Ebon finished pouring a cup of grape juice atop the table. As the cook drew away, Josho's hoof reached in and lifted the glass. The obese stallion held the container below his muzzle, sniffed, and muttered, "Eh... guess it'll have to do." He stood up, facing the rest of the ponies gathered inside the brightly-lit mess hall. "For this toast, I gotta use my own hoof. I'm not about to dirty it with magic. Ya feel me?"
"Mmmm... some of us do, I suppose," Bellesmith said with a smile. Pilate chuckled.
Josho's face was straight and serious as he stood up tall. "A toast... to Elma Boreal," the former enforcer said. "Maybe she wasn't a talking snapping turtle. Maybe she wasn't a scum-sucking broodling of Queen Chrysalis. But she was a damn fine Jurist."
"Amen."
"Buck yeah."
"I'll drink to that."
"We've met and parted ways with quite a few snazzy hooves in our journey together," Josho said. "Crimson... Lucky Strike... Tweak..."
"Phoenix," Bellesmith said.
"Basso," Zaid said, pointing. He smirked. "Sassy Zetta."
"Unky Prowsy," Props murmured, sniffling.
"Jasper Clark," Ebon said from the kitchen's doorframe.
Josho raised the glass higher. "Here's to her having a peaceful life for many, many friggin' years." He gulped. "And that she may find peace in ways... l-less painful than the ones whom we've lost."
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. "Aatxe," she said.
Kera hung her head. "Dalen."
Zaid fidgeted before whispering, "Khao..."
"Beau," Bellesmith murmured. "Golden Happenstance..."
"Simon," Floydien muttered, staring through the table.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. She looked across the room.
Roarke stood alone in a distant corner, leaning back on her haunches. Her head tilted up upon Rainbow's eye contact. After a few seconds, the metal mare cleared her throat and muttered, "Imre."
The room hung in silence for several seconds. At last, Josho gestured towards the group. They all reached in with their glasses the best that they could. After a festive clinking, they all took hearty sips, exhaling in one accord.
The quiet was somewhat unsettling, until Zaid said: "I'd sing a touching ballad, if only all that I knew didn't involve one-night stands with working fillies at port towns."
Belle choked on her drink.
"Snkkkkt!" Props slapped the table and broke out in wheezing laughter. "Zaidstainnnns!"
"What?!" The stallion gestured. "Okay, so I was in a pretty bad place when the Herald recruited me!"
"Sticky boomer will be in an even worse place at the rate he's spitting," Floydien said.
"Nah..." Zaid shook his head, smiling. "I'm in a good place." He took a deep breath, his cheeks slightly warm. "A really, really good place."
"That makes the two of us," Props said with a wink.
"Uhm..." Kera blushed, raising a hoof. "Three of us?"
"Heeeeee!" Props leaned in and nuzzled the filly. "Hope right in, silly-willy!"
Kera giggled in the mare's grasp.
"I don't know about singing," Pilate said. The zebra smiled gently. "But perhaps a discussion is in order."
"It'd be a darn good idea to go over the travel plan," Josho said. "Once space elk here takes the Jury off autopilot, we've got some tall mountains to scale."
Pilate shook his head. "No, there'll be time for that." He tilted his head aside. "I mean... just talking. I feel as if we haven't had much time to... to relax and get to know each other more."
"I think that's a marvelous idea," Ebon said, smiling sweetly.
"I'm all for it, myself," Belle said with a nod.
"Well, sure thing!" Zaid finished his glass and slapped it onto the table. "Who's first?"
"Oooh! Me!" Props bounced up, grinning. "So, twenty-three years ago, I was conceived inside the broom closet of a book store!"
"Spkkktkkktt!" Josho spat out the rest of his drink, stumbled, and wiped his muzzle. "Dammit, blondie!"
"Whelp..." Zaid sighed. "I can't top that."
"Blessed spark..." Belle face-hoofed.
Kera squinted at Props. "I didn't know two ponies could fit in a broom closet."
"Actually, you can fit four!" Props grinned sweetly. "At least, that's what my mom always told me!"
"That's it." Floydien spun and marched off. "Floydien's checking on Nancy's instruments."
"Awwwwwwww..."
"How about this..." Pilate stepped closer to the table's edge. "How about I tell you a bit about my days as a zeppelin navigator."
"Oooooh!" Kera hopped in place. "That sounds adventurous!"
"Believe it or not, it actually was."
"Hell, I'm all ears," Josho said.
"Well, granted it was a rather short career," Pilate said. "Coming to an end on Ledo's Pride, for better or for worse." He tilted his head in Belle's direction with a smile. "Mostly for better..."
