The Pain of Waking
When Bellesmith and Pilate trotted over the grassy hill, they came to a soft stop. The wind carried the merry sound of Kera's voice, and they both smiled.
"You're kidding me!" Kera paused between giggles to gasp. "'Little Miss Lerris?'"
"Heheh... From the way you're reacting, I almost wish I was joking," Golden Happenstance said. He sat on the porch to his humble little home besides a slowly grinding windmill on the southeast edge of the village. He and Kera weren't alone; Beau and two young mares the stallion's age stood in a little circle, rummaging through an old, dusty chest that Beau had dragged out of Hap's basement. "But this confirms it right here!" Hap held the plaque out for Kera to see. "It used to hang in the front room to town hall. After what happened to Radiant Moon and Benevolent Blue, plus your foalnapping—well—let's just say that the townsfolk felt less than celebratory."
"Can I take a look at it?" Kera asked.
"By all means!" Beau said with a chuckle, levitating the plaque towards her.
The filly sat on her haunches, craning her neck forward as she squinted at the fine print woven into the certificate. "'Little Miss Lerris... awarded... for grace and beauty and abundance of kindness—'" Her green eyes bulged, and she wretched. "Bleachkkk! You mean I won a friggin' beauty pageant?!"
"I'm afraid so, darling," Hap said with a chuckle.
One of the mares giggled. "I definitely remember that night. I had grown too old to compete anymore, but I was sooooo happy for who took the title from me that year!"
"But... but..." Kera's muzzle scrunched as her voice cracked, "It was a beauty pageant!" She folded her forelimbs in a pout. "That's so not cool!"
"Snkkkkt—Haa haa haa!" Belle broke out in uproarious laughter.
Kera gasped, blushing beet-red. "Oh jeez. They didn't h-hear that, did they?"
"Only the part where our little pony became the princess of Lerris," Pilate said with a smirk as he and his beloved trotted down towards the cabin. "Am I to understand that's how the ritual worked?"
"More or less," Hap said with a nod. "The mares of this village were far more keen about operating it. I only ever observed from a distance."
"Guhhhhh..." Kera buried her face in her forelimbs while the adults chuckled. "Soooooo laaaaame..."
"There was a time when you felt differently, kiddo," Beau said.
"No waaaaaaay."
Beau shrugged. "Just telling it as I remember it. Radiant and Benevolent raised a little angel. I swear, every time I came to visit, she had a different hairdo."
"Pilate. Tell them that they're... I dunno... hallucinating or something!" Kera squeaked.
"I wish I could." The zebra felt forward until his hoof tapped against the plaque. "If I may?"
"By all means," Hap said with a nod.
Pilate scanned the plaque with the O.A.S.I.S. sphere. His metal brow furrowed. "Hmmm.. it's most definitely dated. Six years, I'm guessing. They couldn't have faked this overnight even if they tried."
"I'm sorry, Kera," Belle said, stifling another giggle and failing. "Guess you're stuck b-being a princess..."
"Ughhhh..." Kera pulled at her muzzle and groaned. "I don't know how I lasted a single month on the streets!"
"You may have been raised as a gentle foal, but you were definitely quite the versatile youngster," Hap said. "In addition, I've no doubt that Radiant's and Benevolent's tenacity rubbed off on you."
"Just what do you have there?" Belle asked, craning her neck. "Is that some sort of time capsule?"
Beau smiled gently. "The next best thing, I suppose." He gestured towards a pair of doors leading from Golden Happenstance's cabin basement. "Uncle Hap is more or less the town historian. It's a torch that was passed down to him after he made Lerris his permanent residence."
"And I think I know a stallion who's gonna take up the charge when I'm gone," Hap said with a wink.
Beau rolled his eyes and smirked nonetheless. "I figured that there might be some things in here that might jostle some of Kera's memories."
"Yeah, well, it ain't working so far!" Kera pouted. "I sure don't remember posing in a dress for some... gnnnnh... t-town ball!"
"You kidding?" One of the mares giggled. "You hid behind your mother's skirts the whole time!"
Kera's jaw dropped. "You're saying that I'm shy too?!"
"It's not all that different from how you first arrived in Lerris from the Jury, actually," Hap said with a knowing smile.
"Guhhhh!" Kera stomped her hooves and waddled over towards Belle's side. "Please tell me you've come to rescue me!"
