The group carried themselves boldly into the ever-dark. In so doing, they formed a solid line. Logan carried the sled full of supplies. Wildcard carried a few more materials—along with Seraphimus' unconscious figure—and he kept far to Logan's left. Kepler and Flynn carried whatever they could on their backs and filled up the center of the moving line.
"The morre sprread-out we arre, the betterr!" Kepler had said. "If therre's any sign as to the location of Darrkrreach, we arre surre to find it this way! Ha-hah!"
In essence, the team was performing a clean sweep as they trotted along. This required more than just the combined observation of Flynn and Kepler—or the ones pulling the sled—of course. Rainbow Dash and Ariel were the quicker and more athletic members of the group. Ariel held up the left flank; she made sure to keep within earshot of Wildcard to her right.
Rainbow Dash kept to Logan's right—as far from Seraphimus' sled as possible. As she and the rest of the group carried on, they realized soon that they would inevitably lose each other in the bleak shadow of the curved plane. The further they drew from the World's Edge and the wreckage of the Gondola, the less brilliant the starlight above them. Their peripheral vision was slowly being encumbered by utter darkness as they lost visual contact with the precipice behind them.
"Oh, how terribly frightening!" Rarity shivered noticeably. She clutched Fluttershy's limb as she looked all around in a demure fashion. "It's like we're cascading into a steep valley that never ends!"
"That's pretty much what this side of the plane is, Rarity," Applejack said. "Reckon we ain't seen the half of it."
"The half of darkness?" Pinkie Pie made a face. "How does that even make sense?"
Twilight Sparkle face-hoofed. "Oo-wee... this must really be a world of chaotic opposites for Pinkie Pie to be asking that."
"Baby steps, everypony," Fluttershy said. She turned and smiled at Rarity while squeezing her hoof. "Stay close, Rarity. I'll keep you safe."
Rarity blinked. "... ... ...I don't rightly know what to say anymore."
The group marched for minutes... and those minutes turned into hours. As it turned out, the deepening darkness wasn't quite as alarming as they first thought. The precipice behind them drew further and further away until the very edge was a dim line of pale starlight, and yet the bleak landscape around them became slightly more discernible with each progressive step. Granted, it helped that the lifeless stone was as predictably flat and barren as when they first graced upon it, but even in the shadows of the sun-less realm the Heraldites could make out the etched surfaces of the rock beneath their hooves.
"I'm not the only one seeing this, right?" Logan asked—having to speak above the scraping of their sleds. Despite the wear and tear from constant contact with the rock, the alicorn metals proved durable—and the structures remained in tact behind the pony and griffon drawing them. "Like... I can almost make out the shape of the field all around us." He blinked hard. "Can... you call it a field when it's made of stone and not grass?"
"Call it whateverr you wish, brrotherr," Kepler said. "I suspect that—the furrtherr we traverrse this domain—the morre ourr eyes become accumulated with the lighting... orr lack therreof."
"Huh..." Logan tilted his head up, realizing he now had to squint to shield his pained eyes from the endless bands of constellations. "I should have expected that, I guess."
"I can see pretty damn far," Flynn said, his mechanical eye whirring. "Just give a shout if you need me to spot something."
"Hrmmmffff..." Logan's jaw muscles clenched. "Cheater."
"Pffft! Oh come on!" Flynn smirked, gesturing to the sled on his left. "You think I can see well?! Wildcard must be having a ball with his eyes!"
The goggled griffon saluted with a makeshift crutch and resumed his steady march.
"Double cheater," Logan grunted.
Rainbow was silent the entire time. Usually, such slow progression would have meant complete and utter torture for the petite pegasus. However, this was a completely alien landscape and Rainbow Dash wasn't about to throw herself—or her friends—blindly into the opaqueness of it all. She took the time to observe the shadowed landscape along with her friends.
