it'd stink less than this conversation—"
"Okay guys..." Rainbow stepped boldly into the center of the cabin, spreading her wings out at full length. "Let's settle down, okay?"
"And you!" Nicole turned to face her, frowning. "If you really cared about this situation at all, you'd do something about it!"
"Like what?" Rainbow shrugged. "I can fly over purple mountains. I'm not so good at moving them."
"Considering the passion that these ponies believe in you, I sometimes wonder." Nicole stared Rainbow down. "You've got the Mother of Nightmares on our side! Have her speak to the sarosians!" Her fangs showed. "Let's bring the Seventh Tribe to the Dark Side with us! The Trinary War has its armies, right? So let's bring ours! Stronger in numbers, right?"
Echo glanced between Nicole and Rainbow.
"I... uh..." Rainbow gulped. "It's... complicated. I'm not even sure how we're going to get ten of us over to the Dark Side... much less a whole frickin' culture of misplaced sarosians."
Nicole leaned back. She sighed, folding her forelimbs. "You're not very certain of anything, it seems. Still... that doesn't stop you from risking your life and the life of my brother for this journey of yours."
"No." Rainbow slowly shook her head. "It doesn't."
Silence.
"Mrmfff... whatever..." Nicole spun about. "Heroes are stupid... stupid-heads. Just like Johnny's 'Desperadoes' crud." She stormed off for the far end of the cabin. "No wonder you're all called the 'Job Squad.'"
"Uhhhh..." Echo smiled nervously. "I'll go... uhm... talk to her."
"Really?" Rainbow squinted at her. "You'll talk to her."
"Well... I'll sit quietly and stare at her, at least." Echo flinched from Bard—but the Desperado was too distracted to bother threatening him. With a shrug, Echo shuffled off to join Nicole in the corner.
The rest of the group trotted off in separate directions, save for Wildcard who approached Bard and gestured something.
"Oh hush!" Bard snapped. "How 'bout you have a baby sister and you see how easy it is!" He tossed his hat and marched off in a huff. "Hrmmmff... blabber-beak."
Wildcard sighed.
Rainbow glanced around at the empty shadows of the room. "Well..." Her voice cracked. "This is going nicely."
Oh boy time for massive interpersonal drama, again!
Y'know, I don't think we've ever seen Nicole exhibit a particular set of skills yet. If she does make it to the Dark Side with the rest of them, I hope she has a good role.
I've really been hoping this is actually what happens, but...well, not holding my breath.
And...also worried about this.
Pffft.
That's a bad Idea if you ask me, having an army of Sarosians with them will only make the other two sides of the Trinary War attack them on sight. And it is easier to travel unnoticed with a small group than with an army.
And I really hope we get Nicole on the dark side too !
Can any of us blame Bard for wanting to make sure she's safe?
Really though, she's right, Rohbreddan isn't very safe. Safest place she could be is.. across the choke, in the West continent.
The safest place she can be right now, is with the Herald, but at the same time, while that's safe for her, if she can't fight and hold her own, then she's just going to place them in danger.
-Companions are abound, frozen spectres hound. Utaan.
Its kind of premature to talk about who's going to the Dark Side when you still have to deal with Bleak's Plummet in the first place. Granted I get that Nicole's coming from a place of worry for her brother. I mean, I wouldn't be thrilled if my sibling was going on a seeming suicide mission to a realm that sounds like the worst elements of Warhammer 40k crossed over with Fallout Equestria.
Still, what does Nicole think she's going to do to help, other than be a target that the Herald will need to spend time and focus protecting? She hasn't demonstrated any combat ability, and she isn't even armed to fight even if she did know how. Bottom line is that while her intentions are good, wanting to protect her brother and all, taking her to the Dark Side is a recipe for tragedy. Best case scenario is that the situation after Bleak's Plummet will be stable enough to send Nicole, and possible Echo as well (since he's not exactly a combat expert either) somewhere relatively safe. Windigoes or not Rohbredden is still likely to be safer than the Dark Side.
That place is probably going to be a non-stop horror show.
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I can. Though it's understandable, it's clearly misguided.
Big congrats to Nicole on your promotion! No longer a mere NPC, but now a full PC with goals and desires of your very own! +10 CHA, +10 to determination.
Can Pinkie reafd Wildcard due to eithe knowing Wyvern Claw speak, or just ebcause she rolled a natural 20 on interpretive dance? Giving her at least a 50 to succeed?
Here we are, sitting in a tin can.