She smiled and nuzzled him. "Tell them about the high-altitude run-in with the parasprite swarm, beloved."
"Oh! That's quite an exciting tale!" Pilate cleared his throat and faced the general direction of the huddled group. "It was nighttime, and I was on observation duty, when all of the sudden we experienced a great deal of turbulence..."
As Pilate spoke, Rainbow Dash hovered in place, smiling proudly at her close friends. She blinked, then looked towards the corner once more.
Roarke sat in place, her copper lenses fully retracted. Her breaths came in heavy, melancholic waves. After a moment, a shadow crossed the floor before her. The metal mare looked up.
Rainbow Dash hovered with two glasses in her hooves. She held the full one towards her.
Roarke's brow furrowed. She looked at the glass, then at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow smiled.
Gulping, Roarke leaned forward... hesitated... and eventually grasped the glass. Upon seeing Rainbow's gesture, she slowly tilted the container to her lips... and drank half of it in one fell swoop. She gulped, exhaled—and suddenly felt herself being pushed forward. Stumbling, she saw that Rainbow was urging her towards the table with her hoof. She clenched her teeth once... but soon relented, all tension leaving her metal-laced shoulders. The two mares hung side by side as they listened to Pilate's tale.
Ebon smiled, his ears twitching from where he leaned against the table of the mess hall. His head tilted aside. Glancing across the way, he saw Eagle Eye. The ex mercenary stood several feet from the table's edge, looking lethargically at the gathered crowd.
Biting his lip, Ebon stealthily snuck out of the group and shuffled his way towards the far end of the mess hall. When he slid up to Eagle Eye's side, the unicorn didn't even flinch.
"Uhm... is... erm..."
"Hmm?" Eagle Eye looked up as if from a dazed dream.
Ebon smiled nervously. "Is there something wrong with your drink?"
"Huh? No... it's... it's very tasty... I..." Eagle winced.
Ebon looked down. The glass was full.
Eagle Eye gulped. "Guess I'm not very thirsty..." He fidgeted. "Or hungry..."
"I see..."
"It was still very nice of you to prepare it for the crew."
"Heh..." Ebon ran a hoof through his mane and shrugged. "We got practically overloaded from the turtles' generosity in Abinadi." He looked at the stallion, smiling warmly. "It's gonna be really, really hard to feel guilty over gluttony for a while."
"So, no more of you barking at us to fast?"
"Hah!" Ebon shook his head and giggled. "No... noooo. No more of that. I'm... uh... I-I'm sorry for being so hard on everypony. I know it's not cool to be abrasive."
"You have a very important job here on the Jury. Nopony envies it... but we all respect you for it."
"That's... uh... that's good to know."
"Yeah..."
Silence.
Ebon bit his lip. His ears folded against his better judgment. "Eagle... is..." He looked at him with glossy eyes. "...is something wrong?"
Eagle blinked. He turned towards him. "Wrong?" He shook his head. "Nothing's wrong."
"You sure you're f-feeling alright?"
Eagle opened his mouth. "I feel..." His features tensed.
Ebon stared at him.
Eagle exhaled and formed a weak smile. "I feel that the worst is behind us..."
Ebon nodded. "Because the best is right before us, right—?" He gasped.
Eagle Eye was hugging him dearly, nuzzling his neck down and over the back of Ebon's head. "No," he said, rubbing his cheek softly through the stallion's mane. "Because the best is right here."
Ebon exhaled. He smiled, and his eyes watered. So he closed them, lifting his head up to nuzzle against Eagle's chin. "I... I was sc-scared..."
"What for?"
"Because... I... I dunno... I guess just—"
"Ebon, look at me." Eagle leaned back and stared the pony face to face. "There is nothing... nothing to be afraid of."
Ebon squinted quizzocally.
"You are right where you need to be," Eagle said. He smiled gently. "We... are right where we need to be." A slight giggle. "And I couldn't be happier."
Ebon sniffled again and smiled.
"Okay?"
Ebon nodded and squeaked back, "Okay."
Eagle smiled, and yet his tail drooped behind him as he glanced aside at the bulkheads.
"You look exhausted."
"Guess I can't help it."
"Here..." Ebon took the glass from him and stepped back. "I'll take this for you. There's plenty more where it came from." He motioned down the adjacent hallway with his head. "Why don't you get some shuteye? If Zaid tells another zinger, I'll be sure to tell you."
"Won't that be something to wake up to?"
