The first of several Lounge ships descended to the shorn mountaintop, flanked by two other spheres.
Roarke stood up tall, facing the inevitable landing. Jex scrunched over and cowered behind her, eyes plastered to the skystone vessels.
At last, the clamshell front of the vessel slid back. Six figures stood tall, their dark suits venting steam at yellow-glowing joints. In the center stood a particularly tall naga, his glossy visor flickering with an amber strobe. He leaned back on his tail until the sphere came to a complete stop. Then, breathlessly, he leapt down and landed in a nimble squat before the metal mare. He paused to stare at the tiny skystone shard and the dish that had been attached to it before standing up straight. When he spoke through his helmet's crackling speaker, Roarke immediately recognized him as the naga who had stared down Haman earlier at the exchanged.
“Skystone does not simply appear this far south into the central plane,” he hissed, towering above Roarke, along with his companions. “Not unless the material has been excavated, pilfered, or stolen—and in each case it likely belonged to us and us alone.” Cht-Chtung! He extended a manablaster from under his right arm's sleeve. “Explain yourself, pony. I do not grant my attention to just anyone.”
“You're right,” Roarke said. “I did steal this skystone shard.” She gestured calmly at the thing. “I stole it off one of the two goblin battleships Haman equipped with it.” She looked up at him. “Right after I ruptured its engine core and sent it crashing into the mountains.”
The naga leader leaned back. Something clicked from deep within his helmet. At last, he replied, “A single pony, bringing down an entire battleship? Preposterous.”
“Ask your chief navigator to give you a full briefing on the sudden alteration to the landscape just south of here,” Roarke said. “I know you have one such officer per ship who's tasked with performing environmental scans on the topography at regular hourly intervals.”
The leader turned towards a subordinate standing beside him.
The other lizard stood up tall. “She's right, brother. I was performing a scan of the local landscape right before we intercepted the skystone signal. There's a noticeable amount of wreckage ten miles to the south. What's more, this very mountain's configuration no longer matches what we have in our databases.”
The leader turned towards Roarke. “Surely, you had more forces on your side.” He pointed a clawed finger at Jex's emaciated figure. “An inside job, I gather. It takes the merest shove to make goblin kind turn on one another.”
“He was my only ally in this contingency,” Roarke explained. “In truth, if we wanted to, we could have brought down the second battleship as well. However, I chose to contact you instead.”
“For what, pray tell? The naga's head cocked to the side, venting steam from beneath his helmet. “So that we might provide your vagabond limbs with transport to a place of refuge? We are already far from home, cast aloft in a land that despises us. We have no further business here.”
“You have more business here than you pretend to know,” Roarke said. “You've supplied one of the most diabolical warlords in this region with the means to lay waist to an entire culture.”
“Haman is a fool,” the leader hissed. “He will no more succeed than he will grow his own legs back.”
“I never said that he would succeed.” Roarke shook her head. “But what's started here will play into the hooves of an evil force far more destructive than the head of the Cartel. Haman's battleships are just the tip of the iceberg. A changeling Queen named Chrysalis is the one true threat here, and she will use Haman's influence to lacerate a bleeding wound of chaos clear across this continent. It will devour all noble civilizations that cling to this landscape, reindeer and goblin and pony alike. It will even spread in due time to the swamps, where your very brothers will face the consequences of what's begun today.”
“This is all pedantic foolishness,” the leader hissed. He whipped his tail about and used it to latch up the skystone shard. “I only came here to take what is mine. I do not intend to listen to the desperate ramblings of a mad horse.” He signaled to his brethren and the group prepared to leap up onto their sphere.
Roarke leaned forward. “Not even Vaughan?”
Every naga instantly froze. Even those standing on the other hovering spheres noticeably flinched. Slowly, the leader pivoted about to face her.
Roarke's copper lenses pistoned outward. “She who saw one of your brethren at his lowest, and—against all odds—prevented him from bringing great shame to the Lounge all over?”
As the seconds oozed by, the leader marched up to her. He leaned down, peering through his helmet. “You are the Vaughan?” He vented steam, shivering slightly. “You are the one who dragged Razzar out from the abyss so that Quezaat could feast on his foul flesh?
