Rainbow's eyes twitched, spotting the crimson glint of the Noble Jury's skystone from a distance. Her heart fell as she saw the vessel plunging, diving to meet the collapse of the smoldering goblin battleship. In a blur, she brought her sound stone to her lips and sputtered: “Jury, this is Rainbow Dash! You there?”
Silence, save the biting chill of the wind in Rainbow's ears.
She gnashed her teeth, flapping her wings harder. “Belle! Come on, Ding-Dong, answer me!” Her breaths came in frantic little spurts. “Pilate? Props?” She gulped. “Zaid? Gimme something, guys!”
The leyline airwaves crackled, but all Rainbow got was static.
“Darn it...” She seethed, nostrils flaring as she accelerated to her feathers' breaking point. Skyscrapers and towers whizzed by underneath her. “What are you guys doing? Don't be idiots at the last second! Don't be—”
“Crkkk! Rainbow?”
With a gasp, Rainbow hollered into the soundstone. “Jury! This is Rainbow! What are—?”
“Sorry, Rainbow. It's Booster. On board the Tarkington.”
“Booster?!” Rainbow wheezed. “What the heck is up with the Jury?! Why are they flying towards the battleship?!”
“Because the Tarkington's too far away, and there's only one possible chance at steering that mess away from the citizens below.”
Rainbow blinked, the edges of her eyes tearing.
“They... they knew the risk, Rainbow. We all did.”
Rainbow frowned, snarling into the whipping winds. “Like Hell. More like we knew how to be awesome.” She gestured towards the Lounge Spheres trailing after her and burst forward with a clap of rippling thunder.
The entire cockpit rattled as Zaid soared directly towards the crooked hull of the battleship's port side. The goblin ship was thirty seconds away from cruising into the apartments below. Bursts of leaking skystone billowed out from its exposed bulkheads.
“We're almost there,” Zaid sputtered.
“Easy... easy...” Bellesmith droned.
“Mr. Zaid, you must slow down,” Pilate insisted. “We're attempting to steer the ship away, not impale it.”
“Hey, I gave up suicide runs when I ditched the Herald,” Zaid said. He then gulped. “Or so I thought...”
“Zaid—” Belle grunted.
“Right.” Zaid sputtered into the intercom. “Ease us down, Blondie! All forward steam thingamabobbers, if you can handle it!”
“Okie dokie lokie! Firing the forward thingamabobbers!”
The lavender tome pulsed and fluctuated like a strobe light.
Bursts of steam hissed and whistled out of multiple, ruptured consoles.
Her coat slick with sweat, Props nevertheless fought the blistering heat, reaching deep into a mess of pipework to twirl a bunch of valves and dials. Her goggles fogged up instantly, so—with a grunt—she tossed the article away completely in order to better see what she was doing.
A wall of metal instruments exploded behind her, forcing the mare to grunt with surprise.
“Scrkkk! You okay down there, Blondie?!”
“Yup yup yup!” She nevertheless grimaced, casting a forlorn look through the shattered doorway ahead of her. Where the Navigation room had once been, she instead saw apartment rooftops and scurrying citizens. Then, at last, there was a plume of smoke, followed by a pulsating skystone aura and the looming, battered bulkheads of the goblin battleship.
“We could really use the air brakes right around now!”
“You got it, Zaidy Waidy!” Props stretched, stretched, and finally reached a lever past a bent array of pipes. She pulled the thing, issuing a loud clatter through the groaning steamworks. The entire ship lurched backwards. “That should do it! Tugboat party time!”
“Goddess I love that girl,” Zaid hissed out the side of his muzzle, gripping the controls of the ship with two tight hooves. “This is it.” His eyes narrowed. “Come on.”
Belle and Pilate embraced each other as the ship cruised ever so slowly forward, fighting huge tufts of steam jetting out its bow.
The burning hull of the Cartel's descending battleship loomed closer... closer...
Down below, Val Roans were frantically evacuating the buildings where they had previously huddled to avoid the air battle overhead. Bucks, does, and fawns gaped at the burning sky, gasping in fright as they galloped north in desperate streams. It was far too late for a proper escape. Chunks of shrapnel fell in hot rain around them as the air filled with a pungent fume of skystone exhaust.
The battleship loomed closer, scraping the rooftop of the tallest apartment structure. Lengths of bronze metal buckled, threatening to peel off and collapse on the deer within seconds. Citizens yelped, cowering in the darkening shadow.
