//------------------------------//
// The Roarke Everypony Needs 
// Story: Odrsjot 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	The mess hall of the Lightning Bearer had been converted into a large interior prison-yard.  All of the tables had been shoved to the side, and in every corner there was a Xonan situated with mana-brimming scimitars.  They eyed the Ledomaritan masses in the center of the chamber with evident disgust.

At the turn of the hour, a side door slid open.  A pair of former-enforcers trotted in, pulling wagons filled with trays of gray porridge.  Several Xonans accompanied them, ushering them along at sword point.  The tattooed stallions shouted, and the soldiers of Ledo acted as unwitting servants, passing the thick slop along to the unenthusiastic passengers.

At one point during the food serving, a wave of turbulence rattled through the chamber.  A Ledomaritan dropped three trays at once, splattering the floor all over with the viscous stuff.

Immediately, a Xonan grunt trotted up, shouting and barking at him.  The Ledomaritan frantically squatted down to clean the mess—only to receive a savage buck to the ribs.  Instead of stopping their comrade, several other Xonans rushed in, kicking and striking with their armored hooves.  This savage act soon turned into a game, with several of the stallions chuckling at the bloody body twitching them in a pile of oatmeal.

"Hey!  He's had enough!" one brave ex-enforcer shouted.  "Let him go already!"

The first Xonan to have inflicted the beating turned around.  He smirked at his comrades, then spun about with a savage hoof to the speaker's cheek.

The stallion fell to the floor, hissing in pain.  His associates ran to his side, only to be urged back by a bright glow of energy.  The stallion looked up in time to greet the oncoming fangs of a translucent serpent.

The Xonan reined the monster in at the last second, allowing its jaws to snap and spit just inches away from the Ledomaritan's muzzle.  "Haak bleen kru mest thriul Ledomulien deek!"

Several other Xonans laughed uproariously.

The Ledomaritan stood his ground, shivering slightly.

The Xonan looked over his shoulder.  Then, with the flickering mana of his summoned beast playing a lightshow against his cold blue eyes, he leaned forward and hissed, "It must eat a lot, even if it must eat its own teeth, Ledomulien."  He snickered as the tattoos shimmered along his upper shoulders and neck.  "It is no longer in the country of Queen, dreit?"  He spat into the ex-enforcer's face, as if disgusted with the forced twisting of his tongue  "Pray to Nagu'n, it must!  Her glory awaits it!"

That said, the Xonan trotted off, marched over the groaning stallion's body, and resumed his watch over the food distribution.

High above, peering through a loose metal panel in the ceiling, a pair of copper lenses glinted—trained on the Xonan with blue eyes.  Seconds passed, and a mare's shadow slinked away, sliding the panel shut in place.





"You need me for what-now?"  Zetta asked.

Dalen took a deep breath from where he stood on the other side of the force field.  "You've been picking up a strange sound emanating from the east up until the Lightning Bearer switched hooves, dreit—?"  He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and re-uttered:  "Correct?"

"Uhhh... yeah?"  Zetta slowly nodded.  "If there's still any of 'Straker' left in ya, buddy, then you know that I made a rapid report on the matter every shift!"

"The past reports of your listening station are not of importance," Dalen said.  "If you attempted to, would you be able to pick up that undulating sound again?"

"In a heartbeat!"  Zetta narrowed her eyes.  "But what the heck brought this up?"

Kera stuck her head out from behind Dalen's body.  She waved her hoof and smiled wide.

"The only thing that you are at liberty to know is that we are requiring your assistance in relocating and then making an assessment of that sound."

"You don't say?"  Zetta glanced at Basso, then folded her forelimbs as she glared out the jail cell.  "And what if I refuse?"

Dalen glared.  "Do not pretend that you are in the position to bargain—"

"Bullcrap!"  Rainbow Dash spoke in, surprising Zetta as she leaned dizzily towards the force field.  "You obviously wouldn't have come here if you didn't need anything!"

