“Okay, if I can just ask one key question…” Ebon Mane fidgeted near the stern of the Noble Jury. “How the heck are you both getting back once you’ve saved Kera’s precious head?”
“The same way I was able to save the zebra’s precious head,” Roarke muttered. “I’ll keep a reading on his manasphere’s frequency from a distance.”
“Can the onboard manaconduits of your suit do that? I thought that was something only your old ship did.”
“I got an upgrade in the Rust District.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever…” Roarke finished attaching the last of many surplus fuel cannisters to the middle of her suit. It was late at night inside Gray Smoke, and the ship was hovering several spaces away from where dockworkers were busy attempting to salvage what was left of the hangar’s burnt mooring platforms. “In the meantime, we’ll keep in contact over soundstones and find a way to coordinate a rendezvous. Preferably someplace east of here.”
“Crazy metal boomer will get no argument from Floydien,” the elk grumbled. “As soon as blonde blonde rigs the steam up to Nancy Jane’s room, Floydien is throwing this city away with yesterday’s spit.”
“I wouldn’t fly too close to the Eastern Front if I were you,” Rainbow Dash said. “But, someplace where there aren’t a bunch of noisy, psychotic, dogmatic ponies wanting to tear this group to shreds would be nice.”
“I’ll try to find a good spot on the map, Rainbow Dash,” Pilate said.
“And I’ll guide us away from most of the heat,” Josho said. “I found out enough to know where the most bombs are going off.”
“Right…” Rainbow Dash nodded firmly. “I believe in you guys. I really do. Keep the ship in one piece, and I promise I will bring Kera back in one piece.”
Props waved her hoof. “But, you’re totally gonna do that for the itty bitty filly, either way, right?”
Before Rainbow Dash could answer, Roarke stuck her helmet in. “I’m still new to working without being paid, but we’ll do our best.”
Rainbow Dash glared aside at her. “By the way, I’m pretty sure it was me who saved Pilate yesterday.”
“Whatever.” Roarke shrugged. “You’re writing the history books. Not me.”
“Do you really have to have an attitude about it?”
“I’m not the pony with a murderous fan club.”
“Grkkk! They are not a fan club! For the love of Celestia, don’t you ever friggin’--” Rainbow Dash jerked to face the others with a plastic grin. “Is there anything else we should cover, you guys?”
“You’d better get a move on,” Pilate said. “At the rate at which they’re flying with that triple skystone supply, they could be a week’s distance at normal wingpower.”
“Don’t worry…” Roarke trotted towards the very edge of the ship. “I’ll drag her faster west with my rockets if I have to.”
Rainbow hung her head with a sigh. Quietly, she trotted over to her best friends. “I’m gonna get her back, and then--I swear--we’re gonna burn our way through the clouds and leave this goddess-forsaken continent in the dust, once and for all. Okay?”
Belle nodded quietly.
“Hey…” Rainbow Dash reached forward and tilted the mare’s chin up. “It’s gonna be okay. Ya hear me?”
Belle blinked at her. The mare’s lips pursed, and her eyes watered. “Yeah…” She sniffled and nodded with a weak smile. “Yeah, Rainbow. Everything’s gonna b-be okay…”
Rainbow smirked, then pivoted to punch Pilate in the shoulder. “You’d better give her lots of tender zebra loving while I’m gone.”
“Derrrr…”
“Props!” Rainbow trotted past the blonde in question. “Thanks for sticking with us. I know that you still need to find your uncle and all, but we can use all the help we can get.”
“Aye, pegasus my pegasus!” The mare saluted with a bright smile. “I’ll get Nancy a steam powered diaphgragm! Just you see!”
