"The Bloodwings—as Penumbral Equines go—have never possessed much in the way of honor. However, in days of Old Song, they at least exercised restraint. That is not the case in Winter. A generation ago, something in their ranks shifted. The anger they possessed grew even more vitriolic. Their penchant for murder and torture expanded beyond their capabilities, and yet it sparked a fire in their dark ambition. Not only did they push back the encroaching expeditions of the Night Shard, but they staved off the Flux of Tchern's hive.
"It used to be that the Night Shard regularly defeated the Bloodwings at nearly every encounter. After all, in most instances, the death toll of the Third Penumbral Invaders only strengthed the Ruby Chorus. But that stopped being the case, and the Great Lyricist's Children failed to ascertain why. Those moved by the Song have speculated that it was something that tainted the Ruby Harmony... a hatred that permeated both life and death... something that was too much for the Night Shard to process, and so they withdrew from their daunting mortal foe.
"As for the Keepers of the Flux: they always enjoyed a certain degree of domination over the Bloodwings ranks, thanks in most part to their masterful tools of infiltration. Even the imps of Petra have had great difficulty eliminating the metamorphic spies lying in their midst. But then—at the lair of the Bloodwings—something somehow detected every hatchling of Tchern. Every drone and soldier in hiding was suddenly uprooted, eviscerated, and then fed to the Lunar masses. In fact, one of the last records of the Song is that the Third Penumbral Invaders had found a new and improved way of sustaining their forces: feasting on all the Keepers they managed to catch. And they caught many.
"Soon, the Keepers also withdrew. Save for a few spies spread here and there—sacrificing themselves to perform necessary reconaissance—they situated themselves close to the main hive of Tchern, concentrating their efforts on cultivating the Flux. All that remained on this half of the Plane—so close to Edgeside—became subject to the Lunar Hunt. The Bloodwings had specialized themselves. They performed wide sweeps of the Curve, studying every topographical detail and making note of the things that always lived under their wings. Then—with merciless execution—they began attacking, assaulting, and wounding every species they came across. Some of it was simply to acquire food and resources. But—for the most part—they killed and slaughtered with very little purpose... if only to spread blood and misery into every crevice of the world.
"This threatened the natural balance, and soon the other Factions took notice. The Imps also required these living resources to eke a living, and the Bloodwings were depleting them rapidly, making the environment more and more inhospitable. The Night Shard had little care for the matter, but the Keepers of the Flux relied on the living ecosystem to maintain the diversity of their metamorphosis. The Dihmers stood by and idly watched. At first, the Bloodwings attacked them too, but soon it no longer became sport to attack the Dihmers. Besides—by that point in the development—swarms of the Flux were starting to mount desperate assaults on Bloodwing fortifications. Not only that, but a few angry clans of the imps had broken neutrality and boldly attempted to sabotage the Lunar Hunt as well.
"Both factions failed, however. To this day, the Song lacks the details to explain why. But—the moment either the Flux or the imps ventured a certain distance Edgeside—their forces were almost immediately obliterated. It is the esteemed belief of the Winter Children that something far too powerful to be explained by Song is now a tool at the Bloodwings' disposal, and it has the power to mount an impermeable defense, obliterating any enemy squadron that comes within a certain proximity. This would explain how the Bloodwings have been able to revolutionize themselves without much distraction over the past few decades. Some masterful authority in their midst has broken the pattern of the last hundred lifetimes, and for the first time since their successful Penumbral attack on Endrax's brood at the Sarcophagus of Ages, the Bloodwings are gaining an edge in the Trinary War.
"It is around this point that Winter caught up with us—tumultously so. There was a time when the Bloodwings cared little about the presence of Abaddon's Children. We were seen as we are—innocent observers of a war-torned plane. That all changed with the last equine generation. It began at first with the eradication of our tiniest and most precious of allies. Then—as the Lunar Hunt began its violent flight—all remaining scouts, listeners, and various members of the chorus were tracked down and brutalized. Our sisters' legs would be torn off and our remaining bodies forced to dwell listlessly in agony and pain. The Song became a Dirge, and the Lunar Hunt closed in further and further until all the Children were forced into this City. Then—without warning—the Bloodwings stopped. To this day, we do not know why they spared us a final assault on the Great Songstress' Lair. Perhaps they see some untold purpose in our existence, as they must with the Dihmers.
"Nevertheless, we have enjoyed this existence with some untold price. A miraculous thing it is too—for if the Bloodwings had advanced any further, then we would not have been present to deliver the Song to the Austraeoh. We are too anxious about the situation to define it as 'providence,' for the violence and sadism of the Bloodwings has yet to stop. They are preparing for something unfathomably sinister, but with the death of our scouts and singers we can no longer keep record of what is transpiring far beyond the fringes of this city.
"The very last detail logged by the Song—committed to twilight memory—is that of a name. The author of this New Hatred, and the innovator of Bloodwing malice. The name is 'Lexxic,' and we know that it sparks fear in the hearts of imps... and incites panic in the hatchling drones of the Flux. It echoes off the fangs of the warriors who lead the Lunar Hunt, and for many of our sisters across the plane it was the last word they heard—shrieked discordantly—as their limbs were ripped from their mortal husks.
