Dull, quiet vibrations.
Kera's eyes opened to darkness. She was lying in the cot of her sleeping quarters inside the Noble Jury.
More gentle vibrations.
She stirred, sitting up. Rubbing her eyes and muzzle with a forelimb, she blinked blearily across the cramped compartment. Her ears twitched, and she craned her neck towards the floor.
Silence... more silence... then vibrations once more...
Kera took a shuddering breath. Pensively, she crept out of the bed and padded across the metal floor. Sliding the door open, she stuck her head out into the thin hallway of the ship's middle deck. The corridor was empty and dark, and the dull noises continued from below.
Determined, the filly slipped out of her compartment and trotted briskly towards the bow, brushing past door after door to tiny chambers with various ponies slumbering within. When she reached the vertical crawlspace at the front of the Jury, she climbed down it slowly so as not to make any noise with her rattling little hooves.
She landed on the bottom deck, and a loud noise emanated from the observation room, but it wasn't what woke her up. Peeking her head in, Kera saw a porous patch of starlight wafting through the windows and illuminating Rainbow Dash's slumbering figure. The pegasus was draped undaintily across a swaying hammock, her mouth sawing the air violently with continuous snores.
Kera blinked. Calmly, she turned around and faced the thick door to the navigation room. The dull vibrations that had woken her were reverberating from within. Using Rainbow's snores to mask her hooftrots, she quietly approached the door, bit her lip, and slid it open just a crack. Almost instantly, the dull thuds solidified in the form of Pilate's and Belle's upset voices.
Inside the lush interior, Belle was pacing furious circles. The zebra sat with his back to the table of maps and cartographer instruments, facing her.
"...and I'm just saying that we should have a talk with her! We haven't been seeing face to face with Rainbow since we came here, and I think it's time that it was amended!"
"Yes, and what?!" Belle growled, her chestnut eyes fierce and angry. "Tell her that we have to make a decision between her and Kera?! That we love one more than the other?!"
Pilate shook his head with an exasperated sigh. "This is not a contest over who we love more, Bellesmith! It never was!"
"Well, it certainly feels like it! You know, we could have skipped this town entirely and none of this would have been an issue!"
"How so?! Because nopony would have been the wiser?!" Pilate frowned. "You know we couldn't let that happen to Kera—"
"No, you couldn't have that happen to Kera!" Belle pointed with an accusatory hoof. "It was your idea in the first place!"
"Belle..."
"You forced it upon me! You forced it upon the Jury! And you forced it on Kera!"
Pilate stood up. "I wanted Kera to have a chance to find closure!"
"No, you just wanted to get rid of her! Face it, Pilate! You never gave yourself a chance to get to know her! You've kept her at hoof's distance and—"
"You're right! You're right—I have kept a distance from her! But it's not because I disliked the filly in any respect! Far from the truth! I cherish her and I want what's best for her! It's just that—"
"What?"
"I figured from the start that she wouldn't be a permanent member of our crew. It's positively sinful to throw her in harm's way over and over again, so long as we're pledged to follow Rainbow Dash to a new home away from this land!"
"So what you're telling me is that you chose from day one to be more loyal to Rainbow Dash than Kera?!"
"Belle, darling, so long as we're on this journey it is about Rainbow Dash, and it always will be! But you and I both know that it won't last forever!"
"I know that, Pilate—"
"Do you, beloved?! She's dying, Belle! At some point, the pegasus who saved us is going to perish from the chaos that's inside her!"
Kera blinked through the doorway. Her mouth fell agape as her ears drooped. She cast a nervous glance at the observation room behind her, then peered once more into the navigation room.
Belle stood in place, shivering, as Pilate continued. "Unless some miraculous power of Austraeoh restores her to a far more vibrant state, she is only going to succumb to her affliction. It may not be here and now, but it'll likely be sometime during the trip over the Frozen Sea or beyond. Belle, I know you love Rainbow Dash. I care for her deeply too, and I owe her my life. But an unspoken truth that I've held since we first set out from Blue Shelf is that the role of Eljunbyro is to be a temporary one! I don't rightly expect Rainbow Dash to reach the Midnight Armory on the dark side of the world, and if you asked her, I would suspect she feels the same too."