Four hours into the march, she started discerning... color. The Dark Side wasn't entirely dark. In fact, if Rainbow Dash had the opportunity to label the stone beneath her, it would be "cold blue." Something a few shades darker than an aged Wonderbolt Uniform. If a moon had the opportunity to shine on it, she suspect it would glow quite spectacularly.
What's more, the stone wasn't entirely dry. A cold, thin layer of moisture gathered over the earth—growing more and more prominent as the group carried on. It was as if a great ocean had receded away from the World's End and left just enough condensation to coat the steel-hard flesh of the plane forever. The etchings—a constant mar to the otherwise immutable stone—formed narrow and lengthy puddles that splattered under Rainbow's hooves. And as she crossed a few fissures, the liquid deepened enough to reflect the stars above, producing a violet sheen to the sleep shadows all around.
"Heh..." Rainbow bore a bittersweet smirk as she muttered, "Millions of miles away from home and on the other side of the world and still I'm scaling a purple landscape."
Only Pinkie Pie laughed. The rest of Rainbow's marefriends were mute with marvel as Rainbow and the Herald lost themselves in the belly of darkness. It was a hauntingly paradoxical thing: trotting along a dead-flat plane that inevitably led them towards a curved horizon stretching up, above, and into the stars. It was already resembling the universe's longest, cruelest uphill climb.
Another hour passed—and at last one of the Heraldites spoke up. It was Logan, boldly questioning when the group would pause to rest and eat. It wasn't a fault of innate laziness; the stallion was presenting a good point. With no sun, no moon, and virtually no marker whatsoever to determine how far they had traveled and for how long, there was no telling how they were to pace themselves. There simply existed no scale in the history of anything. The closest comparison was spelunking underground for weeks at a time, and out of the whole of them only Rainbow Dash was remotely qualified.
"Perrhaps some of yourr frriends would be useful in giving us a temporrarry map to plan by," Kepler suggested.
Rainbow opened her muzzle, but Rarity was already speaking.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but I simply don't detect anything beyond this..." She shivered again. "...insurmountable flatness."
"Sounds like Maud in middle school!" Pinkie Pie said. She tilted her head in Applejack's direction in time to receive a well-deserved swat. "Heeheehee...!"
"Is it really this desolate for miles and miles ahead of us, Rarity?" Twilight asked.
Rarity nodded. "I'm afraid so, darling. However... not to sound like an oaf..." She fidgeted slightly before looking at Rainbow. "...I might get a better bearing if we were to move faster."
"Or higher?" Fluttershy suggested.
Rarity pointed. "What she said!"
Rainbow took a deep breath. She turned to her left and witnessed the entirety of the Herald glancing at her in mid-march. She bore a smirk. "Maybe... uh... Ariel and I should catch some air and fly ahead."
"You mean..." Ariel was already grimacing. "...split up?"
"What? No!" Rainbow rolled her eyes in the twilight. "We'll stay close; we won't go crazy far. I just... think there might be a better chance of catching our bearings if we gain altitude." She looked at Kepler and Flynn. "At least for a bit."
Kepler and Flynn exchanged glances.
"Verry well, Rrainbow One..."
"If you think it will help your friends and their senses—"
"Hold on a damn second." Logan scraped his sled to a hault. He frowned, holding a hoof. "I can barely see where my piss lands in this dayum inkiness. How will we keep from losing sight of you gals completely?"
"Uhhhhhhh..." Rainbow rubbed her pendant. The air around them lit up with ruby haze, illuminating her smile.
"Yeah... uh huh..." Logan gestured towards the rest of the Herald. "And how will you find us?"
Flynn held his breath... strained... then finally illuminated the tip of his horn. "Ah... there we go... kinda sorta..."
Wildcard nodded briskly.
"Well then..." Logan exhaled, moving again with the sled of supplies. "Guess I'll shut up, then."
"No, Big Show, I super appreciate it," Rainbow Dash said. "Your caution makes a whole lot of sense. Believe me... losing sight of each other in this mess would be absolute... er... Luna Poop."
