You Going Somewhere?
"So, what you're saying..." Rainbow Dash leaned against a medical table as she continued a quiet conversation. "...is that Roarke is kind of a big deal..." She fidgeted, her blue brow furrowed. "...but she's not?"
"She certainly has taken her sweet time in getting into as high a position as she now occupies," Imre replied, slapping together the mechanical parts to an intensely complicated helmet. "She's a good fighter and a bringer of bounties, but more than anything—she knows how to use her head. That's why she's still alive while so many other bloodthirsty metal mares have died... horrifically."
"You sure about that?"
"Of course I am. I've had to harvest their friggin' organs."
"No no..." Rainbow Dash shook her head, wincing from her bandaged left wing. "I mean about Roarke being smart and all."
"You have any evidence to tell me she isn't very clever?"
"Well..." Rainbow Dash smirked. "She did go up against me."
"Intelligence is hard to measured when it's scaled up against the unknown."
"Yeah, well, she certainly did have a lot of tricks up her sleeve," Rainbow Dash muttered as she began pacing around the sealed off infirmary. "The biggest of which was ensnaring all of my pals."
Imre glanced over from her telekinetically-assisted hoofwork. "Hmm?"
"She used my closest companions as bait to lure me into a fight."
"Metal mares will do what they can to get the job done."
"Yeah, well, if she fits the bill so nicely..." Rainbow Dash squinted over. "Why'd she go out on a limb to bring you back from the territory of these Xonan dudes?" She gulped. "And why'd she bring me here to get all bandaged up?"
"Maybe she thinks it'll serve her own purposes in the end."
"That's a real flank-over-elbow way of getting something like that done."
"Look, I don't know, alright?!" Imre growled, glaring at her. "I'm not the expert on everything Roarke!"
"Why not?!"
"I'm not her friend..."
"Aren't you?" Rainbow Dash uttered with a smirk.
Imre was silent.
"I mean, you're a unicorn," Rainbow Dash continued, shrugging. "Seems like you and I are supposed to be lower than dirt to these bounty hunters, and yet you both chat it up like you're meeting here on a weekly basis to go bowling."
"She and I are not friends.... it's... it's..." Imre sighed. "It's complicated."
Rainbow Dash blinked. She trotted over by the medic's side. "Just what were you doing in so far east to begin with?"
"Hmmm?"
"In 'Xonan Country' or what have you. Were you kidnapped or something?"
"No. I went there on my own."
Rainbow Dash did a double-take. "You defected from Ledomare?"
"No, I was..." Imre sighed. "I was wandering..."
"Into friggin' enemy territory?!"
"Look... You're a winged horse!" She scoffed at Rainbow. "And you don't see me asking about where you came from!"
"I've traveled a long way from home, but at least I knew to expect the unexpected! You were born in the Confederacy, right?"
"Mmmm... yes..."
"Then surely you must have known that you were trotting into some bad news!"
"It didn't matter much."
"Why?" Rainbow Dash blinked. "Were you trying to get away from something?"
Imre opened her mouth. She lingered, then said in a cold tone, "Something like that, yes."
"You think you're better off now?" Rainbow droned, then gestured towards the cold, brightly-lit walls surrounding them. "And right here?"
"It doesn't matter..."
"Sure it does!" Rainbow Dash barked. "It's your life! You obviously do a lot of snazzy stuff here! You should be proud of yourself and all that jazz!"
"Look, will you just can it?!" Imre turned and glared at her. "Sheesh, what's your deal? You're worse than... Roarke..."
The two mares hung in silence. They avoided each other's gaze.
Eventually, it was Rainbow Dash who spoke. "So... uh... She's been summoned by a really important metal mare. That means she's moving on up, right?"
"I doubt it."
"Oh?"
Imre slowly shook her head, returning to the helmet assemblage. "If she wanted to move on all the way up, she would have done so ages ago."
"Wouldn't the mares just force it upon her if that's what they wanted?"
"I'm not sure they know what they want," Imre said. "Lady Pestiferous wants one thing. The top blades want something else..."
"And what about Roarke?" Rainbow asked. "What does she want?"
Imre sighed. "I think she wants the same thing you and I apparently want." She turned around with a dull gaze. "She wants to get away from something..."
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To get away from Searo, maybe? =/
Roarke --> East Horse when RD's clock runs out (very very long term off the wall thought)
Huh. Never really thought of that as the motivation behind the characters.
Everyone's running from something...
The trick is to die of old age before it finds you.
2403304 I'm a great leader
The only possible thing they would want to get away from is all the leasbianism. And possibly the fights...
2403306
I doubt it. But then, I still don't know how far Dashie is going to get. Will she make it to the edge of the world? Over it? To the Armory? It's impossible to tell.
But I wish Roarke good luck in getting out of there. I don't think she wants to become Top Spear.
This is Australia...
2403359
It's a bit of a callback to Austraeoh, where Rainbow Dash's entire mindset was "escape" first, and "Midnight Armory" second. Rainbow's focus was shifted with Eljunbyro, but considering the Austraeoh-like tone of Innavedr, it's not surprising at all that Roarke is trying to get away, and that she's able to pick up on that in other ponies. Curiously, this has just recently gotten very difficult for Roarke. Being told you're in charge is not really ideal when you really want to leave, but that instinct is summarily buried-but-fighting hard to get out.
This is all in conjunction with the continually unique brands of friendship held over from Eljun. Rainbow, aptly, is correct in identifying some sort of jovial relationship between Imre and Roarke, and that ties nicely into Rainbow's own growth. Everyone is running in place, making friends without knowing it, and bringing back the missing elements that make up harmony.