Just then, the Noble Jury swooped in with a pulse of bright skystone, illuminating the hazy urbanscape. Its bow came into contact with the battleship, producing a thunderous thud that rippled across every elk's ears. The Val Roans looked up, blinking in surprise. With rapid speed, the battleship was lifted up in time to clear the apartment complex, although several more bronze towers loomed to the immediate south.
“Steady... steady,” Belle insisted.
“Blondie!” Zaid spoke above the rattling bulkheads. “Fire up the skstyone! Now!”
“Firing!”
Pilate tilted his head about as the vessel filled with a deep hum. The ship shook, its consoles buckling and sparking under the pressure. A deep crimson light permeated every niche as the ponies felt their manes rising on end with static electricity.
At last, the windshield before the cockpit cracked down the center, spiderwebbing in a dozen fractured directions. Zaid had to crane his neck to see the result of his piloting maneuvers. Through the glass fissures, he saw the nose of the Noble Jury breaking, collapsing, and yet the ship pressed on, shoving defiantly against the hull of the Cartel's burning metal behemoth.
“Aaaaaaaand sexy times!”
Belle, Pilate, and Zaid gasped as the Noble Jury surged forward.
FWOOOSH! The skystone's magical leylines aligned, covering both the Jury and the goblin dreadnought in a bright red aura. Swiftly, both vessels cruised above and beyond the looming towers that lined the southern edge of the Val Roan capital.
Citizens, who just seconds before were embracing their grim fate, now stood tall on their hooves, sobbing and giggling with relief. A loud cheer filled the air as the smoke and flames dissipated in the wake of the two ships' exit. Families hugged each other and parents nuzzled their fawns as they gazed with thankful expressions at the departing sight.
“Bloody Hell...” Prowse gasped, looking out the far edge of his cockpit as he struggled to steer the Tarkington around in a wide turn. “They did it! Those crazy sodders actually did it!”
“Woohoo!” Booster Spice pumped his forelimb, grinning wide. “Way to go, Jurists! Yeah!”
“H-hey!” Basso stepped up, smiling. “Not a bad way to end the day, huh?”
“Uhm...” Zetta's teeth chattered as she grimaced at a flashing array of lights on her console. The stallions turned to glance at her. “I'm... I'm detecting a violent eruption of mana.” She turned to look forlornly at the other three. “The Cartel's engine is losing cohesion.”
“Wait.” Basso blinked. “Does that mean it's gonna—?”
Zetta bit her lip, nodding furiously.
With an iron frown, Prowse reached for his communicator—but Booster had already grabbed it in a bandaged hoof.
“Guys! Get out of there!”
“The goblins' skystone is about to blow! Move! Fly!”
Zaid yanked at the controls. “Don't have to tell me twice—!”
Pilate gasped, clutching Belle as the whole ship rocked. “Mr. Zaid—!”
“Hold on to your plots!” Zaid spat.
Belle shrieked as the ship lurched upwards. The engines were still fully accelerating, forcing the vessel to scraaaaaaaaape along the battered hull of the goblins' battleship. Seconds later, they smashed through a dormant propeller engine, sending chunks of metal scattering across the bow. The Noble Jury plowed on through, charging through a smoky sky as it finally cleared the warship. However, just as it was soaring over the descending vessel—
KAPOWWW! The Cartel's engines exploded, surging a blast wave in every direction, ripe with shrapnel and destructive skystone discharge.
“Gaaaaugh!” Zaid clenched his eyes shut. Two and a half seconds later, he reopened them, surprised to see that the vessel was still in one piece. What's more, the arid landscape was rolling swiftly underneath the Jury at a steadily increasing pace. “What... what in the blue Hell?”
“How are we still in one p-piece?!” Belle exclaimed.
“Everypony, I'm hearing something,” Pilate stammered, ears twitching. “The engine's making a sound it's never made before.”
“Blondie?!”
“Scrkkkt! Did we clear it?”
“We sure did!”
“Good! Cuz we've got something of a nasty booboo down here!”
“Oh yeah?” Zaid gulped, struggling to keep the wayward flight steady. “Just how nasty?”
“The book's shorted out! But its last pulse of energy is still lodged in the skystone!”
“What does that mean, Props?” Belle hollered. “Do we have enough energy to land?”
“No, you don't understand! It's too much energy! The shard carrying us is gonna overload! Any second, and it'll—”
FLASSSSSH! With a blinding pulse of scarlet light, the skystone crystal above the metal gondola caught aflame. Plasma leaked from every jagged crevice as the Noble Jury accelerated at blinding speed, cruising due south at a screaming velocity.
Rainbow saw the bright flash from a distance. She had been just seconds away from matching the Jury's speed, but now it warped completely out of reach. Her jaw dropped as she watched the crumbling vessel's wild trajectory.