The midnighters could still be united as an army if they are told by the Job Squad that the other tribes are coming to attack them. We already encountered lying in the 5th seed though...
What if the 6th seed is just an extra seed in case any of the other seeds were missed or damaged, and RD realizes that she only needed to visit 5 of the 6 seeds making the Quade completely unnecessary.
7450943 Each seed represents a specific element of harmony, and the final one is Loyalty (according to Verlaxion), which is Rainbow's element. If Rainbow skipped the Quade then she still wouldn't have Fluttershy even after getting the sixth seed.
With all these islands, there doesn't seem to be much room for amber fields of grain...
7450697 If you rearrange the letters in Nicole. throw out half of them, and add a b, you get Ebon! She's totally the new cook!
Nicole has Spirit. I like.
Truer words were never spoken.
Did you mean bet?
Well, if you can get your hooves on a decent enchanted diamond pick with a full beacon you could tear down said mountains and just rebuild them.
It seems surreal to really think back to Austraeoh, and remember when Rainbow wouldn't have accepted any help from outside herself. Think of all those characters we've left behind, unresolved. Gold Petals, C-squared, those ponies from Silvadel whom I cannot recall the names of... Does Rainbow even have the scrapbook anymore? She gave it to Ember (was that her name?) right? But then, didn't she get it back? And gave it to Bellesmith? Damn, that was too long ago now. Hard to recall all the details unless your a robot. Yeah, a robot. Talking to you, AFC.
Come on now, Rainbow isn't really purposefully trying to end the lives of the Herald; She's simply accepted that there's no way they'll leave her alone.
We can't get rid of Nicole yet.
She and Echo haven't even been properly shipped.
7451490
From what I can see, no she didn't give the book to Ember Speak.
She gave the scrapbook to Belle before she took off in Yaerfaerda.
Chapter 163: Be at peace, Eljunbyro, and live.
I just spent 5 hours bingeing on the past 10 or so chapters. I have to go to sleep and wake up in 3 hours to go do several more hours of hard physical work. I'm 80% certain I'm going to feel terrible later because of this.
TOTALLY WORTH IT
Also I really hope Nicole sticks around for the Dark Side. Following the characters as they go from normal to badass is one of the biggest things I liked about Belle, Pilate, Ebon, and etc..
7451500
The book is one of the things i am also not certain about, i know she gave it to both, she left it in Silvadel and in Val Roa, it is not really clear how it came into her possession after Silvadel. For reasons unknown i can recall such things rater fluid but names of rl people.. nope, never.
Anyway, as far as i recall there is no explanation in the story for how she got that book back, i know because i checked it back then since i thought i might have skipped a chapter or something.
There were some thoughts about rebirth and that the book might belonged to her so she was reborn with it and stuff like that but i think this was just a philosophical thought on Rainbows side and not some kind of real fact.
The only one who could bring light into this would be Axan, did she return to the Silvadel ponies asking for help ?
When Dash was dropped in Ledomare she was bandaged, i find it hard to believe that Axan had bandages around and the fine claw control to bandage Rainbow up, so i think she got it back when the Silvadel ponies applied the first aid stuff.
7451490
As for the unresolved characters, i think we might hear from them again, there are a space elk an a pony on a westward journey and while the elks motivations are unknown i wouldn't be surprised if he secretly was inspired by Rainbow and is about to track down westish places.
So unless the remaining sentinel does not survive the west edge climb, he might even give her a ride back home.
But to be honest it would be more fitting if she would bring the sentinel back to equestira.
7451605 Actually, while looking, right before she left Silvadel, she pulled it out of her saddlebag and reminisced before taking on Axan.
If she gave it to Ember, then it was somewhere before that in the Silvadel arc.
Chapter 197 is just called "Book" and it's her looking over the photos in the book.
7451644 in the very next chapter 198 "Awesome":
7451696 Nice catch.
Pretty much my thoughts in this regard. Leave her where you know it is dangerous or take her where you can at least protect her. As for getting an army onto the other side, perhaps they can be delivered there the same way the Sarosians got there the first time, whatever method that is.
No place is safe for Nicole, unless you can take her to Equestria.
7451853 But you wanna do unspeakable things to East horse...
Oh wow I got all caughy up again. Didn't even realize it. Those short chapters go quick.
Sometimes, Rainbow, the lack of thought you put into things tends to rear its ugly head from time to time
I'm really liking Nicole, so i hope that the Herals brings her with to the darks side.