Twilight sighed. "Rainbow, really?"
Rainbow shrugged. "Old habits..." She then looked at Flynn. "However... I also think we should wait a bit longer. Let Flynn here get fully reconnected with his leylines."
"Not a bad idea," Flynn remarked. "Should... hopefully be up to snuff within the hour."
"That's okay," Ariel said, hovering and rubbing her forelimbs nervously. "I can wait."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Not keen on volunteering?"
"The Twilight Lands where Bard and Nicole grew up is one thing... but going this long in this place without more than a dim light to guide you?" She shook from head to tail. "I'm a bit scared to fly more than five inches ahead of me."
"It's okay, Ariel," Rainbow said. "When it's time to get going, I'll light the winds for us."
"But..." Ariel squirmed. "How's just that one pendant going to keep me from getting completely lost or separated?"
"Then I guess you're going to have to stay really close to me."
Ariel blinked. Her wings beated a bit more stiffly now. "Eheheheheheh..." She glanced over her shoulder and brushed her bangs back. "...oh... the horror."
Considering how dark everything seems to be, I'd think that flying too high without a beacon such as Rainbow's pendant or Flynn's horn would carry a real risk of vertigo. Or just loss of point of origin if the landscape is really that "same-y".
Also, that description of the ground with the bits of moisture. this is cool stuff.
ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
But I mean... I'm pretty sure Fluttershy can just say "oh they're over there, I sense their soul juices" or something so Rainbow and Ariel wouldn't get lost. I mean, they have a pretty far range at this point, and I doubt that Rainbow would fly outside of Flutters' ability to orient them so long as Fluttershy tells her when she's going too far.
And so the march continues...
All that flat emptiness is in its own way a very dangerous thing. Spend too much time with the terrain unchanging and nothing happening and even the most alert and cautious will gradually lose their edge. Just hope the Herald doesn't end up too complacent if it takes days to reach anything different than the current flat stone. Leaves me with the feeling that when something does happen it might take them off guard.
The upsidedownness is even affecting their personalities.
These two rebound between super awkward and flirty as hell.
I'd suggest a friends with benefits arrangement but Dash is too loyal to Roarke for that I think.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
The ending made me snicker.
So, after letting their eyes to adjust to near complete darkness, Rainbow turns on her pendant-lamp and nobody complains about the burning agony in their eyeballs? Is this place really devoid of light, or is it just "Bioshock on default settings" levels of dark?
Still, at the moment the Dark Side is shaping up to be a less deadly Grand Choke. Same emptiness but without the anti-magic. This of course begs the question, what the hell are they going to eat? Somehow I don't think Rainbow is going to kick back and enjoy a nice toasted soul of the unborn with a nice glass of hate, which seems to be the local delicacy for the inhabitants of the Dark Side.
ooohhh sounds pretty if it was lit up a bit more
If north is to your left, you're going east. The north edge of the world hasn't changed just because Rainbow crossed to the Dark Side. She's still going east.
Alternately, you could use the in-universe definition that east is the direction in which Rainbow Dash flies.
That she's going east shouldn't have to change just because Flynn's compass broke.
8231274
Hopefully the utter flatness works to their advantage; after all, if there's no terrain to hide behind, then they can't be ambushed. (Well, easily ambushed...)
Acclimated, perhaps?
And I agree with the others who are saying that they are still going east; north is to their left, therefore they are facing east.
I can't think that this side is all one flat plain of unchanging nothing, devoid of plants or animals. A good thing to remember is that all the life on both sides of the plain survived from the breaking, all the way until the Alicorns arrived. The light side only became the light side through a choice made by the first god-horses. I would guess that the ones on this side could be thought of as the abandoned ones, those the sun dose not shine on.
8231321
8231267
Also, what they said.
8231282
Neither, for humans at least, red (or rather, Ruby) light does not effect night vision. As long as it is not shining directly into their eyes, they should be fine. They have other more pressing concerns at the moment, like food, water, and temporary shelter, as so far we have not seen the true Discord level chaos.
