"Timesssssssh are changing, young Roarke," Lady Pestiferous said. She gestured towards herself with an elongated, trembling limb. "Hckkkktt... My good health is gradually leaving me."
Roarke's lenses remained still within her skull. "Please, say it isn't so," she droned.
"Sssssshadly, it isssssh," Pestiferous replied. "Even a Top Shhhhhpear getsssssh dull with age." She looped her end of the chain on a hook of rusted metal. The stallions at the foot of her throne exhaled with mute relief. "The time will come when another will be called to fill the bloodshhhhhcape left by Sshhhearo."
With a deep breath, Roarke uttered with a nod, "And so you have considered two choices."
"Have I, now?" Pestiferous' mucousy eyes narrowed on the armored mare below her. "And jusssssht who might those be?"
"High Blade Terra, for one," Roarke said. She fidgeted slightly, and it was in a sullen tone that she added, "Myself, for another."
"You sshhhhhpeak with such remorssssshe, young daughter," Lady Pestiferous remarked. After a hacking wheeze, she uttered, "Ishhh it that the warrior has died insssssshide you? Hckkkkt!"
"There is nothing left to kill," Roarke retorted. Her jaw was firm as she said, "I have much blood left to be shed."
"And yet you do not leap upon coming to thissssssh epiphany? Were you not insulting Terra just a few ssssssshecondssssh ago? Ssssshurely you know that you both are just as much competitorssssssh as you are comradessssh."
"I do know that, my Lady," Roarke remarked, her voice undulating under the hint of a growl. "I also know that if Terra were here in my place, she would promise all sorts of ways to murder me in my sleep in order to prove herself to you."
"And do you not wish to prove yourssssshelf as well, Roarke most rare?"
Roarke said, "If you ask that I provide some sort of evidence that I am capable for the task, I would like to think that my years of bounty hunting and survivalism have more than proven that."
"Hckkk-Snkkkk!" Pestiferous coughed again, only this time there was something melodic to the wretched noise, almost as if her aching thoughts were poured into the gesture. When she spoke next, it was as if a roll of thunder was pouring out from behind a cloud of muffled laughter. "How interessssshting a warrior you are, daughter Roarke. You are so busy bloodying the proverbial sshhhhpear that I wonder if you sssshimply want to avoid cutting with it altogether."
"My Lady, what you are proposing would mean a dramatic change to me, Searo's Hold, and everything," Roarke said, bowing low. "My restraint is simply a means of my expressing caution."
"Yes, but it is entirely possible to be too cautioussssssh. For too long have the daughterssssh and ssssshisters of Ssssshearo held themselves at bay. There will come a time, before my death or after, when the sssshhhpear must be bloodied beyond the boundariesssssh that contain us, or else Sssshearo's glory might be ssssshtifled indefinitely. Hckkk!"
Roarke gazed up at her, her lips pursed. "What... do you mean by that, my Lady?"
"What I sssssshheek is not just a sssshhhuccessor, but a revolutionary. Sssssshhomepony who will show the world just what is the truth wrath of Ssssshhhearo, so that the bloodscape ssssshall not falter."
Roarke shifted uncomfortably, glancing left and right across the hall. "And... what exactly do you have in mind?"
"There issssssh sssshhomething you possesssssshhh that High Blade Terra does not," Pestiferous said, her eyes narrowing above her mask. "And that is an entire life's worth of accumulated knowledge on the batardlandssssssh of Ledo."
Roarke's lenses retracted as her jaw dropped. "You... you wish to invade?"
Lady Pestiferous wheezed. She slapped her hoof against her throne. A few seconds later, a resounding hiss emanated from behind. A large door opened to a circular platform behind where she was seated.
"Come with me, child," Pestiferous said. Like an enormous crustacean, her spindly limbs picked her up from the throne and carried her across the way. "There isssssshh a test that must be endured."
"A test?" Roarke stammered, suddenly breathless. She glanced nervously at the chamber behind the throne. "My Lady, if you would have me fight somepony for your honor—"
"Ssssssshhheriously, young daughter..." Pestiferous paused to squint at the warrior. "Who sssshhaid anything about you fighting?"