“Granted, I did have some help,” Roarke said. “My true allies await me in Val Roa. They need my help. They need your help.”
“Brother,” one lizard spoke up, fidgeting. “She does match the descriptions of the Vaughan—”
He snarled at them. “Do you think I do not know that?!” He seethed, took a calm breath, then peered down at the metal mare once again. “If this is true—”
“And it is,” Roarke firmly said. “And you have a code of honor to uphold. If my friends and I hadn't interceded, Razzar would have murdered countless innocent souls in his mad quest for unclaimed skystone. He would have left his defiling mark on the face of Quezaat forever. However, that is not the case, is it?”
The leader leaned back. “So now... after all these months... the Vaughan has decided to call upon the code of honor. And to what end?” He growled, “To settle a foreign war in a land that does not concern us? Unacceptable.”
“No, what's unacceptable is your willingness to rob Quezaat of glory altogether,” Roarke said. “For if you stand idly by and let Chrysalis consume Val Roa from the inside out—using goblins or reindeer or ponies—you will only invite doom upon yourself, for Chrysalis will not stop her reign of terror until all of this continent is consumed, from the Grand Choke to Alafreo. The Lounge's swamps have no hope.”
“We pride ourselves in policing these lands quite thoroughly,” the naga said. “We never heard of this Chrysalis.”
“As she would wish it to be.” Roarke paced before the creatures. “Brothers, I do not speak of an egotistical maniac such as Haman who would seek a single hour of glory in spite of all the harm it would do to his own kind. I'm talking about a monster so conniving and diabolical that it has eluded everyone's senses, including my own. If the close brothers of Razzar told you anything upon their return to the Lounge, then surely you must know that this isn't the first time you've brushed with the changeling queen before. She was there, in Stratopolis, when Razzar fell.” She scuffled to a stop, glaring at the leader. “As was I. And I'm trying to help you as much now as I was trying to help you then.”
“Word is that the Vaughan deceived Razzar... infiltrated his ranks... slayed and mutilated naga kind in order to accomplish her tasks.”
“Indeed.” Roarke nodded. “And would you have it any other way?”
“... … ...” The naga leader glanced back at his compatriots.
Jex's gaze darted amongst the masked crowd. He gulped nervously.
“Everything is coming down to the wire, and the continent's fate hangs in the balance,” Roarke said. “Would you intervene for Quezaat's sake? Or let it all go to ruin?” Roarke bore a simple smirk. “The choice—dear brothers—is up to you.”
The leader turned towards her. “You realize, this requires us to break our merchant's code with the Cartel.”
“That's true.”
“Then you acknowledge that, in desiring the harmony of the entire continent, you would willfully endorse the annihilation of a single culture.” The naga hissed, “For that is the only outcome that will result from this. Haman has dug himself a hole that his people will never climb out of.”
“I acknowledge that the Cartel will be irrecoverably changed,” Roarke said. “But that change can only be for the good.”
“How can you say that? You've no clue as to the imps' future. Odds are, another mongrel as bad as Haman or worse will ascend in the vagabond's place!”
“It will not come to that.”
“And what makes you so sure?”
Roarke took a deep breath. Through clenched jaws, she said, “For I will be their leader.”
Jex gave her a double-take, his eyes wide.
The naga exchanged glances while the leader leaned forward. “You? A mere pony?”
“Not just any mere pony,” Roarke said, shaking her head. “But Roarke most Rare... the Vaughan... a mare who understands both peace and violence, and the repercussions of each. So long as the Cartetl are left to their own devices, they will only reap more pain and suffering amongst these lands. Somepony new has to be there to foster their growth, to aim them down a path of true enlightenment and civilized codependency. I understand now that this is my purpose in a land such as this. For beyond the Grand Choke...” She slowly shook her head, exhaling with a shuddering tone. “There is no future for me. The journey ends here. For my friends, I suspect the same, only they must discover it in their own time... after Chrysalis is defeated.”
Jex's mouth hung open. He blinked thoughtfully at Roarke, then at the naga.
The lizards murmured to one another, their helmets clicking and venting with steam.
“So, then...” Roarke reached up and plucked her lenses off, squinting with cold blue eyes. “...are we in agreement?”