"Believe me..."  Dalen glanced at Kera out the corners of his eyes.  "It was not my decision."

"Even still, you're here and you obviously need help!"  Rainbow Dash frowned.  "How about a little bit of tit for tat, sour tits?"

"Hey!"  Zaid chirped.  "Can I steal that?"

Dalen sighed.  "What do you have in mind?"

"She agrees to help you, and you let some of us go!"

Dalen sneered.  "Out of the question!"

"How about she agrees to help you—"  Kera trotted around to face Dalen.  "—and you move them into a better location!"

"Out of the question!"  Dalen shoved Kera aside.

"Don't push her around like that!" Nightshade grunted.

Dalen pointed angrily.  "I'm warning you—"

"Look, I'll do it!" Zetta's voice cracked.

"Zetta..."  Basso began.

Zetta shoved his head back and stood up straight.  "I'll do it.  I'll help you with whatever it is you want me to study.  But you gotta promise me one thing!"  She pointed at the dozen ponies inside the cell with her.  "You keep these ponies safe!  If I screw up, don't take it out on them!  Got it?"

Dalen opened his mouth, lingered, then slowly nodded.  "That sounds like an honorable agreement."  His eyes glared in Rainbow's direction.  "Provided they don't do anything to provoke the wrath of Nagu'n."

"Prick me," Rainbow said, "Do I not kick your ass?!"

"Settle down, sunshine," Nightshade muttered, glaring into the floor.  "This is delicate enough as it is."

"And could you give them decent food for once?"  Zetta pointed.  "Is that too much to ask?"

"Fine," Dalen said.  "It is an agreement."

"So..."  Zetta took a deep breath.  "When do you need my help?"

Dalen gestured towards two of the guards by the lavender book.  They operated the controls and the force fields fell.  "Right now."

Zetta blinked.  "Oh."

"Is that... a problem?"

"Not at all.  Let's... uh..."  Zetta trotted nervously towards the opening in the cell.  "Let's do this."

"Zetta, think this through!" Basso insisted.  He stood up, nearly bumping his bulky head on the ceiling. "There's no telling what they want!"

"It's okay, Basso!"  Zetta smiled back as guards trotted closer to her.  "You're all going to be safe!  I promise!"

"It's you I'm worried about!" Basso murmured with a sad face.  "If you screw up, what's gonna become of you?"

To that, Zetta only bit her lip.  She yelped slightly as she was hoisted viciously away and into the hallway outside.  The guards switched the force field back on with a dull hum.  In the meantime, Kera trotted over to Dalen's side.

"Say, uhm, since I'm here and all, do you mind if I catch up with old friends?"

Dalen sighed.  "I do believe we've talked about this, young one."

"Look, even if them, me, and some magical moose in the flower fields are all heretics, I still owe them my life ten times over.  I mean—whew!—you won't believe how many times they've saved my etched keister from total death and explosions and stuff!"

"I do not need you entertaining any of their brash thoughts—"

"But I told you I owe them!"  Kera bit her lip with a foalish pout.  "Isn't it the honorable thing for me to do?"

Dalen's lined brow furrowed.  "Alright.  Ten minutes."  With a breath, he shuffled out of the room.  "You are learning the ways of your flesh and blood swiftly.  I only wish it were different ways."  He paused beside the guards.  "Hass greim seit thruun thien trentte Xon-Nagu'n."  And then he was gone.

As the guards watched on, Kera swished from side to side, hiding her smile from them as she slithered towards the cell.  "Heeeeeeey, guys!" she murmured beneath her breath.  "How's it hanging?"

Rainbow Dash's jaw was dropped.  As soon as Zaid reached over to her chin, she batted the stallion's hoof away and leaned forward.  "Kid!  Are you hurt?"

Nightshade was by her side.  "Did they damage you in anyway?"

"Did they feed you weird crap?"

"Are they looking after your health?"

Rainbow growled aside at the mare.  "Hey!  I'm the one worried sick for her!"

"By Spark's Flame, you are."

