Urohringr

by Imploding Colon

Just a Test, She Said

"The important thing right now is that you stay calm. You're going to pull through this—I promise. The best physicians of Mountain Fall are going to take care of you."

"But I-I can't see! I can h-hardly even feel! That... that explosion killed me! Blessed Spark, what have I done?!"

"Shhhh... Easy there. You've saved dozens of ponies—that's what you've done. You're a very brave zebra, Mr..."

"Pilate. My n-name's Pilate. Did... did I really save—?"

"Hmmm... Yes. Ponies on the ground spotted a hovercraft undocking from the main zeppelin just seconds before it crashed. Entire families survived the final impact—and it's all thanks to you."

"I just... I-I was just doing what I knew h-how to do. I couldn't let everypony die. I just c-couldn't..."

"Well, you showed great tenacity and zeal, Mr. Pilate. Stallions like you are rare among Ledo's ranks. Don't give into dismay. You're in one piece, and I'm going to make sure you're rewarded for the selflessness you've shown."

"R-rewarded? How c-can that be? I can't see a single thing. I'm useless..."

"Not if I can help it. Rest easy, and let your troubles slip away. Soon you'll see again... and the first thing you'll notice is that hope is stronger than the darkness. Of this, I assure you."

"You... y-you have a beautiful voice. What's your n-name?"

"...Bellesmith. Doctor Bellesmith, and I am proud to bring you back from the depths, Mr. Pilate."

---

Pilate's eyes opened, and all he noticed was that the world beyond the shadows was slightly colder. He sighed, sitting up... somewhere. Feeling with his hooves, he realized he was still inside the infirmary. How long had be been lying on that mattress with crumpled bedsheets? Weeks? Months? Years?

A warm voice trailed in his ears, threading apart with the grace of a warm, angelic tone that he had fallen in love with years ago. In its absence, the bulkheads of the Noble Jury rattled with a cold, dull hum.

The zebra hugged himself, rubbing his forelimbs and fetlocks together as a chill brought a chatter to his teeth. With a sigh, he hung his head, ears folded to the sightless ceiling.

Not long after, the entire ship shook. He nearly fell off his bed from the sheer jolt that he was dealt. Gasping slightly, he tilted his head up, blinking blindly to the oblivion.

After a period of silence, the ship shook again. Curious, Pilate slipped out from beneath the bedsheets, held his breath, and slinked like a striped serpent into the hallway directly outside.

---

"Hey... uhm..." Ebon Mane looked up from where a giant, pulsating red mass was stuffed into a metal basin in the center of the engine room. The Frost Wyrm gland's bloody center had several wires running between it and a series of glowing orange coils situated along the far end of the chamber. "With all this jostling around, do you we'll melt this ugly thing to goo? I mean, not that I'm love with it or anything, but it'd be a shame for us to lose the ship's heat on account of a simple test."

"Nnngh!" Props kicked a console along the wall shut and leaned against an instrument panel, panting. "The icky wicky thing's gonna run out of Frost Wyrm blood juice soon anyway! Until Dashie somehow forages up another one, we're going to have to heat ourselves up with your hay noodle soup!"

"Yeah. About that." Ebon winced. "I can't be cooking that stuff forever. Even without a Josho on board, we'll be running out by week's end."

"Well, here's hoping the skystone will take us someplace quickly enough to compensate for the Joshozoid Mass!" Props side-stepped towards a series of levers and yanked on them. "Okay lemon spraaaaay... That should about do it."

"What are the risks of failure?"

"Uhm... just a little bit less than the risk of blowing up."

"Buh?"

"Time for the signal!" Props motioned towards the stairwell beyond the stern-side door. "Tell Floydien I'm counting down from sixty!"

"Righto..." Ebon galloped to the doorway and leaned his muzzle into the space beyond. "Sixty seconds!"

Halfway up the stairwell, Eagle Eye stood. Upon hearing Ebon's shout, he tilted his head towards the top of the chamber above. "Sixty seconds, guys!"

At the mouth of the stairwell, standing in the bitter chill of the morning, Josho uttered loudly, "There's the signal for one minute countdown!"

Rainbow Dash nodded. Spinning in her coat, she flew towards the cockpit. "Ya hear that? Gotta be fifty seconds at this point."

"Yes yes yes..." Floydien turned several knobs while simultaneously firing energy bolts from his antlers into the cockpit controls. "Floydien hopes Nancy Jane's been exercising secretly or else this is going to be a very short trip."

A series of loud, heavy hoofsteps ended with Josho sliding to a stop inside the cockpit, panting. "Better shut this dayum door, elkazord. I'm waiting for Ebon to switch dinner meals at least once before I toss myself overboard to the Frost Wyrms."

"For spit's sake, Nancy Jane could pay Frost Wyrms with fat boomer for a boost across the Sea."

"Knock it off, guys," Rainbow Dash grunted. On the way out the cockpit, she kicked a lever, causing a metal door to slide shut behind the elk and the obese unicorn. "I'll be right outside to spot ya!" She lowered her muzzle to shout through the remaining space in the shutting door. "Josho, if worse comes to worse, you give the shout through the crawlspace for Props to turn the skystone off!"

Thud!

"She must think I'm denser than frozen cat poop."

"Twenty seconds until glimmer spectacle," Floydien grumbled aloud, his red eyes spotting various dials needling their way to their highest energy readings. "Blonde boomer is a smart boomer, but if she tears Nancy Jane to shreds—Floydien swears to pears..."

"Hey... relax..." Josho smirked with a calm expression. "Of all the morons on board this ship, she's the one with the tightest grasp on what she's doing—"

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm—POWWWWWW! The engines exploded into full power. The skystone shard above the ship's gondola flashed like a second sun, sending sparkling reflections rivuleting across the Sea towards every horizon. Burning forward in a red streak, the Noble Jury swiftly became a red splotch along the eastern sky, leaving a flabbergasted Rainbow Dash hovering by her lonesome.