So what exactly is Discord in relation to this story? We've never seen another like him or his abilities. And how did he get to Equestria?
Speaking of food just what is there to eat on the Dark Side? There seems to be nothing but flat emptiness....
8231360
True, and with Rarity and Fluttershy around it should technically be hard for most things to sneak up on the Herald. Then again its already been shown that Rarity and Fluttershy's senses aren't 100% foolproof, and even in flat terrain, well... I'm not putting anything past the Dark Side's natives at this point.
8231394
Oh, didn't know that. Probably from the severe lack of red light I've experienced in my daily life. I'm certain that even with pressing concerns, at least Big Show would probably complain about having his eyes burn, had the light been capable of it.
I did mention the food problem. The reason I cited it over the water problem is that there is reference to there being potential water sources in the ubiquitous presence of moisture on the terrain, growing more damp the further they progressed. Their goal being the supposedly nearby Darkreach will hopefully be a solution to the shelter problem, as no natural shelters seem to be forthcoming with the completely flat terrain.
The reason I focused on food is that it's possible that there isn't necessarily going to be any available for the vegetarian Rainbow Dash. Of the locals we've met, the changelings consume emotions and the toomanyeyesponies might even consume souls as their main food source. The reference to an area as the "Huntlands" means there is presumably meat on the menu, but there has been no reference to vegetation thus far. Rainbow Dash might have to hope for some edible fungi or something if she's hoping to keep her Equestrian diet up.
As for the chaos thing, well, who knows how that's going to be implemented. Given the place is supposedly being saturated in it, it doesn't seem to have had much effect on Rainbow Dash or indeed be present at all. I wonder if it will become known in the next chapter, in the higher altitudes as Rainbow Dash gets further from the machine world's surface, or perhaps once they're further from the alicorn gondola.
So this is what it comes down to.
8231282
Your comment about Rainbow shining her element in their faces immediately made me laugh and think of this:
Calm down girl Good to see them all being cautious this place is far too new and far too dangerous to be taking many risks; though the one they are taking in this chapter is a good one for sure.
I suspected that there was going to be some sort of enhanced vision on the Dark Side. Just didn't really think of something so simple as their eyes adjusting
That coming from Pinkie Pie of all ponies....? Downright terrifying!
Hehe!
Looks like that ship may catch some extra wind later on!
Let's hope none of the locals catch wind of Rainbow's ruby red strobe.
8231321
East is the direction from which the sun rises. So long as it does so at her back, she's easting.
Ah yes, the benefits and downsides of formation tactics. It's either split up for more area information with less safety, or stay close for group protection with less intel. At this point the risk of an ambush is rather slim and they should be fine, but the closer they get to the conflict zones, the higher the risk.
And the moist ground means that water will not be an issue, even if it's tiresome to collect it from the rock.
8231471
I had a similar concern a few chapters ago. I wondered how the factions could maintain an extended war without running out of resources. Durandana came up with the idea of underground cave plants as a potential food source. It sounds reasonable, but involves caves...
8231605 Well, there's no sun on the dark side. But that's a product of how it's defined- not how the direction is defined itself.
Either way, she's going east.
8231519
I'm still waiting for the WildBow ship. Looks like the breakers' have long since scrapped that one for parts :(
8231621
Cardinal directions themselves must be relative directions. Absolute directions and coordinates exist only within artificial definitions. We have East and West and North and South because the sun and its path through the sky, entirely relative to Earth's rotation, give a point of reference, and because we have magnetic poles. How would we define East if Earth were tidally locked to the Sun? By its path around the sun, on the solar plane, which is yet another relative point of reference described by the habit of all the other planets to swing around the Sun on a similar axis?
How exactly is the solar plane aligned, for that matter? Is it parallel to the rest of our galaxy's rotational plane? Perpendicular? Acute? Obtuse?
Which way is the galaxy spinning? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise?