"Heh... something like that," Belle said with a smile as she leaned in to nuzzle the frowning filly. "The day's drawing to a close. I figured you would like to have supper early before bedtime."
"Oh? Ohhh... uhm..." Kera bit her lip as she dug a hoof nervously into the earth.
"Is something the matter?" Pilate asked.
"Oh. No. Not really. Just..." Kera shifted from side to side. "I spent the afternoon hanging out with Gulien and Lake Song..."
"Gulien and who...?"
"Two of the local foals that Kera's been spending a lot of time with," Hap clarified.
"Yeah! And they're super fun too!" Kera grinned. "They've yet to beat me at a game of Colt Toss!"
"Colt... Toss...?" Belle rasped.
"New game." Kera tilted her chin back with a proud expression. "I just invented it."
"Ahhhhh..."
"And, like, Gulien asked if I might like the spend the night at his folks' place. They were gonna make us smoked salmon with fried grasshoppers on the side. And... uhm..." Kera gulped with a nervous smile. "Isthatokaywithyouuuuuu?"
Beau and the two mares chuckled collectively.
Belle smiled. "We'll talk about it, Kera. On the way to the Jury. Come along."
"Allriiiiiiiight," Kera sing-songed in a dull tone.
"Out of curiosity," Pilate remarked, nodding his head towards where Hap sat. "What else is in the trunk? Perhaps Kera won twice in a row."
"Heh... No, that was her one and only chance. The year after that... well..." Hap sighed with a shrug. He nevertheless dug a hoof through the trunk. "We already found a quartet of baby horseshoes, and a smoking pipe that I think may have belonged to Benevolent. Though I'm quite certain he quit several months before taking Kera in and—" His words fell, as did the features of his face. His eyes turned instantly glossy.
Kera blinked, as did Belle. "What is it?" the mare asked.
Beau and the other ponies looked on as Hap pulled something out with a trembling motion. "Nagu'n below, how could I have ever misplaced this?" the old stallion breathed. In his hooves there rested an elegant comb studded with porcelain flowers. Its emerald surface still reflected the gray glow of the sky with an immaculate sheen. "It's an heirloom, alright. The heirloom. It belonged to my mother, and she gave it to Radiant shortly before she passed away. I... I-I suppose I simply wanted it out of my sight." He gulped. "Five years ago, I was far less composed as I am now. Tragedy will do that to a pony."
Everyone was silent, gazing patiently at him.
He looked up, his eyes weak. He cleared his throat and smiled, holding the item up higher. "An elegant tool for elegant mares. Even if I knew nothing of this, I'd immediately recognize its value."
"It's a good thing you found it again," Pilate said in a gentle tone. "As painful as it may be, memories are precious things."
"No..." Hap shook his head. "This was not meant to be passed on to me." He smiled, then eased out of his seat with shaking limbs. Trotting slowly forward, the elder held the comb out before Kera. "You are the only daughter Radiant Moon ever had. It is only fitting."
"But... but..." Kera winced awkwardly, shrinking away at the ornate instrument. "It's... it's totally not 'me!' I mean... I couldn't possibly—"
"Don't be silly, child," Hap sniffled, though he nevertheless smiled. "You act as if it's never graced your presence before."
Kera blinked at that. With a firm breath, she gently took the comb, balancing it delicately in two petite hooves. "Uhhh... Th-thanks?" She smiled cheekishly. "I guess..."
One of the mares suddenly turned and trotted briskly towards the far end of the cabin. The air was knifed with short, sobbing bursts. Beau winced, bowed politely towards the group, and shuffled over towards the mare to console her.
Kera watched the affair with an awkward expression. She felt a warm hoof on her shoulder and looked up.
"Hap, thank you so very much for looking after Kera this afternoon," Bellesmith said. "We must retire for the evening, but we'd love to meet with you again in the morning."
"Yes... yes, that would... that would be nice," the elder said as he shuffled backwards. "As for now, I think... I would like to be alone with my thoughts." He turned without a smile and trotted slowly into his cabin.
Kera's lips pursed as she gazed upon the scene. She felt a tug, and she levitated the comb as she trotted besides Pilate and Belle up the hill.
"Come on, Kera. The Jury's waiting."