“Er… yeah…”
“And don’t you fret, Rainbow Dash,” Props cooed, leaning in to give the mare a close, fragrant, friendly nuzzle. “We love you to bits, girl,” she purred. “Even if you get smashed to a bloody pulp against a big granite mountainside, we’ll always remember your charm, your niftiness, your beauty--”
“Okaaaaaaaaaay!” Rainbow Dash blindly shoved the mare away, her cheeks burning red. “Thank you, Propsyyyy… ahem.” She nodded to Floydien and Josho as she trotted by. “Gentlecolts.” She came upon Ebon and froze, fidgeting.
Eagle Eye blinked at Rainbow Dash, looked at Ebon, then back at her. Simon chirped randomly in the background.
“Ahem…” Rainbow bit the corner of her mouth before uttering, “Guess you’ll be sticking around too, huh, Ebon?”
Before Ebon could open his mouth, Eagle Eye suddenly stepped between the two. “Yes, Rainbow, he is.”
Rainbow’s blue brow furrowed.
Eagle’s eyes remained firm, resolute.
At last, Rainbow blinked, her ears drooping slightly. She closed her eyes, sighed… and then smiled. “That sounds great.” She reached forward and flicked the edge of his violet mane. “You should consider adding a streak to that.” With a swivel of her hooves, she joined Roarke on the ship’s stern.
Eagle Eye, meanwhile, blinked, fluffing his mane as he glanced curiously at a few of the silken strands. He gave Ebon a glance, and the fellow stallion shrugged with an innocent smile.
“Whelp, Gray Smoke isn’t getting any brighter,” Rainbow said as she perched besides Roarke. “Ready to shove off?”
“You got a bearing?”
Rainbow Dash squinted out the hangar’s exit. She saw the lavender glow like a sliver of dim light in the distance. “Yup.”
“Then shove away,” Roarke muttered. “You’re the expert on this cross-country long distance winging. I’ll just follow you in my missile sight and pretend not to have a violent flashback to one of Pestiferous’ notorious clan battles.”
Rainbow sighed. “At this rate, we’re gonna paint the mountains red instead of purple…” With a grunt she kicked off the stern and glided out the hangar exit. Roarke followed with a burst of her thrusters. Together, the mares made for the starlight horizon, bending around so that they were gliding due west.
The crew lonesomely waved them on. Belle exhaled heavily and leaned her head on Pilate’s shoulder. She closed her eyes and murmured, “Blessed Spark, imbuer of harmony, please keep Kera at peace, wherever she is.”
Let's ride!
Time to get a wiggle on, people. We got crazed zealots to smash!
Fifty pushups, ):(. Make it hurt so good. Knock 'em out!
Ohh, they're going to do some major ass-kicking!
Roarke, grab her tail!
ADVENTUUUURE!
The way these things go, it's always the kid that gets kidnapped. The heroes rally, and hunt down the kidnappers and kick their asses. Calling it now, Dash and Khao fight to the death. Probably on a catwalk or something.
Painting the mountains red, painting the mountains red, with Roarke and Dash upon the path they'll surely make them dead.
Away they gooooooo!
Go get 'em, guys!
I think Props knows. She did that deliberately.
Rainbow giving EE fashion advice? What kind of backwards place is this Gray Smoke?
And now to see what Kera's up to.
Reader who doesn't read the comments: Even though they've come a long way, there's still some friction between RD and Roarke, and the tension of the situation isn't helping...
Reader who does read the comments: lawlz, oh IC, you silly, silly writer.
I.... I said that fan club thing... oh well, I'm sure some one else did to... time to dive back into my lake of self pity
Flight of the Valkyrie?
if what they said is true that it'll take them a week to catch up, wouldn't that be more than enough time for Shell to reach Gray Smoke? o.0
And... Belle just killed Kera.
I hope Roarke has Valve's Rocket Launcher installed. I want to see the fan club in giblets.
Or, Kera beating the shit out of them.
3297688 I have the eeriee feeling that when Rourke and RD catch up to the Cult, they'll find an empty ship, and when they reach the last room, they'll find the bloodied corpses of the Heralds and Kera on top, nonchalantly skimming the book and saying: "What took ya' so long?"