What the hell is a clock?
The Sun rises in the East. East is the direction from which the Sun rises. It isn't circular logic; it's simply the Sun's having been there billions of years before anything sapient came along to define its relative path through the heavens with such silly and temperamental things as words.
8231676 East and west are defined relative to north and south, which are defined as the direction toward the earth's axis of rotation. On the shard of Urohringr, the impassable north and south edges should be able to serve a similar purpose.
The sun rises in the east, but isn't why east is east.
And yes, they're all definition-dependent... but there's no reason that has to change on Urohringr. As I said before, east could very well be defined as the direction in which Rainbow Dash flies. But there's no reason to redefine things when the existing definitions work perfectly well and doing otherwise would only make things needlessly complex... like it's doing for RD right now with her "We go forward because what is easthorse?"
8231676
The edges of the world remain, and thus the directions they define. The fact that directions exist on one side implies directions on the other. North remains north. East remains east. Look at a sheet of paper. Does the back side, which you cannot see, still have a bottom? A left side? Can the back and front be separated?
I was going to say how bad the idea of Rainbow becoming a shiny beacon in the dark for the good and bad to see is. But when I think about it Rainbow being a beacon pretty much sums up the story so far.
Hehe awww.
I'm still having trouble properly picturing the scale of the Dark Side, but I suppose it'll be easier once they reach some terrain that's not completely flat and barren.
Given the edge is the edge, the point where a planetary scale structure seperated violently, it would be suprising if theres much overlaying geology remaining for the first few hundred miles, for similar reasons to the Grand choke. All sorts of shocks and resonances crisscrossing the land. The current best reason for Canterlot Mountain, is that the Midnight Armory caused a Node, a stationary point in all the shocks.
What would be nasty if the hunting Grounds, are for mobile carniverous mushrooms evolved from those on Bards farm.
If Rainbow is used as artillery practice, I'm going to laugh.
Now now, food really should not be an issue. If everythinge else fails, they can always eat Seraphimus.
Or each other.
Now that I think about it, they should have scavenged Axan's body.
They will survive scraping lychen from the wet rocks.
8231321
RIP compass. Isn't there another one somewhere deep within Rainbows satchel? I don't quite remember it falling out...
Awful Roadie: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RuBCDW25bIU/TOF34f2bJ4I/AAAAAAAAAvc/IGTh1_tqO9A/s320/images-2.jpeg
Dammit... I can't not read Twilight's comment in Mr. Poopy Butthole's voice.
That's just a great line, right there.
8232014
Most folks don't know that lychen is a composite organism, formed by the symbiotic relationship of algae, fungus, and a werewolf.
8231711
Oh, I wasn't contesting that.
I just wanted to point out that directions are, at a fundamental level, entirely arbitrary, and so one way to define them is by describing their most significant characteristic.
How do you define left and right, for example? The side of your body that has your liver? It's not as if direction is a unit of, say, mass, which we can define as a set number of atoms of silicon, as is the case with the Kilogram.
The herald merely adopted the darkness. We were born to it...
Fingers crossed they don't find a cave. We all know what happens in caves, and it's bound to be 10x worse on the dark side.
Oooooooh. Is it just me, or is this the first time Dash has hit on Ariel (as opposed to the other way around)? 'Cause if it is, this could mean some serious potential for the Dashiel ship. On one hand, I'm a little sad that might mean Dash is getting over Roarke, but then again, I'm kinda glad she's moving on (plus, she's the Austraeoh. She can totally have two girlfriends if she wants).
All this talk of the nature of "Eastness" puts me into a pedantic sort of mood. And frankly, I'm not sure I agree with 8231321's analysis.
In a very clinical, definition-driven sort of sense, I suppose you could still call it east, in the sense that one side was the north edge, so proportional to that they're still technically going east. But that's sort of dependent on the logic of a spherical world like ours, where directions are consistent no matter where you go on the globe (though a lot of it is still arbitrary, such as the fact that one pole is thought of as being "up" while the other is "down"; maps could just as easily be upside down if some other culture beside Europe's had had the final say, but I digress).