"Right..." Nevertheless, Kera kept glancing back, her green eyes lingering on Beau and his friend consoling the sobbing mare in the distance.
Roarke's forelimb twisted, stretched forward, and clasped a tiny lever within the metal frame. The pneumatic servos whirred, hissed, and finally launched a steam-propelled missile forward. It impacted the center of a craggy boulder, exploding it to pebbly bits.
As the smoke cleared, Rainbow Dash hovered down, flapping her wings barely a dozen feet above the fresh crater.
Roarke pumped her hoof back, causing the metallic cannon cage in her brace to fold up like an accordion. She sat back, sniffed the air, and muttered, "Hi."
"Hi yourself," Rainbow Dash droned with a nod. "I hear you've been busy."
"I can't help myself," Roarke said, this time flexing her left limb as she unfolded a retractable machete in the metal rigging. "Weapons are my pillows."
"Yeah, I can see that. But I'm not talking about you going all Commander Hurricane on the countryside of Lerris," Rainbow said. "Did you ask them permission to blow their boulders to bits, by the way?"
"I figured it wouldn't be anything they missed."
"Isn't that rather presumptuous?"
"Did you come here to berate me for no reason or is something actually on your mind?" Roarke grunted.
"Roarke, what's going on here?" Rainbow asked. "You're acting all sullen and reclusive and paranoid." She blinked. "I mean—like—waaaaaaaay more than usual."
"Well..." Roarke grunted as she slid the blade back and shrugged her shoulders. "Somepony has to be."
Rainbow frowned. "What in the heck is that supposed to mean?"
"You know darn well what it means."
Rainbow ran her hooves over her face, groaning. "Nnnngh... you know, sometimes you are like no mare I've ever met... and then—at the same time—you are like every mare I've ever met."
Roarke turned and looked up at her with inquisitively pistoning lenses.
"Just tell me what's bothering you!" Rainbow grunted. "Don't assume that I know everything! Neither of us are strangers to my stupidity, y'know!"
"Hmmmf..." Roarke grunted as she turned and tested the servos situated along her hind legs. "How's the Kera adoption agency going?"
Rainbow gaped. "Don't change the dang subject!"
"Who says I did?" Roarke mumbled.
"Is that what this is all about?!" Rainbow planted her hooves on her floating hips and frowned. "You're steamed about what we're doing here in Lerris?"
"Must be easy forcing an uneasy decision on your friends," Roarke said. "I wonder, do Belle and Pilate see this as practice?"
"What are you even getting at?!" Rainbow squawked. "I came here because Ebon told me that you were spreading freaky ideas around the Jury!"
"And you believe that breeder?"
"He happens to be very loyal and very good at making food!" Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth. "Two things that I really, really like!"
"Funny." Roarke turned towards her. "Almost a month ago, you couldn't bring yourself to look at him, much less trust him."
Rainbow blinked. "Huh...?"
"Lest I remind you that the only reason he's here is because Eagle Eye decided to carry his pathetic flank behind your back."
"I... it..." Rainbow's ruby eyes darted along the horizon. "Eagle did...?"
"Don't you see, Rainbow?" Roarke growled. "You're losing your touch. That, or you've reaquainted yourself with a Rainbow Dash that I've never know before—a mare who can't pay attention to any single thing for too long. This pegasus frightens me. Sickens me, even."
"Hey!" Rainbow folded her forelimbs as she frowned down at the bounty hunter. "In case you haven't noticed, I've had my hooves full of Xonans, cultists, a chaos dragon, and all sorts of crap!"
"And you think that's an excuse?!" Roarke exclaimed, her growling voice piercing the valley's winds. "You think that's ever been an excuse?! You're letting things slip past you, Rainbow Dash! Especially the worst things of all!"
"Just tell me, Roarke," Rainbow Dash spoke in a sharp tone. "Do you really, really think that we've got friggin' shape shifters watching us right now?!"
"At least I have the courage to consider it!" Roarke said. "But what of you?! You witnessed the largest and most dangerous of them all transform right before your very eyes! Whatever posed as Lasairfion had orchestrated an entire war for the past few years! Who's to know what sort of incalculable impact she could have on the journey ahead?! On you?!"
"Pffft. Whoever she is—whatever she is—I can handle it!"
"Can you?!" Roarke barked. "Rainbow Dash, she knew about you! About your past! She caught you off guard while you were already off guard!"
