"Eagle, I can't thank you enough," Ebon said. He trotted across the cramped kitchen with a bowl of sliced lettuce and rinsed it over a sink with a pitcher of water. "This is cutting my work in half. Seriously, it's such a relief!"
"If you say so," Eagle Eye murmured, slicing carrots up on the counter with a telekinetically controlled knife. "I really don't know why I didn't help sooner. I feel awful..."
Ebon giggled and patted the ex-mercenary's shoulder. "No reason to. This is always a job I've elected to do on my lonesome."
"To be honest, I kinda expected something more... more..."
"What, glamorous?" Ebon smirked.
Eagle Eye shook his head. "Difficult."
"Oh." Ebon blinked.
"I mean, it just seems so simple." Eagle dumped the slices into a bowl and levitated over another carrot to slice. "All it takes is certain ingredients and a keen eye for blemishes."
"Well, it's a lot more than that," Ebon said. "There's the spicing and the blending and—in this case—adding just the right mixture of vegetables..."
"I suppose it's the tedium that turns most ponies off."
"Mmmm. Maybe." Ebon smiled. "But I wouldn't wanna do anything else."
"Why's that?"
"Being a cook gets you a feel for what other ponies want."
Eagle paused slightly, his ears twitching. "A feel, you say..."
"Mmmhmmm. It's certainly how I stayed sane in Gray Smoke," Ebon said while rinsing. "Even with perfect strangers, I got to know ponies in ways nobody else did."
"You're a very resourceful stallion. Has anypony told you that?"
"Sure..." Ebon shrugged, then smiled bashfully. "Though I don't think anyone's meant it until now."
Eagle smirked. "So, you feel like you've got a grasp on everypony on board the Jury, huh?"
"Well, being in my position certainly helps."
"So you know what to expect at all times?"
"Yes. No. Maybe?" Ebon shrugged—but as he did so, he felt a whole carrot being slid between his ear and his head. "Gah! What the—?"
"Heehee. Did you expect that??"
"Eagle? What are you doing?"
"I dunno, but I think it looks good on you." Eagle rubbed his muzzle, squinting at the strategically planted vegetable. "Fantastic mane accessory."
Ebon rolled his eyes. "It is not." He paused, fidgeted, and glanced nervously at his reflection in the back of a metal bowl. "Is it?"
"Mmmmmm... could use a little trimming." Eagle leaned in, nibbling.
"Eeep! E-E-E-Eaggggle!" Ebon was stuck between gasping and giggling.
"Oh. I'm sorry," Eagle Eye droned, his smile growing. "Did I get all ear instead?"
"You're insane!"
"Hmmmm..." Eagle hugged Ebon's side, resting his cheek against the stallion's neck with a contented sigh. "Guilty as charged..."
"Heehee... come on. For real. Not here."
"Oh?"
"We'll g-get something in the salad."
"Like what?"
"Erm... uhhhh... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"Alas, Rainbow Dash, what doth make that most horrifying sound?!"
"I must admit that I share Luna's concern, Rainbow. Are you encountering a ferocious dragon of some sort?"
"Nah." Rainbow shook her head with a smile from where she reclined on the bow of the Jury. "That's just Josho, Your Highnesses." She craned her neck to look. "The dude's picked up the habit of napping on the top deck in broad daylight."
"It soundeth terribly unhealthy," Luna's voice said from the glowing sword.
"Yeah, well, that's Josho in a nutshell... albeit a cracked one."
"In a way, we art quite relieved to hear that such is the worst of thy encounters as of late," Luna said. "Thou hast encountered innumerable things of a dismaying quality. It seemeth to us that thou hast earned this satisfying reprieve."
"Heh... well, I won't argue with you there," Rainbow Dash said. She hung her head upside down and stared at the fir trees and rolling hillsides below. Tiny currents of frost bespeckled the treetops with a fine powder. "It's been a good long time since things have been this chillaxed." The pegasus gulped. "I'm doing my darndest not to let my guard down, though."