Either they'll take her with them or bard stays behind.. or someone dies. I really hope someone doesn't die.
I'd say that as long as she knows what she's getting into and she still wants to go with them, they should let her. It's not like she'd be much safer if she stayed behind. Not to mention the fact that if she's really bent on going, she could just follow them. Besides, having another bat pony--one that can fly and doesn't make toilet-related jokes every other breath--might be helpful in a place like that.
I don't see how her going could hurt them, unless they had to protect her. Which brings up the question of her skills. We haven't seen her fight, but then, she hasn't really needed to fight yet. If nothing else, now--on a ship with little else to do--would be a good chance to give her some training.
I couldn't agree more.
Damn, that was a powerful line.
7451107 SHE'S A CHANGELING!
(Actually having a changeling in the party would be pretty useful.
7451107
In addition, you might find that "Ariel" and "Eagle" are both five-letter words that share three letters with each other, which clearly means that Ariel will get over Rainbow by dating Nicole.
7453256
I'm well aware that killing someone is physically easier than disabling them without killing them, and that realistically many actions one could take to disable someone could easily lead to ending their life anyway.
But ultimately this is cartoon pony world, and I don't have much interest in seeing that much realism in Austraeoh combat. Some realism, sure, but I'm perfectly fine with knocking someone out just needing a whack upside the head, or a good bone break ending a fight and that being that. Mostly because that's already been the established case in 99% of the fight's Dash has gotten into. Changing that now just feels like its kind of unnecessarily altering things to make it more "edgy" in preparation for the Dark Side, which makes it sound like the Dark Side is going to be nothing but one huge grimdark fest, and I'd hate to see a perfectly good story go that route.
My point is that going into a fight with fully lethal intent doesn't reduce the actual likelihood that someone is going to kill you. If you're in a fight, you're already in the worst situation possible. Adopting a fully lethal method of combat is no guarantee of survival, nor would it actually remove Dash or any other character's need of plot armor to survive insane combat situations. But more to the point, regardless of the level of realism one wants to inject into a fight, the point of making a moral choice about not trying to kill someone is about taking risks, and the fact that it isn't the easy way to do things, but that doesn't make it any less viable a choice.
My preference is to see Dash stick to her morals, regardless of risks or difficulty. That doesn't mean she can't kill if pushed into a situation where there is no other remotely viable choice, or if she's in a situation where matters have escalated beyond her ability to logically control them, but I still prefer to see her work towards incapacitating foes rather than killing them.
7453346
You should distinguish between the intent to make a killing blow versus the intent to take out a combatant because generally RD kills many ponies by striking in such a way as to make them die because inability to escape their circumstance.
All this time I had assumed Echo wasn't going to the dark side either, it appears I was mistaken.
derpicdn.net/img/2013/3/23/277023/full.gif
7450757 Well it can't be that. That's the thing I've been wondering about - you can't fill four books with a non-stop horror show, you have to have calm moments. Using such an extreme setting for such a prolonged narrative feels like it will have its two elements at each other's throats quite a lot.
Time to start catching up, haven't done any reading for nearly two weeks.
Nicole is awesome.
7451605
7451500
7451490
Eljunbyro ch 89 implies that Axan got the photo album back from Silvadelians. That must have been an awkward encounter.
Nicole went from, "Fuck you," to, "Fuck this journey," to, "Fuck EVERYTHING." I think she needs a chill pill.
Whatever happened to the syndacites cash? Bard could try and set her up with that, assuming theres still summer economy left to spend it in. Why is no one in the party being fiscally responsible?
Echo and Nicole continue to be awesome. Don't send Nicole away!
Bard is the typical hypocritical hero.
"It's much too dangerous for the people I care about to come along. Also don't you dare leave me behind, people who care about me."
Nicole was a hit with me right off the bat and I've liked Echo for a long time. I like this pair. Ship ship ship it!
8239545
His heart's in the right place. He's just missing a bit of self-awareness is all.
All things considered, she's still as like as not to be safer here; I don't think he's wrong about that... but a) she's gonna be in pretty hot water either way anyway, and 2) it's disrespectful of him not to let her make the decision for herself, so long as the group at large accepts it.
Nah, we can’t split Nicole off from the group, I like her and Echo too well together.
Dissent in the ranks!!!
Come on, we all now she's coming.
Come on, the SS Echole just set sail. No way we're splitting it up now.
Yeah, ya know....safe!
"""Nicely"""
So what was the plan for Echo after bleak plummet?