"Heheheheh...." Ebon chuckled. He stepped back, smiling. He smiled some more. Then, finally, he turned around, taking his eyes off Eagle as he made for the rest of the group.
Eagle Eye turned around. He made two steps... three... and slowed to a crawl. With a pained expression, he leaned against the doorframe to the hallway. His lungs heaved as if having carried the weight of the Noble Jury on his shoulder. Clenchings his eyes shut, he fought tears, then gazed forward into the dim shadows beyond the crew quarters.
Eagle Eye sweated anxiously from where he stood in the Navigation Room.
Elma Boreal's green eyes narrowed. "You're dying to ask something, aren't you?"
Eagle opened his mouth... lingered... and eventually blurted, "How did you know you were freed from Chrysalis the moment that it happened?"
Elma blinked. "That's not what you wanted to ask me."
Eagle was already nodding. "The question that really bothers me is something I'll have to figure out on my own."
"Very well." Elma trotted quietly towards him. "You want to know how sure I am of my connection to Chrysalis? I'll tell you." She shuffled to a stop, locking eyes with the stallion. "When I became my natural self... when the outer shell of Elma Boreal was—for the first time ever—completely shattered, I felt as though I was weak, naked, infantile..."
"So..." Eagle tilted his head aside. "...you felt like a child?"
"I knew that I was a foal. Subconsciously, I was always a foal. A broodling. But much more than that. In my creation, I had a purpose. When I lost my disguise, I realized and that that purpose all along was never mine. Instead... it was hers..."
"Chrysalis'?"
Elma gulped and finally said, "Mother's"
Eagle's ears folded.
"Her face... her eyes... her fangs... the c-color and smell of her mane..." Elma stared painfully into the distance as she said this. "I knew it all. I felt it all." She looked back at him. "I had a mother... the Mother... and I was made to either honor her or fail her."
Eagle stepped backwards, breathless.
"I... I can't bring myself to hate her. I think, in some ways, I've always loved her." She gave a shuddering sigh. "Even when I was 'Elma Boreal,' I knew her... I felt her. Wherever I go in my life—in Alafreo or beyond—my Mother will always be with me..." She blinked, then glanced awkwardly at him. "Eagle?"
He was shivering, on the verge of hyperventilating.
"Eagle Eye?" she asked.
The stallion raised his hoof and bit on the edge of it, finally calming his quivers.
The changeling leaned back, her lips pursing. "You... you've heard this somewhere before... haven't you?"
With a jolt, Eagle Eye spun about. He burst through the hatch of the Navigation Room, but came to a limping stop at the bottom of the vertical crawlspace outside. With glazed and distant eyes, he stared at the floor.
Elma trotted out after him. "Eagle Eye..." She placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Is... is there anything I can do?"
He slowly shook his head without looking at her. "I'm... n-not the one who needs help."
"I think I've been getting by quite nicely," she said with a nervous chuckle.
Eagle's face grimaced. "I... w-wasn't talking about you either," he said.
"Please tell me the others are alright!" Eagle Eye shouted above the thunder and winds of Stratopolis.
Zaid looked at him across the Noble Jury's cockpit. "Thanks to you, a bunch of us are."
"Define 'a bunch of us.'"
"Kera's in one piece. Floydien recovered just in time to paint the skies with shape-shifter intestines. I'm still all around best background pony—"
"Ebon..." Eagle Eye gasped, his eyes growing wider. The fresh droplets of rainwater shook off his body as he sputtered, "Where's Ebon? Is he...?"
Zaid blinked, then smiled. He tugged at Eagle's wet forelimbs and switched places with him, taking the pilot's seat. "Let me be the autopilot pony once again until Floydien's ready. You go down into the engine room and check on yours turly, Romeoats."
"Okay..." Eagle Eye panted, shimmying swiftly down the crawlspace. "Okay okay okay..."
The stallion galloped straight past Floydien's stirring body. He lept over Kera's limp form. Breathless, he threw himself across the length of the navigation, swung open the hatch to the engine room... and froze.
The ex-mercenary stood dead-still, panting and panting. His pupils shrank upon a fixed point in the floor. At last, the ship shook with a jolt of turbulence, rocking him out of his stupor. Flinching, he spun to look behind him. Floydien was just then getting up. His eyes peered around the ship's interior from a compartment away.
Slowly, Eagle Eye crept into the Engine room. He closed the door behind him and rotated the hatch shut. Then he leaned limply against it, clenching his teeth. At last, he turned and looked at the floor again. Swallowing hard, he slinked forward on trembling hooves, crawling across the way until his hoof made contact with a dark black limb with porous holes.