"In a world riddled with death, torture, and suffering... 'Lexxic' dwells somewhere darkly beneath it all."
Yep...sounds like a Shell. Late-game shell, with a touch of Seraphimus perhaps.
This gonna be a tough one...
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More a new Zap Nator.
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Bringing back memories here.
Holy Exposition, Batman!
Well damn... This is gonna suck major wang.
As I said before sounds like a fun guy. It is going to be very interesting to see how Rainbow Dash handles this one.
Lexxic vs. Seraphimus. I'd pay good money to see that.
...they're using the shard to empower their runes somehow I bet.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
This Lexxic sounds like a more brutal Shell...if that's even possible.
My poor spoders doe! D:
As ominous as this all sounds, I find it kind of amusing that at this point it sounds like Lexxic's plan essentially just boils down to "Be a bunch of horrible bastards." Which is weird because generally speaking they were already a bunch of horrible bastards, Lexxic just decided to crank it up to 11, because apparently that equates to fighting better?
Clearly there's more going on here. Not sure what. New uses for moonstone that make this kind of extreme focus on ultra-violence somehow more beneficial than just psychological warfare. Might be they've got some new weapons too from the sound of it, something that can take out whole groups of enemies quickly without leaving survivors to report back. Also find it interesting they can track down changelings and hidden scouts among the spiders. Some sort of moonstone device that traces different life auras maybe?
Also the mention of Lunar masses interests me. Sounds like they might actually have a civilian population. Don't imagine they're any less violent than the Bloodwings themselves, but I was wondering just where the sarosian industry to build all these weapons and fortifications was coming from, not to mention the kind of population you'd need to support such constant war efforts. You couldn't afford to have every member of your race be a warrior on the front lines if you wanted to replenish the ranks generation to generation.
Also intriguing that they left the Children alone after awhile. Almost as if Lexxic knew the Austreaoh was coming and wanted the Children to tell Dash all of this. Maybe he figures capturing the Austreaoh would somehow benefit the Bloodwings. Don't really see how, but crazy bat is crazy so trying to apply logic here probably won't yield results.
Seraphimus x Logan Ship Confirmation Chapter Counter: 4
....Well fuck, good luck trying to get the Shard from the Bloodwings, guys! It was nice knowing you!
Oh crud. Long lived militery genius with advanced tactics, impenatrable and offering nothing but destruction?
LE/XXI/C?
I really want to see whats turning up for this entity, cos if its Unit LEO, a Mark 21, Counter measures thats had a runic Spectre hack before it had chance to boot up, leaving it in a rune manipulated metastable corrupted state, then the only way Dash would have of ending the problem, would be first to become its most loyal associate, then betray it utterly.
If it Is LEO. Then this is what its predicted is needed. To give it surcease.
Its waiting for The AllSpark?
Of course, after all that, we could be ending up with an albino with a Napoleon complex and Khan as the family.
If the Bloodwings are so vastly more effiicnt at picking up others, is it because they discovered how to detect the Song and Hive links, or are they useing raw Life detectors, picking up that which the Night Shard collect and power up with, like the alien power source in XCOM?
At least the only dragons on the Dark Seidhe were the Divines, cos Dash would be in serious trouble if That Dammed Lizerd was holidaying there.
Every ten generations, a boss character is born among the nightbloods. He has the power of turning an army of violent mooks into an actual conquering force. Also, he gives extra XP and one guaranteed epic rare item as loot if you can defeat him.
ok new plan. they go back and use Fluttershy to tame the giant death worm forest thingy and ride it to the armory so they can use it as a battering ram to get inside. because that honestly sounds easier than collecting ancient artifact Mcguffins from three invincible and sinister armies.
Have you ever been so pissed that people were too scared to steal your soul?
The Bloodwings are now confirmed Angry Marines, rejoice!
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This seems way worse. It's like if Shell had projected his brutality thru all of the Ledomaritan soldiers making them all as bad as he was.
Hm, I wonder if Lexxic managed to figure out how to use some of the Lunar Runes in a different way, or how to use one of Nightmare Moon's artifacts. One's tactics and strategies are based on what one can do logistically, so something changed at a higher level to allow for this more 'brutal' strategy. Question is, what changed?
This Lexxic character is definitely interesting, particularly when it comes down to the reason why he didn't obliterate the spiders when he was fully capable of it.
We may have a very complex character on our hands if IC makes this villain any more mysterious.
I am starting to wonder whether these factions are capable of listening to reason. If Dash convinced one or more that this plane was dying and that she was the answer to keeping it alive, would any of the factions realize the error in their ways and provide Dash help with her journey? If so this Lexxic character seems to be that type, and we simply don't know enough about the Night Shard to rule out the possibility that they could do something like this.
The Sarosians are there to obtain the harmonic prism for Luna/Nightmare Moon. Dash happens to be on a quest to bring the harmonic prism to Luna...
I just realized that Dash and the Sarosians have a common end goal (unless they forgot their allegiance to Nightmare Moon).