"A wise precaution."
Celestia's voice spoke up. "I invited you to the sarcophagus to assist in Rainbow's encouragement, not to fuel her paranoia, beloved sister."
"Alas, Celestia, we desireth her prosperity with the same passion as thou. We simply wisheth to keep a rational head upon our shoulders. It carrieth on no differently in our monthly conversations by moonlight."
"Yes, but surely you know that she's been through many a great ordeal! If fate has warranted her relaxation, then who are we to confound that?"
"Rainbow Dash is more than capable of dealing with any emotion—both tranquil and turbulent. We feareth that thou underestimateth her, Celestia."
"Underestimate her?! Why—"
"Princesses... Princesses!" Rainbow Dash sat up, smirking. "Please, there's plenty of me to go around." A voice-cracking chuckle. "Don't start a civil war on my behalf!"
"A civil war? Please, Rainbow, do not insinuate such a horrid thing."
"Thou musn't worry, Rainbow Dash. We certainly receiveth the jest of thy jocularity."
"Unnnngh... Luna..."
"Heeheehee... For real, Your Highnesses, just chillax," Rainbow said. "Things are crazy cool right now. My friends are safe. We've got clear skies ahead. There's even a rough map that we've thrown together for how we'll arrive in Val Roa."
"We presumeth thou has considered all potential hazards along the way?"
"No offense, Luna, but we're what you would call 'professionals,'" Rainbow Dash said. "If we took on a floating city full of zombified pegasi and lived, then I'm certain a mysterious crater won't do us in."
"We admitteth that we were quite vexed when our sister Celestia related such a remarkable story to us. It's alarming to think that Commander Hurricane suffered such a tragic fate."
"Well, just like I told Celestia, I really don't think all of those possessed ponies were proto-Equestrians. I wouldn't doubt it if I got muzzle-to-muzzle with what was left of... y'know... the ones responsible for splitting Urohringr apart to begin with."
"Thou meaneth the winged ponies depicted in the ancient murals and stained glass?"
"Or, y'know, the ones whom the Herald called 'Angels,'" Rainbow muttered with a sigh. "More like demons." She hung her head upside down again. "Whatever turned them freaky did a real number on their brains. What I wouldn't give to have had at least one zombie capable of chatting with me." She gulped. "Explaining the origin of that horribad slime... or that giant freaky plant they were all experimenting with... or what they thought they could do with the Sentinel in the first place..."
Celestia spoke up: "The Sentinel was far from one of a kind, correct?"
"Er... right..." Rainbow Dash scanned the upside-down horizon. "From the shape of the Urohringr symbol we all saw, there were once tons of them. At least two for every ring..."
"Then doth that mean that there remaineth another one in close orbit of this plane?"
Rainbow took a deep breath. "I dunno, Luna. I sure hope not. If only..." Her eyes suddenly squinted.
"If only what, Rainbow?"
"Hold the Sword, your Highnesses." Rainbow Dash hopped up to her hooves and slid the blade into a makeshift scabbard along her saddlebags. "I think I see a village of some sort." She kept her eyes trained on a series of wooden buildings nestled in the crook of a mountain ridge due east. She tapped on the cockpit windshield beneath her. "Hey! Floydien! Slow us down! I got something that needs checking out!"
"Heh. You've met with turtles, alright!" A mountain ram smirked. He squatted on a stool along the front porch of a sawmill and resumed hammering together planks of wood. "I can smell their good-nature on your coat. Swell bunch of neighbors, them Alafreons. Kind of give me the creeps, personally."
"I guess that could be forgiven," Rainbow Dash said. Behind her, the Lounge sphere had landed and Roarke, Bellesmith, and Pilate stood in a leafy clearing between fir trees and wooden cabins. Ponies, rams, and deer wandered from storefront to storefront, some of them peering up at the hovering sight of the Noble Jury. "Do you do much trade with the turtles?"