The Noble Jury rocketed south. Its wild path was gradually descending, and Rainbow guessed it would be barely a minute or two before it crashed violently into rising mountains to the south.
Something pulsed deep within Rainbow's eyes, a red-on-yellow glint of righteous anger. Her pendant flashed, and she carried herself southward with a valiant shout. The Lounge Spheres attempted to catch up, but something suddenly and violently exploded in front of them, knocking the naga's armada collectively back.
POWWWW!
Haman spun around as his fellow crew members flinched all across their battleship. High above, a prismatic halo of light erupted in every direction, carrying with it an enormous salvo of deaffening noise that shook the very mountains of Val Roa.
“Was...” One imp gulped. “...was that our sister ship?”
Haman's greasy eyes narrowed. A bullet of spectral energy soared outward from the explosion's epicentered, carried southward on furious blue wings.
“No,” he said. “But whatever it was, we'd best get out of here.” His brow furrowed. “Now.”
reads title
Go get 'em, Dashie...
No pushups this round, ):(. Everyone hold your breath...
R.I.P. Nancy Jane 2012-2015
5556858 What is this, the pre-Collapse era? Obviously the new dating system uses the first Nightmare as its origin, and the current date is 1003 AN. OBVIOUSLY.
5556873
Not using a Pre-RD and Post-RD system.
Sometimes I worry about you, Swanny
rest in fucking pieces
Best Young Fliers Competition, and Rainbow Dash better live up to her position once again.
Number 42, Its time to let your Heart Of Gold shine.
At least the Jury has had a Whale of a time.
And for those of you thinking, deja vu?
Dont forget the Petunias.
I wonder if Floydien ever stocked the Jury with parachutes...
5556890 I've always been a Before/After Ford kinda guy myself... But then that's something completely different.
5556963
Nice reference.
...nope
nopenopenopenopenopenopenope
And that's the first reasonable idea Haman has had in a very long time.
We will miss you Nancy Jane. You truly were the most Noble of Juries.
This can go one of two ways: Rainbow makes it and manages to save everybody (or maybe not everybody), or everyone involved dies horribly, excluding RD.
Considering that this is IC, I don't know which one is gonna happen.
bs
Nancy...please...don't go. Floydian still needs you.
Ok, so we're at the part where things start falling apart. Next comes an ass-whuppin, and then we get to see who survives the crash.
Oh, and hello Haman. Roarke's back. Better get the good china, because she brought friends.
Well, I was waiting for something like this to happen. I knew the Jury wasn't indestructible -- it's been torn apart and blown up more times than the starship Enterprise. So I figured something was always around the corner.
Only question now is: With Rainbow's flagship gone, will the crew all file aboard the Tarkington and continue on alongside their captain, or is this where the Noble Jury splits up? Rainbow will have to consider the crew surviving the crash a miracle (assuming they all do), and I think she'd take their safety under immediate consideration as a result of it, and at last fulfill her promise to Pilate and Belle. Everypony else is alive and kicking... somehow. Job well done, but it seems time for her to let go.
What do you plan to do now, IC?
5557097
No, Floyd does not. It's time he let that crutch go. It cost him Simon.
5557223
I suspect Rainbow Dash will take this opportunity to go on her own and start her journey anew like in the first book. That doesn't mean others will try to follow and whether or not they can succeed. Or as a final act of desperation or unexpected action, RD loses the pendant and continues on her own in a different form. This will force others to follow her because she will need the pendant. That's a theory.
She still has an underground chamber to visit before she can continue to the other side. Maybe a gift will be waiting there...
Well there is a pretty good chance they will all survive this which is really good. Give it every thing you got Rainbow
If the story so far has taught us anything, its that Jurists can are like thouse who enter the god teir, they can only die if their deaths were heroic, or just. This might be our first major character death since Shell bit the dust...
I don't think I've ever been so sad over a fictional inanimate object biting the dust.
Also, poor Floydien.
I smell the beginnings of the Noble Jury - B.
*Reads title* Aww crud. Also...SONIC RAINBOOM!!! WHOO!!!
5557325
In truth, I'm getting a little fed up with the "Rainbow Dash is dying" plot device. I feel like it's run its course and either needs to be neutralized in some way (maybe when she reaches the "dark side", it'll calm down now that it's in its element?) or resolved entirely. Can we have another reason that she's going to the other side of the plane, please? Not to be overly critical -- her condition has produced some of the more nail-biting moments in the books so far, and it's kept the suspense going pretty well. But it's time for a change, I think.