The cardinal directions as we know them in-story are as defined on the Light Side. But who knows how the inhabitants of the Dark Side define things. For all we know, the cardinal directions have little meaning to them (like in Discworld, where they think in terms of Hubward, Rimward, Turnwise, and Widdershins). All we've heard is the Shard's terms: "nearside" and "farside".
On top of which, in a larger sense, whatever word they used for their direction before, they are, in just as technical a sense, now going the complete opposite direction, which might be more in keeping with the logic of a flat world.
The point I'm trying to make is that whatever technicalities are in play, "east" has little real significance anymore. It's East-In-Name-Only.
But the loss of "East" as a guiding principle, if I had to guess, also serves a symbolic function. Rainbow's always had one principle guiding her forward: East. Now she's groping in the dark, with only a flicking ball as a compass. If she wants to succeed on the Dark Side, maybe she'll need to think like a Dark Sider (in everything but an ethical sense, I hope). Maybe she'll need to let "East" go.
I dunno. Like I said, I'm being pedantic.
8232045 I don't think she ever had or needed one. But even if it somehow survived the crossing (irl, conditions like that would wreck a compass), we don't even know if it would work period back here. Are Urohringr compasses even magnet-based at all?
Oh well. She's got her own compass, this time around.
8232895 From a standpoint that east could (and probably would) have a different definition on a flat world, yes... but keep in mind that it's literally part of her job description (in the name, even), and that job is one that's been around since before the alicorns- it predates having a "Light Side" for east to be defined relative to. Whatever east is, its definition is independent of the side of the plane you're on because the definition existed before there was a significant difference between them.
Hence why I also said, "Maybe east is just defined as the direction in which Rainbow Dash flies."
Furthermore, though, if we assume cardinal directions have been in existence since the original Urohringr, which was a series of nested cylinders, it would extremely make sense for them to use a north/south pole-based definition, as the north and south poles of the structure would be both easy to define and to determine regardless of what part of the structure you were on. And if they didn't do it that way, they'd at least have some different definition of directions, meaning right now Rainbow wouldn't be directionless but going some way other than east... in which case why would the prophecy writers bother calling it East Horse at all, if they knew half her journey would be made going not-east?
8232982
It sounds like what you're arguing for is a symbolic East. A spiritual East. An East of purpose, perhaps. That the actual technicalities of her spatial or cartographical movement are less important than the meaning of that movement, as ordained by prophecy. Like a world slouching toward the horizon to be reborn.
It basically falls back on what I said about "East-In-Name-Only", but otherwise I can dig it.
Though I think my point about the symbolic importance of the dark side stands. Rainbow has no sunrise to aim for anymore. Whatever her direction is, it's clearly been subverted - literally. But if you're right, maybe it's enough that she keeps her eyes on the prize. Becomes the sunrise she wants to see in the world, so to speak.
Gawd I sound like a douche
Y'all'r geography nerds. 🤓
8233251
8232982
8232202
8231711
They've all got light sources, the just have to bleed a little.
8232982
I think Kepler had one and already tried (during either the first or second chapter) using it. It just went haywire.
Are they walking along the (mostly) dry floor of an ancient ocean? Like the one on the other side but with all of its water lost to the chaos of the firmaments
Harold...
The gay gals aside, this dark side is nightmare fuel for me so far...
I keep on forgetting that this whole side, and everything leading up to us going over the edge, were all in the dark. I . . . guess it just never crossed my mind. It makes the whole mental visualization thing both challenging and amazing. I say challenging only because I have to re-remember everything, and since I'm too busy to read even daily updates, going back and rereading things would be too much right now.
I'll just stare at the story art every time I sign on to get my mind on track.
Night is day, black is white. Behold a world of inverted sight.
8231471
Is your name your own creation or a reference? Because I swear I've seen it somewhere before.