"I'm telling you, I can handle it!" Rainbow Dash shrugged wildly. "I've survived dragons and cross-country marehunts! I can totally take her on!"
"You don't know that!" Roarke grumbled. "You don't know anything! You just... fly from battleground to battleground, depending on luck and whatever that mystic nonsense is that's empowering your pendant!"
"Yeah, well, it's worked so far!"
"For you, maybe! But we both know that it's not all about you, isn't it, Rainbow?"
The pegasus merely blinked at her.
Roarke stood up straight, frowning. "Are you really that dense? Are you truly the pony who beat me to a crap and talked sense into my metal-laced skull?"
"I... I care for everypony on board the Jury," Rainbow Dash said in a quiet tone. She gulped. "I wouldn't do anything to endanger them..."
"And yet you are! Each and every day, you are! And you don't even think twice about it!"
"You think I haven't thrown my neck in the line of fire for the likes of Belle, Pilate, Eagle and the rest before?!"
"I'm telling you, Rainbow Dash, that whatever this journey is—whatever this flight east means to you—it's bigger than everything you've ever encountered before!"
"Roarke—"
"Don't deny it! With each twist and turn, it gets crazier! More and more unpredictable! More and more violent!"
"If this is about what happened to Simon... or to Imre—I'm sorry! Okay?!" Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. "Not a day goes by when I don't think about Floydien's pal giving up his life or Imre surrendering herself to the Ledomaritans! But it's not like I'm responsible for every little thing they've done! I wanted Imre to come along with us! But she chose to do the opposite! It was her decision and I couldn't stop it!"
Roarke chuckled, a very cold and reverberating thing. She shook her head with a rattle of he mane ringlets. "Oh Rainbow. You really are dense, aren't you?"
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth—
Suddenly, Roarke blurted, "The decision is yours. It's always been yours. It was the case with Imre and it's still the case with Belle and Pilate... and Kera."
"You want me to tell them what to do about the little scamp?! Is that it?" Rainbow scowled. "You want me to be the third parent here?"
"No, Rainbow Dash," Roarke said. "If you knew what was best for your friends, you'd leave them."
Rainbow Dash's face went pale. "Wh... what?"
"You would leave them, Rainbow. You would leave them and continue your trek east. Allow all of this... 'Austraeoh' crap to follow you and you alone, with all of the trouble that rears its ugly head, as you've long grown used to."
"I love my friends..." Rainbow Dash growled. "I c-can't just abandon them! Not now!"
"But you have to at some point, Rainbow!" Roarke shouted. "You know this! Don't deny it!"
"I know! I-I know..." Rainbow panted, clutching her head as she shivered towards the east. "Just... n-not now! There's the Frozen Sea and... and..."
"And what?"
"I-I dunno! Stuff! I gotta make sure that they get someplace absolutely safe—"
"Look around us, Rainbow!" Roarke stretched her hooves towards the horizons. "What can be safer than here?!"
"But... but the shape-shifters—"
"Are after you! The Lasairfion doppelganger made that abundantly clear!"
"Roarke... I just... I-I can't..." Rainbow Dash's voice was squeaking at this point. She hugged herself from where she limply hovered. "Just... not at this point. Not now..."
"Why not?" Roarke gritted her teeth. "Belle and Pilate are willing to part with Kera if it means what's best for her. I never thought I'd see the day when those Ledomaritan weaklings would show more spine than you!"
Rainbow Dash turned and snarled. "Don't call them that! They were displaying bravery and courage while you were just a grunt for your dying Pestiferous!"
"And if you don't want all of that being snuffed out for no reason, then leave them! Let them stay with Kera!"
"What?! Alone on the jury?!"
"Or here!" Roarke gestured. "In the valley! In Lerris!"
"And what if the cease-fire ends, huh?! What then?! Who's going to protect them?"
Roarke simply stood there, her metal limbs shifting.
Rainbow's pupils shrank. "You...?"
"Whatever happens, wherever they might be, your friends will be safe so long as they quit the journey." Roarke's lenses retracted. "So long as they quit you."
"Yeah, well, I can't quit them," Rainbow grumbled, looking away.
"And so long as you can't leave what you care for behind, so long as you can't make that brave decision, you're dooming them to a fate you can't even contemplate."