The whole "Discordification" process feels like it's fallen by the wayside and hasn't really popped up as "urgent" all that much lately, except when certain environmental factors become involved. I think there was a grand total of one actual seizure that put Rainbow's life in peril in this book to the best of my recollection. We've already had a deific being reach out to her and rescue her from certain death once before and has been implied to speak to her on occasion. Can this figure bring Rainbow Dash back into alignment to the point where she doesn't need her pendant anymore? Can we explore more than the little tidbits we've been given? We've heard about this Trinary War several times now. Are we going to see more of it?
About sixty chapters to go. It could revolve around Rainbow Dash coming to terms with leaving the others behind and starting on this deity-figure's path. It could revolve around the war against the Sarosians, or around... well, pretty much anything at this point. Skirts has a way of presenting two possibilities, and then pulling a third possibility out of thin air that no one thought of. With victory assured, the Noble Jury appearing to be in ruins, and everypony delivered safely from harm, it seems like an opportune time to, as you said, start fresh. She's upheld her promise to her new friends, brought them safely to deliverance, and now she can rest easy, knowing that nothing is coming for them.
It seems like a distinct possibility anyway. But Skirts has surprised us before...
rekt
5557860
'In truth, I'm getting a little fed up with the "Rainbow Dash is dying" plot device.'
Perhaps we could scrap the whole irritating East thing too; and that harmony nonsense.
5558299
You missed the point. This plot thread hasn't developed past a basic premise since Austraeoh until the very end of Urohringr. Now, we have a divine figure that seems to be capable of banishing this chaotic influence over her. It's the first major step in this plot thread since this whole thing started, and we're nearly done with the sixth book. Isn't it time we explore more in-depth what Rainbow's affliction is and how to go about fixing it?
5558399 I was just being sarky :P
5558416
You do see my point though, I hope. Rainbow's "Discordification" thus far has really been nothing more than a convenient inconvenience. Skirts really hasn't done that much with it yet, except use it as an out-of-left-field plot twist and as a tool to craft artificial drama. Admittedly, it's good drama, but at the same time it's starting to feel forced and obsolete, at least to me. Hopefully, this little incident is a precursor to a change taking place, as this instance seemed to imply that it'd strengthened her instead of weakening her as it once did.
Oh look, an extremely foreshadowing title that is not a clickbait. Take heed, almost every site on the Internet!
*Starts preparing for an inevitable death of a main character*
5557325
It's good to see you've caught up again. Welcome back!
5558299 Hasn't the whole flying east thing been scrapped already?
5557860
5558299
5558478
I agree and disagree. More than anything, I keep reading to see how IC solves situations that keep nagging at the audience. Sometimes he has failed, but more often than not he has gotten creative. The actual story and world-building has shifted into the background for me and now I read to see how the author presents events and situations to characters he has little control over anymore.
Reader participation through commenting is so much better than any book club.
5558975
Thanks.
Its not over yet
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091208121960/onepiece/it/images/f/f0/Funerale_Going_Merry.png
Will somepony die? Those in danger right now are Pilate/Belle, Zaid/Props. Can we sink any of those ships? I don't want to.
5557860
5558299
5559202
Well, you are right in the aspect of the chaos in Rainbow being a somewhat convenient means of moving the plot along. Put it in tandem with destroyed elements of harmony and the whole midnight armory thing and it's a complete set. (Especially since Celestia and Luna basically admitted that the elements were no longer all that neccessary with Discord destroyed. At best, even if Rainbow succeeds, she's basically just filling time, plugging a hole in the ground, and then dying.)
Then there's the Austraeoh business. Ancient pegasi prophecy of an east bound horse magically unifying a broken world. And East happens to be the direction she picked.(which means that at the end of everything, she gets to fly into the sunset in a slightly cliche' manner.)
But while they are both convenient plot devices used to force drama, remember two things: first, they DO create good drama, or none of us would have gone this far. Second, would curing Dash really change anything plotwise at this point? At this point, It's more of a minor annoyance than a driving plot device.
5556892
You paid for the whole seat ladies and gentlemen, but you only need the edge!
5556982 Actual footage of Hamam. i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/727/910/577.gif
Caught up again.
All right, let's see... Thoughts on the current plotline:
Overall, I liked the Val Roa story. It showed the Jury crew working in synergy better than ever before. It ended the Chrysalis-in-name-only plotline. It introduced a new region and culture that was then saved from whatever trouble was plaguing it a-la Austraeoh. As has happened several times before, though, this seems like it's drawing to the breaking of the Jury and everybody going their separate ways while the story follows Rainbow onward. The Tarkington crew just adds to that impression. This looks like it's building to a break in story, the end of a major arc. The thing is, as I said, this has happened before, and it never resolved then.