"We're her fr-friends, Pilate. She needs us by her side... she... she d-deserves us!"
"I know, Belle," Pilate said with a nod. "And I would very much like to be with her until the end. But the best thing possible in that scenario... would be her end." His face grew long as he said, "The greatest gift we can give Rainbow Dash is the same gift that she has given us. Loyalty."
Belle sat down in the center of the room, sniffling. Her eyes glistened as she murmured, "But... But Kera...?"
"We can give her a home, Belle. Not just any home, but her home. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't thought of that since first suggesting our visit to Lerris. But, at the same time, I didn't want to force it on her." He hesitated, shuddered, and lowered his head. "And I didn't want to force it on you, either..."
Belle tilted her head up, mouth agape. "What... wh-what do you mean, Pilate?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "What I mean is... well... think about it, Bellesmith." He tilted his head back up to form a weak smile. "Kera's home could very well be our home too."
Belle blinked. "You mean... stay with her here?" She squeaked, "In Lerris?"
"I can't be the only one who sees a lot of wisdom in what Golden Happenstance says," Pilate remarked. "For Kera's sake, for our sake—"
"But what about Rainbow?" Belle stammered. She sniffled as a tear ran down her face. "Pilate, she n-needs us."
"I know, Belle—"
"She wouldn't h-have made it this far if it weren't for Eljunbyro..."
Pilate shuffled across the floor and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "But, perhaps, she needs something even more." He smiled. "And that's to know that her friends are safe and alive.
Belle grimaced. She ran a shaking hoof through her mane and quivered. "I... I don't like this, Pilate..."
"I'm not entirely fond of it either, beloved."
"You're..." She whimpered and shook her head. "Y-you're asking me to decide between the pony I love as a sister... and th-the filly I love as a daughter..."
Pilate swallowed a lump down his throat and leaned in to nuzzle her. "Oh, Belle." He smiled painfully, kissed her cheek, and murmured, "The day I first heard your voice, I felt as if the Spark itself was embracing me. Then I learned that I hadn't died from the zeppelin crash, and instead you had given me a new lease on life... and the vision to grace your beauty with. I cherished you like an angel, and the last thing I wanted was for my frailties to complicate your existence, or for any pain to enter your life. I... I feel as though I have failed in many ways..."
"Pilate, please, don't—"
"I could have been so much stronger for you, Belle. In many ways, I still struggle with this. But... but here and now? I don't think the decision falls upon me. But I don't think it falls upon you either."
Belle gazed at him with a quivering lip.
He said, "We need to talk to Rainbow Dash, Belle. We need to be up front and honest with her. We need to tell her how we see Kera's future... and h-how bleakly we see hers."
"And th-then what?"
Pilate took a deep breath. "The best case scenario—if you ask me?" He bit his lip, then said, "We leave Lerris, follow Rainbow Dash until we can follow her no more... and then we return."
Belle blinked. "Return... t-to Kera?"
Pilate nodded. "But..." He winced once more. "With the possibility of surviving the trip back on our own... with Rainbow Dash gone?"
Belle shuddered, hanging her head.
Pilate leaned in and nuzzled her.
At last, Belle quietly sobbed: "We h-have to choose..."
"Not just us, Bellesmith," Pilate whispered. "But Rainbow as well. It's time Austraeoh and Eljunbyro resolved itself, once and for all."
"I... I-I just don't know how t-to go about doing it, Pilate..." Belle stammered and squeaked, "I just don't."
"We'll find out, somehow," he said in a wavering tone. He gulped. "Together."
The two held each other in a quiet huddle, ignorant of the space in the door to the observation room. They didn't notice when it slid silently shut, nor did they notice the filly on the other side vanishing like a shadow.