Wouldn't it be interesting if the different factions each had an ultimate goal which actually made sense in the long run. They simply all had the philosophy that the end justified the means.
This makes me think Lexxic did something to the Bloodwing's souls.
I'm personally getting a little bit of a vampire vibe. Does anyone else think the Bloodwings might just be vampires now? Is that too much of a stretch?
In the third book of east horse him, including gave to me three great days to Kompanion‘s and a rainbow that’s fly yelling east.
Okay, I’m starting to tame that speech to text. But here’s the lyrics for book 3:
In the third book of East Horse, Imploding gave to me
Three great days,
Two companions,
And a Rainbow that’s flying East.
Sounds like the Bloodwings have unlocked a new Lexicon of horrors.
Can't wait for this batty bastard to die. It'll be fun for the whole family!
Here comes Zap Nator/Shell/Verlax/Seraphimus v5! If there's anything I love more than this story itself, it's the characters in it!
I think the problem is not that the Night Shard doesn't want their souls, but because they can't get their souls - maybe they found a way to "backup" their souls, or use them for some purposes. Earlier flashbacks mentioned some kind of ruby gems in their possession, the color can't be a coincidence.
There is certainly more behind this Lexxic than mere brutal competence. The Bloodwings' alteration appears to be the result of a drastic measure, like a magical incident.
Perhaps he abused the powers of the shard for some kind of dark ritual?
Fixed.
I don’t like Lexxic.
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I don't think it's vampires. It's a fault that everyone has. They think Vampires want to kill everything that isn't a vampire. But that would just starve themselves very quickly, as they would have nothing to eat.
If the Bloodwings were just capturing creatures and the creatures were never seen again, I would agree. But they are actively hunting down and slaughtering everything within a set area around their base without care. They keep calling it a 'Hunt' but it's a slaughter against every other species.
There is also the question of what they did to their own souls that made it that the Ruby Chorus can't use them anymore. Even the Alicorns and Primal Dragons couldn't change their own souls. Which is saying something, as Alicorns are literally Souls that came to the mortal world, trapped their souls in mortal shells, that eventually fail and go back to where they came from and become souls again. Even they, with all powerful Harmony magic, and even Discord with all powerful Chaos magic, couldn't effect the soul.
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The Changelings are a bit tricky. The two queens, are chaos corrupted Alicorns. But we don't know if their children are pure corrupted chaos, or if they have dormant Harmony like their mothers.
The Crystal Ponies, however, we know originated on this side and not from the harmony side. So they are creatures of Chaos, like Imps and Goblins and the Spider Creatures.
Looking back, I noticed in chapter 2 that Lexxic was mentioned and it sounds like the Night Shard are searching for where he or she hid the fragment. Also looking back, it appears they also have some knowledge on the whole Austreoh schtick, though don't believe obviously.
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Leaked photo of Lexxic:
derpicdn.net/img/2013/9/19/430797/medium.png
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Tomato, tomato~
Wow. Bloodwings Certainly seem to enjoy their namesake.
Could be the Bloodwings are using chaos metal to power their runes now, like the Herald did. Maybe being around it for a long time makes you crazy?
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Changeling would want to hug her, so they can explode into acid and melt her face off. And Bloodwings will kill and eat her before she even knows they are nearby.
So...uhhh...
...This guy sounds like some seriously bad news. Yep.
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They are? Do you know where this was stated?
Hello, Lanius.
How's your Legion doing?
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I can't remember the exact chapter or phrase. But I remember when it was first told to RD she mentions about 'how can that be, we have Crystal Ponies in the Crystal Empire?' And someone else brought up how Goblins were able to somehow cross over from the Dark side to the Light side, and that a small portion of the Crystal Ponies must have too.
Because on the Dark Side, there is an entire civilization and nation of Crystal Ponies, while on the light there, there is only 1 small town of maybe a few hundred at most. It makes sense that the 'Crystal Empire' was a faction that split off and came to the light side.
As the other possibily is that the Crystal Ponies, for some reason, decided to abandon and destroy any other city, leaving just the 'Crystal Empire' and leave a token guard before 99% of them moved over into the Dark Side.
And this would have been Eons ago, before the Alicorns helped split the pony population, but after they already abandoned the Dark side, cause the first pony contact and only pony contact, was from the 'Angels'/'Original Pegasi'. There was no mention of ever meeting Crystal Ponies.
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Damn it, I see that I start to forget some details.
SpiderBro no!
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For some reason, I'm reminded of the beginning of this scene
Any alliance will probably end as badly...
Also, we need ):( to have the Touch playing in the final showdown between Rainbow and whoever turns out to be the biggest bad.
Lexxic, programmed only to kill.
Makes sense the bloodwings would need the best tactics. They are at a serious disadvantage otherwise. But dang, to hear that they're the most sadistic too? Not good.
Why do I get the feeling they're getting...shall we say, outside help.
Eeeey! We found the boogie man.
Shell 3.0?
This sounds a lot like Verlax with Chrysalis' changelings. I wonder if the Bloodwings found what she found, or were given it.
11/17/2019
15:43 UTC
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