3296505That's okay. And yeah, you could be right...I'm just bit sure...(Also, I noticed that your spelling has been deteriorating over the past few days. Any...um...reason for that, I guess?)
3296782You achieved Dashie status.
gifif.com/tags/26162/slow-clap
Time for a Marathon.
And here we go. Here's to more gorgeous scenery!
Would it be possible for Pilate to have Derpy eyes at this moment?
Cue Kera making her captives miserable.
Gesundheit.
And through this little adventure of theirs, we fill finally learn
if Rainbow prefers top or bottommore about the cult's profound knowledge of the Spark.Awww...
3297108
3297837 That's actually plausible. Kera is kerazy.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Alright, cool. They're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. We can only hope they're strong enough to take on the cult nice they reach Oz, though...one on one, I think Rainbow will be fine going after the leader These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
And the next leg of the epic and possibly ill-fated adventure begins! Who knows, maybe Roarke and Rainbow will actually have some normal conversations throughout this little bonding exercise...
Or they'll just argue the whole time to try and drown out the sexual tension. Either one.
Also, Props is a troll. I would expect nothing less.
I don't get how you hint at ships and then I automatically like them, regardless of how little attention the story as a whole pays to romance in general. Skill, you has it.
Well, the next few chapters are bound to be interesting. Maybe I can make it through a few more tonight - onward!
Since dash=spark
that last sentence has more then a touch of the uncomfortable.
then again, bell's mind-diving, religious figure appointing, desperate multi-story cling for survival has ensured that her relationship to rainbow is kind of uncomfortable by default, so meh.
3296518 I love you so much for this reference to internet pop culture!
Let's do this. Also, since Dash is the Spark, Belle is technically praying to dash.
-Spirit
Onward to . . . Hell!
Allow me to crash this moment -troll face-
3296674 great song! love the immortal ace combatt series!
The gruesome twosome depart or whatever!
Dig the swell RainProps moment.
Dangit, Skirts, you get rauchier with ever passing chapter.
Also, it never occurred to me: EE is kinda the hybrid of Twilight and Rarity. Rarity was the most obvious (whom I didn't even notice in him until a few chapters ago), but he's got that Twilight shine as well...
In many ways this song kinda fits the entire story from Austraeoh to here....
She's been fighting Discord for control of her mind, she's running out of time...come to think of it, this song (if you pay close attention to the lyrics) could easily represent many of Rainbow's inner problems
5868319
Imploding colon and shortsskirtsandexplosions are the same person???
I'm suddenly starting to ship EE and Ebon Mane. I call my Ship EagleMane, Anyone who sees this comment is welcome aboard.
5888942 Yes, they are.
People may be ragging on the cultists, but they aren't really evil, just overzealous and baldy misguided, and that's a rather unfortunate situation.
I have so many bad feelings from a few lines in this chapter. I hope the quest goes well, but to instances of these kinds of lines really make me worry.
Really though, you can't tell me that those kinds of lines, said twice in one chapter, don't raise some red flags for ya. It's like Imre's exceedingly subtle hint in Innavedr. Damn I hope I'm wrong and just paranoid.
~SolidFire
That diaphragm line cracked me up. Also, I'm picturing Belle giving EE exactly the streak Rainbow is thinking of just to take her mind off things and mess with Rainbow's head a little...
6777277
I so hope she does. Although I've been picturing him with that mane / tail streak this whole time. Since it was kinda hammered in that he was a Twilight doppelganger. Kind of weird that it's pointed out that he's missing the one thing he needs to complete his look.
6247276 baldy misguided? Voldemort?
Hey now, we bronies aren't *that* bad. Most of us. Usually.
Do I sense a new ship on this ship?
Alright! Its a plan, now lets get to making it happen. Move out, double time
05/21/2017 02:21 UTC
A bounty Hunter to the bitter end I see~
What a comforting thought.
You must sleep like a baby, Roarke.
That is Scootaloo's job to run the fan club, not Khao's
09/06/2019
20:31 UTC