That is a rather interesting plan to say the least.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mauixfg8Pm1qg8fs0o1_1348476261_cover.png
You know, being the only pony in a goblin culture will be quite lonely...
...oh wait, pegasus sex crater's a stone's throw away.
Carry on then.
But its not a stupid plan!
and we all know only stupid plans work!
Welp, Roarke's making plans and putting down roots. That doesn't bode well for my wearied hope that the gang will stay together somehow beyond the Grand Choke.
After all the talk of their expected separation, and all the angst caused by it, it almost seems anticlimactic that it might actually happen. IC rarely does things the straightforward way, and it almost seems like more of a twist at this point to have them stick together. I have to admit, I have my reservations as to what effect Rainbow being separated from her friends would have on the series. Six books is a long and dreary time for Rainbow to travel alone in the darkness. Unless, of course, she makes another group of friends on the Dark Side, which seems sort of redundant, and almost sour-tasting. How many sets of friends must Rainbow go through before she finds her harmony? How many loves?
For now, I'll still hold onto my hope that the Jury, or at least some of the Jury, will get to tag along.
Of course, that's assuming that IC doesn't kill off the Jury, or even Rainbow herself.
And so it begins. This is the first real commitment anyjurist's made to the land around Val Roa. I suspect the others will soon start finding places to settle down, too.
It's kind of sad, really. I mean, we all knew Rainbow would have to leave them eventually, but... it's hard to not grasp at possible ways around that, ways for the Jury to get through the Choke. Now, we're running out of possibilities.
hmm, Roarke is going to be the Goblin
KingQueenthe Keraine Train is gunna drag Pilate and Admiral Belle into an extended stay
hmm, Props may stick with her uncle, thus anchoring Zaid
Ebon and EE.... eh, they've been looking to settle down anyway....
Josho will stick with EE
Mistah Floydien..... there is sooooo much nope for both stay AND go
Booster... Booster has no real purpose beyond his nativeness to the local area and intelligence, and is more likely to stay than go
this don't look good
and shy of another Lerris (the bad one, albeit on a MUCH grander scale) they ain't likely to all stay....
Nice joke There, Roarke.
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/030/7/2/rainbow_dash_cries_by_ninjashade-d4o6rxv.gif
Oh... she wasn't kidding...
Roarke is making plans for staying. But I know that, while the group will separate from Rainbow Dash, they will not stay there, but fly all the way east to Equestria, the land of their Messiah.
Wow, Roarke....
It's been an honor to see you grow and learn and love.
It will be a cold day in hell before any of us forget.
Fly on.
Roarke is playing a hand that most shouldn't, but since it is Roarke, I think it will turn out alright
Oh, Roarke. Even after that speech to Jex in the last chapter, you're giving up. You aren't the leader they need, Jex is. He always has been.
He's got the vision and the drive, it's just going to take a bit more for him to realise what true strength is.
5436601
Nah, Easthorse always gotta east.
Roarke Most Regal.
The Lounge works on the Wolfpack method. When you reach the best, its difficult to improve any further.
Intrestnng. Rourke used her communications or audio link to create a vastly amplified skysone signal so the Lounge thought it was a much larger random deposit, to come to look.
If Rourkes plans occur, she is going to be busy for years, and just like the puppeteers, get what she wants by brute force, explosives and attrition.
Noone can pass the Choke, no only because theres no air, but because the mana dusruption over and around the edge means that unicorns go down first, then grounded pegasi, and even Earth ponies would get far too much disruption through their hooves? Or will it be only the least magically sensitive could make it, with heavy mechanical assistance?
What will be the effect on Dash?
Geez, Roarke is playing a risky hand here. Involving the naga, planning on taking command of the Cartel...
...What? [/voicesqueak] No...
5436529
Though I think she'd rather slap any of them in annoyance than do the do with them. Besides, nopony can replace Dash.
5437148 Shut your face. Roarkevinne is a thing in my head and your sensible logic will not change that.
[youtube=daaaaamn: http://youtu.be/0iZOmjLrFMs]
5437045
But if she said that than, then jex might refuse, and it's less significant to the longue.
Jex might grow enough backbone to ask for it. We'll see.
...no?