2403374
Of course, RD does present the perfect way to get away from it all, huh? She lets her fly away with a winged mare on a mission to save the world. It probably doesn't hurt that RD beat her in a battle, which seems to endear ponies to each other in the weird world of Searo. I doubt very much that Searo would be out for Roarke's blood if she just skipped out on them all -- it seems like a pretty free place that lets its citizens do whatever the hell they want, as long as they're not too much of a burden.
2403365 That reminds me of a song...
2403373
I'd be willing to bet that she manipulates the elder mares, here referred to as "top blades", into somehow preventing her ascension to Top Spear. From there, she uses their already considerable dislike of her to force some sort of exile, which works perfectly into her plan to run from Searo (or something/somepony in Searo).
Honeytiger is confused.
Their is more to Roarke than meets the eye.
This is getting all the more exciting! I can't wait what happens next!
This is getting pretty convoluted. I like it.
More Than Meets The Eye - Testament
"We're not so different, you and I."
2403306
It's not just about heading east. Rainbow is Austraeoh. Can that really be replaced?
No. She's still alive because Rainbow Dash unterstands things she doesn't.
2403371 You're a bloodthirsty, cruel, primitive, brutal society with no regards for the virtues of harmony or reason whatsoever.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse. Furthermore, I consider that Searo must be destroyed.
3.bp.blogspot.com/-XttkWFpERKo/UBUuvcj9QMI/AAAAAAAAB84/s4t1T8Yfs2I/s1600/gollum.gif
I'm just kidding of course... please don't be mad at me...
Wild speculation time with Jake and Finn: Imre is a daughter of Queen Ledo on the run from the moral corruption of her society. Roarke might well soon do the same.
I like Innavedr a hell of a lot more than Eljunbryo. Because then? We knew what was going to happen.
It was pretty obvious from the moment we had Belle in Rainbow's mind, she would set her free somehow.
It was pretty obvious Zenith was a wanker and was going to screw them all.
It was pretty obvious when Shell didn't die he was going to be the main wanker, and that Roarke would return after the way she left. It was all characters in Eljunbryo, but in terms of plot, it was predictable.
But this? I don't have a freakin' clue what's going on. Everyone's doing something different, and they're all so close to eachother but they think the others are dead. It's almost painful to witness how close they are, yet so far, and every time I think I know what you're going to do with them you find some other way to make them think and go the wrong direction.
You've set them up in entirely different places full of different flavours of wanker, as opposed to Eljunbryo's almost constant setting and clear character archetypes. But in Innavedr, you shoved a load of hidden depths up their arses. You've managed to maintain the developing character goodness and then smothered it in Austraeoh-esque unpredictability.
And if there's one thing I like in stories, it's the unexpectable. Well done, good sir. A truly spiffing job.
sweet, roarke is going to be companion #8!
2405333 Well put. Just so - though I would say that there were sequences in Eljunbyro that were actually quite suspenseful (like the first fifty chapters or so and Rainbow's duel with Roarke), where I really didn't know what was going to happen next. But yes, the larger picture was quite narrowly framed.
This change is most pleasant.
2403371
It's more along the lines of extreme feminism. They still have males, even if they're treated more like cattle or prostitutes.
2403365
Everyone's running to something.
The trick is to find it before you die of old age.
Troubled backstory imminent? Seems like Dash has met some kindred spirits - not that there's any shortage of ponies trying to run away/find stuff in this crazy society. Also, I didn't mention it last chapter, but Lady Pestiferous is nasty. I should have expected it, what with her name and all, but the comparison to a wolf spider made me shiver. Those things are fricken creepy. Anywho, onward!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, Imre may feel that way, but Dash has come to terms with her situation and isn't running from anything anymore. But now Roarke may have a conflicted past? This could be interesting, seeing as how we all know her to be a badass, murderous metal mare. Perhaps she doesn't truly approve of the Searonese way of life and wants to get away from it? If so, then Imre probably felt the same way about the Confederacy. Roarke could've related to that and so took it upon herself to ensure Imre's happiness. But now Imre isn't happy in Searo and Roarke doesn't like seeing a pony with problems like hers unhappy. So she tells Imre to do something with her life, which is evident in her comment of "you're just as bad as Roarke."
...
There's the old evaluating side of me. I think I'm getting that old spark back, no pun intended. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
What if Rainbow is actually magic? For the whole "gathering everyone up" part?
Roarke is very conflicted, it seems...
Let's see how this plays out.
-Spirit
Roarke, what are you hiding?
Very interesting...What lies beneath this surface, im dying to net it up to the surface...
Ah, now we have to wonder what Imre was running from... very curious indeed.
I'm going to guess that Imre went to the Xonans for the reason EE did, to die. When she met Roarke and was saved, she found a reason to keep living a while longer.
I'd bet she went to die because her own Beloved was killed by Xonans and she wished to join him. That would be an interesting and heartbreaking motivation.
She wants to get away from what she is.
Maybe Roarke is secretly sick of the Searonese lifestyle. If so, it's an interesting thought, and leads me to assume she's been planning an escape...or something much bigger.
6199123
If I remember correctly, she did say "This bounty will get me more than enough mana crystals to get me across Xonan" or something like that back in Eljunbyro. So it does seem like she wants to get away from all of it.
Indeed. That seems to be the case, from what I've read of Roarke so far.
I'd wanna get away from 'something' too. Especially find that sonething was Searo.
Those bitches are fucking trippin, man.
More blood for the blood gods!
Cripes, this society is totally fucked. Their technology sadly doesn't make much sense or is on the way of decline. There isn't really anyway they can maintain their technological and scientific edge by simply being so apathetic to intelligence and cooperation. If they rely upon kidnapping doctors to even heal themselves, they are intrisnicly tied to the success od their neighbours to survive while also hurting it. Their only chance to get by!
It surely won't last and I think Roarke knows it