"Luna poop!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked. Wincing, she flapped her wings and rocketed desperately after the runaway vessel.

Comments

[SugarPesticide]

Maybe a race like this will help Rainbow snap out of it? If not, the possibility of blowing up will make a good bonding experience.

That... that explosion killed me!

I read that as "exposition," and spent a good minute laughing at the irony.

[IceKitsune]

Well that worked pretty well.

[RoboRed]

Progress, or out-of-control airship?...

[not_a_rainbow]

ha

[AppleTank]

NITROOOOO
media.techeblog.com/images/burnoutparadise.jpg

[CasualMarshmallow]

I'm pretty sure she knows what she's doing.

[Ms_Fruit_Bat]

Touching opening and exiting ending, this was a good chapter.
Luna Poop.

[Keebroo]

Huh. Didn't realize Belle was working at the hospital at the time of Pilate's injury. Thought she was a fellow patient, what with her horn shattering around that time due to what I thought was the same tragedy.

[adrusi]

Is it just me, or is the tone of this chapter completely different for the ones preceding it? Everypony seems to be lightening up.

[Tchernobog]

4040945 why not both?

[Cobalt Swirls]

Grand Theft Nancy Jane.

[Lightning Bearer]

Goddammit, Belle! Your zebra needs you!

... actually, have we even seen Belle this installment?

Anyway, speaking of Luna poop, I hope Rainbow gets her shit together and answers the moonbeam before she misses her chance and has to wait another month.

[Starlit Skies]

carlparmenter.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/millenium_falcon_hyperdrive.jpg

[That_one_guy]

4041186

Changeling.

[Lightning Bearer]

4041345

cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/31208304.jpg

[That_one_guy]

4041363

Why else would Belle straight up fucking ignore her now blinded and deeply insecure beloved?

[Pilate]

The return of Luna Poop.

[Lightning Bearer]

4041396

Yeah, it's been bugging me, too. But maybe Belle's the one who's been bugged. For all we know, you're right.

[Booster Spice]

My Celestia.

Theyve Gone To Plaid.

[Aatxe360]

4041418

Glad I'm not the only one.

[zaponator]

Who thought it was a good idea to not warn the blind guy about such a sudden acceleration?

[Straker]

Probably should have stayed on the ship Dash XD

[The 24th Pegasus]

One of those rare instances when Rainbow finds something at least as fast as, if not faster than herself. RACE YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD

[kihutaja]

4041186
4041396
Methinks Belle needs comfort just as much. She's apparently busy with taking care of Kera all this time.

4041145
There was a chapter in Innavedr where Belle told her side of the story. She was part of the rescuing team, and lost her horn in the process.

[dafiltafish]

fybertech.com/4thread/v_15999292/1212992229753.gif
WhaI imagine Floydian's expression is.

[Jonathon Smythe]

Pilate flashbacks are nice.

[Nevlamas]

Meanwhile, in the engine room...

It's a sad thing they'll be crossing the Sea so quickly; it's a really nice landscape. Ah well.

4042000 Like the last time that happened - I remember it well.

[That_one_guy]

4041913

I'd almost believe that, but he's... basically been abandoned by everyone. He's been shoved in a corner and told to stay out of the way get some rest. Belle and Pilate traveled far and wide across Ledomare to find each other again, I find it hard to believe that she'd just let him suffer alone like this, Kera or not. She hasn't even talked to him. Something isn't right.

Of course, I might just be overanalyzing all the status-quo angst.

[Cynderfall]

Nyoooom!

[durandana]

The Jury achieves a speed of Warp 10.

Josho evolves into a salamander shortly afterwards

[Jex]

Well, even if the engines explode, at least they're heading in the right direction...

[Recursive Sweatpants]

"Just a test," she said. "Slightly less risky than blowing up," she said.

[Vandratha]

Well, at least Rainbow isn't being mopey. Glad to see they have their skystone engines figured out again.

[dashie76]

IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!

Oh, Props. Be more careful next time. If there IS a next time, that is. We can only hope that Nancy Jane doesn't blow her stack before then.
...ugh...
These are my thoughts so far.

-MASH

[whizzball1]

So fast! Is this good? Or bad?

-SPirit

[Zecoro]

well shit dash

-calls rainbow on the phone-
"hello there. this is a representative of Carnival Cruises. Is your ship running ok?"
-Rainbow-
"umm...yes. My ship is running ok."
-telemarketer-
"than ya better go CATCH IT!!!!"
-NJ blasts away on skystone overdose-

-rainbow-

(best i could find sorry about shitty quality)

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

I guess that was a success.

[Hazard]

It will be fun, she said.

[Regidar]

Ahaha, Dash, you must have learned by now; physics is a cruel mistress, fickle and not at all kind to those who elude her for too long.

[Rudy45]

Good thing RD wasn't hovering in front of the ship when it took off!

[arancaytar]

4041145

It's a really good question. We know that:

A) she designed OASIS, and she is fairly famous for it (at least among scientists like Jasper Clark)
B) she is believed to have died in the crash at Mountain fall
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/88713/88/innavedr/more-the-merrier
C) she lost her horn in the same incident.

To make all that match up, she must have designed OASIS before meeting Pilate, she must have recovered much faster than he did, and for some reason they let her continue to stay at the hospital and talk to civilians while pretending she was dead.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

Welp, you can't have success without some failures, and as far as failures go, this is pretty tame.

05/29/2017 22:10 UTC

[hypervelocity]

ha ha Nancy Jane go zoooom

[Luminous Tune]