"I can contemplate enough."
"Really? Last time I checked, you weren't exactly going to live forever."
"Don't lecture me on death, I've seen enough of it."
"And you'll see more if you don't do what's best for them!"
"And I'm telling you, I can't do that!"
"Why not?! You've done it before?!"
Rainbow spun, snarling. "That's because everything I cared for was destroyed!"
"And what will it take for you to do the right thing again?!" Roarke shouted back. "Are you going to make a Ponyville out of the Noble Jury?!"
Rainbow Dash hovered in silence, fuming. Her eyes gazed far beyond Roarke as sweat lingered on her muzzle.
Roarke stared up at her, waiting.
At last, Rainbow sighed. She clenched her eyes shut, leaned her head back, and exhaled slowly. Eventually, her eyes opened, and they were glaring. "You're a smart pony, Roarke, and a crafty warrior. But no matter of cunning is going to help you in the long run without hope. I don't care how many weapons you have."
Roarke groaned. "Do you even listen to yourself—"
Rainbow was suddenly in the Searonese mare's face. "Yes. Now you listen to me." She jabbed a hoof in the pony's chest. "Whatever happens to Kera is up to her, not Pilate and Belle... and certainly not me. And when we're done here, I'm taking the Jury—and whoever's on board that ship—to a place far, far away from this stinkin' continent so that they can find a home safe from all of Ledomare, safe from all of Xona, and safe from all of this shape-shifter nonsense."
"But Rainbow—"
"And if you want any part of that journey, then you're going to stop making everypony on board feeling paranoid! We're falling apart at the seams as it is, and just because you can't sit right with no excuse to bash skulls in doesn't give you the right to make every minute a living hell for the ponies you bunk with!"
"I only want what's best for this team you've assembled—"
"No, Roarke." Rainbow glared. "We both know what you want. And it's really, really lame to see you getting your wires crossed so stupidly."
Roarke fidgeted. Her lenses pistoned in and out. "I've no clue what you're rambling on about."
"Hah!" Rainbow rolled her eyes with a bitter chuckle. "And you call me a coward." She turned and floated towards the distant Jury. "I'd come back before nightfall if I were you. And Roarke? Try not to scare the Lerringtons with your explosions. I've done enough to clean up the Jury after your fearmongering."
Roarke stood alone in the windswept valley. After several minutes, she slumped to her metal-laced haunches with a sigh. She picked up a clump of dirt and tossed it to the overcast air.
"Hrnnngh... Idiot."
"And then Beau showed me the boats that they send out to the rivers for fishing!" Kera exclaimed as she bounced a few steps ahead of Belle and Pilate. "It had all of this fancy wood carving on it! Like, images of serpents and snakes and all sorts of reptiles n'stuff!"
"Sounds quite remarkable," Pilate said as he leaned on Belle's shoulder in mid-trot. "I've always fancied woodcarvings. Using O.A.S.I.S. brings the images to such dazzling clarity."
"Yuh huh! And, like, Beau tells me that snakes and reptiles are super big in Xonan culture!"
"Heh..." Belle chuckled dryly. "I've no doubt."
"And... a-and he and his friends spend their off time making the engravings in the boat. They say it's in their blood. And you know what I realized?"
"Hmm? What's that, darling?"
Kera spun about, trotting backwards as she levitated the comb by her smiling face. "I used to do carving while I was in Blue Nova!"
"You don't say..."
"I do too! Whenever I wasn't hunting for food or chasing grasshoppers, I'd find junk that ponies would leave by the wayside and I'd carve all sorts of swirly designs into them!" She giggled. "I had an entire shelf full of the stuff! Grasshopper legs etched into coffee mugs or rat tails on jaded crystals!"
"Then... how come Phoenix and I never saw them?"
"Because some creep stole them before I moved to another hideout! Duhhh!"
"Heh heh heh... if you say so..."
"What, you don't believe me?"
Belle winked aside at Pilate. "This coming from Kera, the 'Little Miss Princess of Lerris.'"
Pilate chuckled.
Belle also giggled. When her breaths came to a stop, she became aware of how silent the air was. She looked forward. "Kera?" Her mouth hung agape.
Kera had plopped down on her haunches, legs spread. She stared limply at the comb floating before her. The porcelain flower bud glistened in her delicate telekinesis.