"Well, obviously, those dudes are super generous," the ram said as he moved onto another plank. "That's a good thing for wandering travelers like yourself, but for us locals?" He shrugged. "Meh. Altruism doesn't exactly make for a competitive market." He hammered and hammered. "We prefer exchanging goods along the Green Curve."
"Green Curve?"
"Yeah. Wow. You really are out-of-towners, aren't ya?" He glanced up past his horns. "It's what we mountain folk call the trade route that follow along the southern end of the Skystabs. It heads south from here to the Fir Nests, then bends east into Crater Fall and Boulder City."
"What about the crater itself?" Pilate asked. "Do you ever do trade from within?"
"Ha!" The ram dropped his hammer and hugged himself, nearly falling off the stool. "Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Belle fidgeted. Roarke's brow furrowed.
The ram wiped his eyes dry with a cloven hoof before smirking at the Jurists. "Whew! Sorry, but that was just too rich." He cleared his throat. "You've been through the Flurries, haven't you? Tell me, what's the sense in doing trade in the skystone fields?"
"Er... none whatsoever," Belle said with a nervous smile.
"Especially after what just crashed into the fields," Roarke droned.
"Shhhh!" Rainbow hissed, then turned back to the ram. "Is there seriously nothing inside the crater?"
"Oh, there's something inside, alright," the ram said.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"But whatever it is, it couldn't be assed to come out and open a trade route with us," he remarked. "And it's not like we have enough skystone to scale the Sky Stabs and find out for ourselves." He gestured towards the vessel overhead. "That's a sweet ship. It'd be a shame to wreck it over something so mysterious."
"We're quite versatile, good sir," Pilate said with a smile. "After what we've been through, I doubt we'll let anything overcome us so easily."
"Besides," Belle added with a nod, "The fastest way to Val Roa is to scale the crater."
"Val Roa? Pffft... just use the Green Curve, my friends," the ram said, picking up another plank. "You'll thank me in the end, so will your future children." He hammered away. "Hell, you might run into some fine trade along the way."
"Is there really something worth fearing from within the crater?" Roarke asked. "Or is your advice simply rooted in fear of the unknown?"
Rainbow quietly glanced at Roarke, then back at the ram.
The ram took a breath, placed his tools down, and stood up. He turned around and faced the group directly. "Every day, without fail, something beams out of the land within the Sky Stabs."
Pilate cocked his head to the side. "'Beams?'"
"You can only see it on a clear day, which—admittedly—doesn't come often this high up the western slopes." The ram's eyes narrowed. "But that doesn't change the fact that the lights are still there... and they pierce the skies at least three times a day."
"How do you mean?" Belle asked.
"Just as it sounds like, ma'am." He flicked his ears and said, "It's like a beacon... about as bright as the sun itself. None of us know what causes the lights. And, quite frankly, none of us want to. The last expedition that tried scaling the Sky Stabs didn't even make it up the peaks before freezing to death. So, if you wanna try it with your fancy skystone, be our guest. Don't say you weren't warned."
"We... uh... we appreciate you being so upfront with us," Rainbow Dash said before cracking a nervous smile. "For real."
"I believe you," the ram said. He smirked bitterly. "But if you really mean that, then you'll take my advice and follow the Green Curve. I dunno what your business is in Val Roa, but surely it can wait."
"Unfortunately, it cannot," Belle said.
He shrugged. "Suit yourself." He turned and sat on the stool again. "Still, I gotta admit, you've got my curiosity piqued. Any chance you happen to come back this way again, perhaps you can drop in and tell me what you saw beyond the Stabs."
"Uhhhh..." Rainbow Dash chuckled. "We're all pretty much 'east or bust.' This is kinda/sorta a one way trip."
"Hah! Haha..." The ram laughed again. He smiled back at them. "Hell, I coulda told y'all that!"