Eagle Eye pulled the body towards him, cradeling is abnormally light-weight body against his chest. His breaths came in frightful spurts, all the while he ran a hoof along the sleek carapace and folded dragonfly wings. At last, he caressed the creature's muzzle, exposing two fangs that shimmered in the lavender light of the Jury's engine.
Eagle stifled a cry, biting onto his own hoof. His shivering tripled, and he gazed all around at every wall of the room. He was hyperventilating so hard, he nearly passed out.
Then the creature moved.
"Nnnngh... mmmm... M-Mother..."
Eagle clamped his mouth shut. His ears twitched.
"M... M-Mother..." The creature whimpered, his gossamer eyelids fluttering along with his tender wings. "I... I-I c-can't feel anything..." He seethed, murmuring in Ebon Mane's voice. "So... so alone..."
Eagle Eye gnashed his teeth. He leaned forward, burying his head in the shapeshifter's glossy webbed mane. A silent sob wracked through his body... followed by a second. Then, out of nowhere, his body relaxed. Sniffling, he lifted his head and hugged the creature's body from behind.
"Ebon..."
"M-Mother..."
"Ebon."
The creature merely flinched, dim pulses of green light emanating from beneath his eyelids.
"Ebon..." Eagle Eye spoke into what he judged was the thing's ear. "It's me. It's Eagle Eye..."
The ship shook again. Bulkheads rattled against them. The lavender light pulsed on and on.
"You have to change back, Ebon," Eagle Eye said. "Please... please. Everything's going to be okay..."
Another shake. Hoofsteps pitter-pattered through the ship, coming closer.
"Now, Ebon," Eagle Eye hissed, eyeing the door in abject terror. "Somepony's coming. They're all going to see you. So you have to change back now."
"Hey! Hey!" Zaid's muffled voice accompanied a salvo of hoof-knocks from the other side of the hatch. "Eagle Eye! Ebon! Is everything cool in there?"
Sniffing, Eagle Eye nuzzled his head against the thing's glossy black cheek. "Please, Ebon. I love you..." He hugged his arms around the changeling tighter. "I love you so much... but you have to come back now..."
"Mmmmm..." Ebon's lips slurred. Two liquid streams ran down his face. "Eagle... Eye...?"
Eagle clenched his eyes shut, squeaking an indecipherable sound. The room suddenly resonated with unfolding heat. He shuddered, his teary eyes flashing open.
He caught sight of the last few inches of the changeling's body turning to a fuzzy bergundy coat once more. The limp figure of the ship's cook lay draped in his embrace.
Eagle was too busy crying to register Zaid's words until the last second: "Guys? For real. Are you both okay? Can I have a look—or are you two being a pair of sticky stallions?"
Eagle gulped hard and called out, "We're doing j-just fine, Zaid." He clenched his teeth to fight back a monumental sob.
At last, the hatch rotated and the door creaked open. Zaid stuck his head in with a worried expression.
Under flickering lavender light, Eagle Eye could be seen cradling Ebon Mane's limp body. A pair of glossy violet eyes glanced over.
"Everything's okay," Eagle Eye squeaked.
Zaid blinked. "You... uh... you s-sure of that?"
Ebon stirred slightly, murmuring unintelligible words. Eagle Eye immediately nuzzled him, planted a kiss on his forehead, and glanced over with a sniffling smile. He slowly nodded.
Zaid bit his lip, smiled awkwardly, and backstepped out of the engine room.
As soon as he was gone, Eagle Eye exhaled through a grimacing expression. He held Ebon tight, gently rocking the stallion's figure as he stared—worriedly—into the nearest bulkhead.
That same expression hung off of Eagle's face as he limped down the dark corridor lined with crew quarters. Behind him, inside the brightly-lit mess hall, the Jurists laughed and talked merrily around the table.
With a heavy sigh, Eagle came to a stop. He glanced to his left. Quietly, he opened the door to Ebon's room and crept in.
His eyes immediately fell upon the bed. Squatting down, he reached under the mattress and pulled out a pile of written parchment. He held them out at forelimb's length. After several heavy breaths, he smiled.
His body shook as he cried quietly. Clenching his eyes shut, he tilted his head to the ceiling.
And he smiled.
"Do not worry," he stammered to the room. Then, with a firmer breath: "Fear not, Mother." He reopened his glossy eyes, smiling painfully at the sheets of paper. "I will take care of him for you." His lungs heaved, and he rolled along the crest of a cleansing sob. "I will m-make sure he never runs out of love."
Then, hissing, both a threat and a promise:
"I swear it."