Honestly, I don't want it to resolve now, either. Not because I love the Jury crew (I don't), but because with the growth we've seen of the characters, if several of them just dropped off at this point, without seeing the whole quest through, it feels like a disservice to them. There's more to be had from them. Roarke has grown, but I don't think her arc is anywhere near completion. Belle and Pilate could have been happily dropped off at Lerris, but we all know how that went. Now? Now they're growing in new directions, being forced into new identities. That's not done yet. That's barely been started. And finally, Zaid's true nature hasn't been revealed yet (he's not what he seems, the foreshadowing's been there since his introduction, but exactly what he is and how he plays into it all is still up in the air. Though it is possible that the author just abandoned that thread. It's been done before...)
The rest of the crew, well, I guess they're good to go. Josho and Props never really had a plot to themselves. Ebon and EE are in a happy place, so they can be left there. Floydian is about to lose his most precious thing (maybe, if chapter titles are worth anything), and he's already in his homeland with family and a former lover. He's got some juice left in him, and the loss of the Jury could spur greater character development, but it's also an okay place to dump him. Kera's a sub-character. Her plot depends on the plots of others. She could stay or go and, really, it wouldn't make a difference to how much story material was available.
So, we can see a break coming, but at least some parts of it shouldn't be broken yet. We can only see how the author chooses to go this time.
As to the Val Roa plotline itself, as I said I liked it. One thing that didn't sit well with me was, as always, Chrysalis. She is essentially a different character from her show-counterpart (like RD herself), and I think that has lessened her greatly in this story. Her brood got taken down with a deus-ex-machina pendant-burst from RD, which is par for the course with these stories, but still lazy. Now the queen of the changelings herself is... reforming her ways? A creature that has, for untold centuries, been feeding off the hate and fear of others. A creature that CHOSE to feed that way instead of from positive emotions. She's still bigger and meaner than RD and Ebon, and we know how little she cares for her brood (as seen most recently in the dead hive up at the northern border). Sure, she's on the run but she's still got an army of living weapons in her control. Weak though she is, all she needs to do is start targeting civilians everywhere and have her troops scatter through the city and kill indiscriminately, and she'd have a smorgasbord of panic to recharge with. Even if she can't take RD in a straight-up fight right now (and with how bizarrely resilient RD is in this story, that's a fair assumption), she could evade long enough to get some energy back and escape to plot again. It just doesn't make sense for her to decide to rip her horn off and play nice now. She can still win, she just has to remember that, as an immortal being, she can play the long game.
IF there had been some indication earlier that RD's harmonic blast had affected her more than just severing her from her changelings, I'd be more ready to buy it. If there were some discussion about it realigning something that had been thrown off in her psyche. If, perhaps, there was some talk about the General's love for Midnight feeding into that realigned place and allowing her long-shriveled heart to start to beat again... well that would be different. None of that was present. I assume that, if the Experiment were allowed to be planned out and edited, this is one of the things that would be added in (just like Lerris would be removed).
In any case, there are many chapters left in Yaerfaerda. Perhaps enough to address all these issues. We shall see.
5559053
All the cool people are flying south
5561153
Personally, I think that's what she's doing.
"Hmmm, seems like they wrecked my plans, I bet I can play the victim and have them come with me to the Dark Side of the Plane, I'm sure Tchern and I can use them in some way."
And regarding the development of the rest of the story, I have some theories, that mostly comply with what has been especulated so far.
Roarke is going to stay and rule over the goblins.
Belle, Pilate and Kera may stay in ValRoa.
Eagle Eye may stay with Ebon and his mother in law, and Josho will stick with him too.
My namesake and Props probably will go with Uncle Prowse.
And I think that Floydien may stay with his sister and Midnight Bastion.
I believe that book 6 will end with Rainbow Dash alone, just like in book 1.
And book 7 will start the same way.
Or probably not, who really knows what's going on in IC's head. As far as we know, at the end of Yaerfaerda, the Austraeoh saga and Appledashey will merge into a single continuity.
dang
Come on, Rainbow, you can save them! :rainbowdetermined: I hate this chapter name... :applejacksleepy:
-Spirit
The title made me more emotional then the chapter
5559673
Actually it's the sunrise, and I think it's symbolic (and also a tad cliché) because of how she started, and keeps starting, over.
No one's faster than Rainbow Dash.
The Jury is out...indefinitely.