"Shove off!"  Rainbow bumped her in the flank—reeling slightly from the exertion.  "Nnngh!  I mean it!  Get your own foal!"

"I had twelve.  Your friend robbed them from me!"

"How the buck do you have a receipt for twelve kidnapped foals?!"

"Guys!"  Kera snarled, then flashed a look at the guards behind her.  Speaking in a lower tone, she murmured aside, "I'm hoping this thing with Zetta will buy us some time."

"For what, pray tell?" Nightshade murmured back.

"Nothing you're going to do, pincushion head!"  Kera grumbled.  "But isn't this the sort of time when you... y'know..."  Kera gestured towards Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow blinked wearily.  "Do what?"

Zaid leaned in.  "I'm thinking of a joke involving Mick Foaly and the Buck Show's right front hoof."

"Huh?"  Rainbow gave him a double-take, then sneered, "No!  That's not gonna work out for anypony!  Not right now!"

"Why not, Rainbowwww?"  Kera whined breathily.  She flicked her head back towards the glowing runes.  "Is it 'cuz of the book?"

"No, more like because of the evil serpent monster things surrounding us in a giant tin can floating over Xonan territory!" Rainbow hissed.  "Face it, I'm glad that you're on the outside, kiddo, but right now we're going to have to wait on another helpful pony altogether!"

"Helen Horse?" Zaid asked.

"Guess again."

"What?!  I loved her in 'Mane About You!'"






"Unnnngh..."

The Xonan's mouth hung open.  Threads of mane hair swayed on either side of him.

"Mmmmnngh... ughhh..."

Slowly, his blue eyes fluttered open.  He squinted, then tilted his head up... only to realize that he was tilting his head down.

Ashen valleys and jagged mountain peaks loomed belove.  Cold winds blew between the buzzing turbines of red-hot mana engines on either side of his dangling body.

"Aaaah!  Aaaaaa-haaaaaugh!"  He flailed and writhed in panic.  He tossed a sweaty glance at his flanks.  His body was tied to a support strut along the underbelly of the Lightning Bearer, and an empty tranquilizer dart remained embedded in his flank.

Just then, with a roar of thruster engines, a helmet-less Roarke levitated in front of him.

"Huh, well that confirms a long-standing assumption."  Her eye-lenses thrusted in and out.  "Your tattoos turn just as pale as the rest of you."

"Haat threen mraak suln bruut!"  He stammered, dangling helplessly.  "Nnnngh!  Freek jaat thien raas, Searen trentte!"

"Uh uh uh..."  Roarke leaned in, hissing against his quivering muzzle.  "Be a good breeder and talk to my ears, not your bogus serpent god's."

"Nnnngh..."  He merely growled at her.  "Heen traas thien raak—"

She slammed him across the cheek.  "Bad idea."  Before he could breath, she punched him again—savagely this time.  Then a third time.  He was a sputtering mess when she leaned in to growl back, "I'll have you know that I can and will hit you until the marbles in your mouth become paste, so let's spit it out!"

He twitched, glaring at her behind a swolen face.  "It cannot force anything from it, Searen horse!"  His eyes narrowed on her.  "Nagu'n guides its path with Her Song!  Rekk sien muul trent Xon-Nagu'n!"

"Hmmm..."  Roarke nodded.  "Those are some fancy tongues you like using."  She produced a blade out of her forelimb's armor.  Chiiing!  "Let's see which one you choose to scream with."  That said, she sliced the cord fastening him to the hull with one swipe.

"Aaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaah!"  The stallion fell to an agonizing death.

Thwwp!  Roarke shot a metal cable out of her suit and tethered his grasping body at the last second.

"As far as anypony on board knows, you fell into a power manifold and died!  Your fate is mine and mine alone to control!  One drop of this cable, and all you'll ever be is a stain, blessed by Nagu'n!"

"What... Wh-What...?!"  The stallion struggled to look up at her, his blue eyes filled with terror.  "What does it w-want to know?!"

Roarke growled, "Where... are... we... going?!"