"Kera..." Belle shuffled forward, coming to a stop a few feet away. "What... what is it, darling?"
The filly gulped. "It was 'Kiki...'" She murmured, "It was 'Little Miss Kiki of Lerris.'" Her breaths came in tender little squeaks. "That's what she called me the day before and the day after. That's what... she always called me..."
Belle stared, eyes twitching.
Pilate spoke up. "That's what who called you, Kera?"
The filly's lips trembled. "My mother." She winced slightly. "At least... she felt liked her... smelled like her... h-had her voice when she held me. I... I could feel her lungs shaking when she sang to me. When she... she brushed my mane." Kera wrenched her eyes from the comb. The emerald pupils reflected the sea of windswept grass around her. She stretched a hoof out and brushed it over the tips of the swaying blades. "Even when the cold winds blew... when the rain came... the storm outside my window. She held me. She kept me warm. I... I love to smell her coat as she rocked me to sleep. I could remember her laughing. My name. 'Kiki.' She would sing it. I wanted to look pretty for her. For everypony. It was... the least I-I could do."
Pilate and Belle stood in silence. Belle trembled, so she gripped tightly to the zebra's hoof as a lump formed in her throat.
Kera was shivering at this point. She stopped levitating the comb and held it in a pair of tiny hooves. She stared closely at it, until a reflection formed, and the face in the emerald sheen was collapsing. "Momma...?" She sniffled. "Momma... I-I was so tiny... I kicked and bucked at them, but I-I couldn't stop them. I-I couldn't... couldn't..." Her muzzle scrunched as tears sprang from her eyes. "Momma, th-they're hurting you!" her voice came in a high-pitched whine. She hugged the comb to her chest and collapsed on the hillside, sobbing profusely. "Pappa! Help! Help! They're hurting her! They're taking me away! I don't wanna go! I d-don't wanna go!"
With a limp cry, Belle flew forward and scooped Kera up. She enfolded her arms around the filly as she weathered every wailing sob. "Kera, I'm so sorry. Darling, it's okay. Just let it out..."
"Nnnnghhhh-Mommmmmaaaa!" Kera hiccuped and howled, burying her face in Belle's chest. "Mommmmmaaaaa... guhhhhh-huhhhhhh..." She clung to one of Belle's forelimbs and refused to let go, stifling her shrieks with the mare's embrace.
Solemnly, Pilate trotted over and hugged the two ponies from behind. His gray eyes stared into nothingness as his ears twitched, taking in each sorrowful yelp.
Minutes later, as Kera's sobs quieted down, Belle lifted her tear-stained face up and gazed at Pilate. She leaned in, and the couple nuzzled each other in helpless silence, keeping the filly warm between them as the gray winds pelted the hillside upon the fall of evening.
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In the case of Belle,Pilate and Kera I kind of agree with Roarke to an extent. Also that ending
Oh, Kera. I can't imagine doing half of that while being so young.
21 chapters left. I dunno if we'll be out of Lerris by the end.
~Basso
Total Recall -- I wonder what kind of pony will come out the other side.
And one wonders -- is it possible that Roarke is the changeling.
Maybe Kera changed her personality after she was kidnapped in order to escape the painful memory. Now that she starts to remember Lerris more, perhaps she will lean towards staying--or she might be repulsed by her past.
I get the odd feeling that Odrsjot will end with the Jury parting ways and some of them staying in Lerris.
...
Damn...
3946343
The Parting of Ways is a nice chapter title.
Poor Kera...
Roake....Kera....
Rourks cntinuing construction of non magical, mana based designs is intresting. Its like shes expecting the leylines to be corrupted.
Poor, poor Kera/Kiki, having to have a memory like that to have to remember.
dammit....
I can feel the tears in my eyes.
Damn...building up to that breakdown right there...
Poor Kera...
3946343
Roarke most tsundere.
Kera,Pilate,Belle,Roarke...the Jury will miss you.
Floydien,Eagle,Josho,Zaid,Ebon,Props,continue onwards.
I saw the chapter title and thought it would be Ebon realizing he's a changeling. I have never been so wrong in all my life.
3947500
The idea of Kera being a changeling is still out there.
I knew this would happen eventually... I just didn't think it would bum me out this much.