Meh
reactiongifs.com/r/whaaa.gif
5436529
i.imgur.com/7s41Kr8.gif
wat
What?!
ok
This is only acceptable if Roarke turns the cartel into a superpower, and 6 books from now, when Dash is facing something unbelievably huge and evil, Roarke flies in with an armada of super-mercenary-bounty-hunters battleships and we get the biggest deus ex machina ever followed by super sexy Rainboarke time.
5436880
If you think the reason L****s happened was because Scolon chickened out of upsetting the status quo, you clearly don't know anything about the author.
...Wait a minute, IC, are you serious? Are you really gonna pull apart such a great team as this? You fiend! You Madman! You... Meh, I'm over it. I've given up trying to predict this story. Do what you want. I'm just gonna grab a grilled cheese and some cider and mourn my feels.
5437211
i139.photobucket.com/albums/q290/voodoo_buddha/pictures/avatar/Shipping_Wars_3_by_rufftoon.jpg
I have a feeling like you've been a hardcore shipper for your entire life.
Cry for joy or just cry? Idk
5437211
Oh of course, logic must give way to lesbian action. Though I maintain that nopony can replace Rainbow in Roarke's life.
5438478
I'm starting to agree with this.
5438478 I've been shipping ever since I was a wee little sprite. Gaze upon the glory of my first ship ever.
simg3.gelbooru.com//images/f8/af/f8af484bf4d2ae9810745eb272d45122.png
5438606 Rayvinne looks like Rainbow. And so does Fawful. And so does half of Durandana.
One mare may not be able to replace The Dash... but I'm sure 20 Dashalikes (and maybe a few changelings) could band together and come up with a respectable alternative.
Roarke's got plenty of prehensile metal appendages to go around.
5438675
And that's a perfectly valid viewpoint, but it still seems kind of rude to insinuate that IC was trying to pussy his way out of doing anything new with the series.
5438646
Either your pic's broken, or those two halves of paper are supposed to be banging. I'm not entirely sure now, given the context of this conversation.
5438853
It's not loading for me, then. Also, I get a 403 Forbidden error if I try to use the URL.
5436529
I SHALL RETURN
Roarke stahp.
Dash needs you, and you need her. Think of the sadness!
Wait... This is the same author as Background Pony... odds are Colon has a tearjerker chapter or 6 lined up and ready to hit us.
5438896
Rayvinne II: The Second Cumming
First couple rows sit in the splash zone.
5438890
Gah...it only occurred to me now that I could fix the problem just by hacking off that stupid string of characters after ".png". Thanks for the help, though.
5438646
T.K. and Kari...well, I definitely can't blame you for that one.
5439346 Oh, gawd… I’m half-way through Background Pony. I now know why Secretary Sharp Quill has purple eyes. They have been infected by reading all that purple prose.
And whatever horrible suffering IC has in store for Rainbow Dash, it will be a walk in the park compared to what poor Lyra was put through.
Pah, we all know Jex is gonna take over the Cartel after blowing up Haman while Roarke saves Rainbow from some random thing.
5437385
This is true, it was rather dramatic. Roarke always has had a good innate sense for dramatic flair.
5439553 And whatever sadistic nightmares await RD on the dark side of the world, it is nothing compared to what Lyra will face.
Roarke really needs to spend a day with Dash now. Even if the Jury doesn't dissolve she always seemed like she would end up as the odd one out.
5436529 Hoping that place doesn't get contaminated with goblins or something.
Roarke has easily been the best character of this installment so far.
5439553
BP...the thought of that fic brings backs feels. Phenomenal literature.
5439473
Only two rows?
Uhhhhh...
I was not expecting that
Is she serious? Is it a clever trick to get the lounge to agree? Not sure what to think here...
"Now, in the twilight of my journey, I stand upon the precipice of my life's true greatest choice, yet I fall with light in my heart. Whether I'm victorious or slain, my sins will know retribution. Such is the final testimony of Roarke the Rarity, Roarke most Righteous, Bane and Salvation of Searo, last of the Metal Mares, awakened to Loyalty - Lover of the Light.
Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope! Roarke you stay with your Dashie!
My Nobel Jury! We meet again!
5441449 Welcome back!
5441449
Good to see you back