Please don't take Roarke away.
roarke is right but so is rainbow. but staying or leaving should definitely be up to the individual pony him or herself. roarke actually saying "hi" to somebody is kinda cute. all this emotion and feelings crap is what I think there stay in lerris is about. in the end they will come out stronger for it no matter the outcome. I do very much miss how jovial the jury used to be. hopefully it returns soon.
Y'know, even if Kera sticks with the Noble Jury, I think Pilate was right that stopping by Lerris was a good idea. Kera's past was always a big hole. Even to her, it seemed at times. Perhaps this visit will help to close that hole and give Kera some closure, allowing her to turn her eyes to the sunrise. That is, of course, if she doesn't decide to stay, though I still have a hard time imagining her deciding that.
Roarke raises some good points, from a strictly logical standpoint. But there's still a part of me that thinks, perhaps illogically, that Rainbow having friends is a very good thing, in terms of her journey, her development, her war with the chaos within herself. Leaving them, even if it's for all the right reasons, still feels like the wrong move. I can't quite explain it well. Chaos tore her from her old friends. I guess her being separated from her new friends seems like it'd be a victory for chaos, too. *shrugs*
3948465
She has clearly been replaced with a shape shifter at some point.
Kera.
Who on board the Noble Jury is an impostor?
Half of them, if Battlestar Galactica taught me anything.
So after all this time she's whole again.
Oh dear merciful heavens, the memories you inflict upon me.
Roarke is so stupid it hurts.
3948465 Not without killing her, that is.
What scene is this referring to? I can't remember.
Is it bad that the line "Little Miss Princess of Lerris" made me gigglesnort?
A little too dramatic at the end tree, because when Kara entered her hysterics I started laughing
Long chapter. Kera reminds me of Vanelopie Von Schweets. Both are full of spunk and hate frufruy dresses. :P
I think roarke was right and that leaving will be the best for every one. Roarke is still my favorite and if rainbow does leave, I think (hope) that roarke will go with her
Sleepy time fnaaaaaaaa
4145371 Wait, did I catch up with you? If I did, I have no reason to look at the comments.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Hmm...this Lerris Arc is an interesting one. Has more of an internal conflict versus the normal external one. It's really interesting and makes you think...here, Roarke definitely proposes the smarter desicion. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
...
-SPirit
Roarke has always been a cunning pony...and this is no different.
Rainbow,
you are my favorite pony and i respect you completely...
but i will not sympathize or pity you if down the road on some cataclysmis event and belle and pilate are left by you in the cold wind with noone and nothing but each other to keep warm for a few last minutes, and you think "i should have left them in lerris. roarke was right" im gonna turn my head away without a word. roarke spelled it out for you. even YOU can understand it.
as for kera, i didnt think much of her....but whatever flashback she just had....very troubling...or at least very traumatic...
Years of bottling things up, choosing to forget as a coping mechanism, . . . it all comes out. Lerris is a time for peace, but peace doesn't mean peace. Peace means time to slow down and think. It means you don't follow blindly because there's nothing but eastward to go. Without an enemy chasing them, I have a feeling that the crew will surely have a split.
Brokemare Mountain, staring Roarke and Rainbow.
This chapter is really a lot to think about... and the buildup and anticipation to the choice that Kera's gotta make it really making me grit my teeth. I don't wanna sound callous, but I think I could handle her staying—I wouldn't be happy with it, but I could handle it.
Belle and Pilate, however... I don't know. They've been such an integral part of the series since things started really getting thick, and I don't think their departure would leave me as anything but a sobbing wreck.
This chapter made me feel feels. How rude, IC.
And the walls Kera built to protect herself from the past come crumbling down.
An unexpected suspect appears...
I mean, she could well be sincere, but this also is what a changeling would say if she wanted to separate RD from the group.
Oh darn... I don't know how to feel about this...
I feel Rainbow why she doesn't want to left them. But I think Roarke is right this time, leaving them both here with Kera was for the best, for now at least...
8087791
I would highly doubt a changeling would be shooting missiles and unfolding machetes.
8480613
I'd never feel secure about them as long as shapeshifting are still on the loose, even though it would be fortuitous to leave them. Especially if Roarke is willing to guard them, or at the least, Belle and Pilate
Thanks for trying to talk some since into the one pony pride parade.
Will definitely get emotional here. I'm kind of glad Nightshade is gone now.