//------------------------------//
// The Parting of The Roarke Sea 
// Story: Yaerfaerda 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	Stars and desert plains.  Desert plains and stars.

Zaid's thin eyes followed a narrow ravine that ran west just south of the Val Roan mountain range.  It was the only thing drawing his attention.  Several times, his head nodded, and his eyes blinked heavier and heavier.  He took deep... deep breaths, lungs expanding and contracting in a desperate attempt to wake himself up from the inside out.  To the right, the mountains blotted out the starry sky.  To the left, a forest of white, petrified trees lingered.

"This would b-be a lot better if I was flippin' flooring it," he muttered.  The stallion yawned, then pried his own eyelids open as far wide as he could manage.  "For the love of pixies, how Goddess' name does Floydien manage?"

"How does Handsome manage what?"

"Errrrrr..."  Zaid flinched, biting his lip.  "N-nothing!  I-I-I'm not nodding off while trying to fly an airship full of zebras!  Nuh uh!"

Props climbed up the rest of the way into the cockpit and squinted at him.  "Zaidy Waidyyyyyy... are you fibbing?"

"Uhhhhh..."

"I can tell when you're lying or not.  So? Are you?  Fess up?"

"If you can tell, then why do you have to ask me?"

"Your eyes have bags under them!" Props squeaked.  "And it isn't even the holiday shopping season yet!"

"Look, flying airships is... like... surprisingly boring."  Zaid cracked the joins in his neck and sighed.  "I bet it'd be more stimulating if I had some rings to fly through."

"No sudden movements, Zaidy Waidy!"  Props said.  "Even if we weren't zebra-hauling, we're surviving off of one charge of Dashie's harmony juice!  Nancy simply can't handle the adorable, black-and-white striped weight it's gained if we have to putter our way to Bountiful on steam!"

"Yeesh, are you trying to give me a motivational speech or an aneuyrism?"

"Awwwww..."  Props leaned against the back of the pilot's seat.  "Is this job a lot harder than Zaidy volunteered for?"

"I wouldn't call it hard."  Zaid fidgeted, eyes blinking tiredly.  "More like casually constipated."

"Floydien's simply made of stern shimmer, that's all."

"And what am I?  Molded cheddar?"

"Heehee... you're the most qualified out of all of us, silly willy!"

"Even Roarke?"

"I'm sure she'd ram us into the first thing that looked at her funny."

"Heh... that's reassuring."

"You need something to wake you up? Hmmm?"  Props leaned in and nuzzled him from behind.  She whispered into his ear.  "How far up, huh?"

"Duahhhhh..."  Zaid began sweating.  "I'm pretty sure I'm awake now.  Thanks."

"Ohhhh?"  Props nuzzled his neck, giggling.  "Are you?  Are you really?"

"Guh!  Yeesh, Blondie!" Zaid wheezed.  "I'm already struggling with one flight stick."

"Heeheeheehee..."  Props suddenly froze in place, blinking.  "...do you hear that buzzing sound?"

"Give me a second for the blood to rush back to my head, and I will."

"No, for realsies."  She stood up straight.  "It's getting louder."

"What... could it be from the engine?"

"No."  Props shook her head.  "It's not the kind of sound Nancy's ever made before."

"Uhhhm... maybe something one of the zebras brought on board?"

She chewed on the edge of her lip.  "It's... coming from someplace."  She glanced about.  "No... a direction."

"You mean... from outside?"  Zaid fidgeted, then slapped a hoof over a switch.

Schwissssh!  The door to the top deck slid open.  The desert chill swept into the cockpit, carrying along with it a dull beating noise, like a cyclone or a distant stampede.  Props stepped nervously out onto the upper deck.  She found herself gazing off the port side, due south.  Her blonde eyes traced the rows and rows of dead, pale trees.

Another set of hoofsteps picked up.  Booster Spice came out of the stairwell near the stern.  "That noise..."

"You hear it as well?" Props asked.

"It's not natural," Booster muttered.  "Nothing in Val Roa makes a noise like that."

"Does it sound like anything you've ever heard before?"

Booster blinked through his goggles.  He grimaced.  "Oh god..."

"What?"

"Where's the sound stone that connects us with Roarke's party?!"  Booster scrambled about.  "I gotta speak to her!"





Beneath the slowly hovering body of the Noble Jury, the train of zebras plodded along.  The families stuck to their wagons, taking turns drawing them.  Exhausted muzzles scanned the western landscape as they continued their nocturnal march.

Eagle Eye yawned heavily.  He teetered, his legs bending.

A metal hoof leaned him back into a healthy stance.

Bleary-eyed, the unicorn smiled over his shoulder and nodded his head in thanks.

Roarke said nothing, trotting steadily in her glossy suit.  Oddly alert, she scanned the horizon ahead of them, then glanced at the precarious edge of the ravine just to their north.  On the other side of the trench, mountains stretched tall, scraping the nebulous constellations.  Somewhere beyond those obstructions, Rainbow Dash and her group were sneaking across the lap of luxury, running into Goddess-knows-what.

Roarke's nostrils flared inside her helmet.  She didn't hear the sound of Booster Spice's voice until the third or fourth hail.

"Snkkkkt!  Roarke?!  Roarke!  Come in!  This is an emergency!"

Eagle turned around in mid-trot.  "Huh...?  That sounds like Booster."

Roarke winced.  She raised her forelimb up and spoke into the glowing rock.  "This is Roarke.  What seems to be the issue?"

"Snkkkt!  Roarke... we have a problem... a super huge problem."

Zebras stopped in mid-march, glancing back and blinking worriedly.

Roarke tilter her helmet up towards the Noble Jury.  "Is the harmonic charge to the skystone engine failing?"

"No.  This is bigger than that.  Do you all hear a loud vibration in the air?"

"A loud vibration...?"

Around that point, a nervous murmur rose across the caravan of zebras.  To their left, the branches of the petrified trees started shaking, wobbling.

"It's easier to hear from this height.  I think something large is coming."

"What kind of 'something large?'"

"Due south.  Over the petrified forest."

Roarke spun. Her helmet reflected the gray bodies of parched trees.  "I don't see anything."

"Whatever it is, it's coming fast."

"Through the trees?"

"Over them!"

The zebras shifted and shivered, panicking.

Roarke's brow furrowed under her helmet.  "I thought the Val Roans didn't possess flight technology."

"Roarke, use that rare head of yours!  Just where is the noise coming from?!"

Roarke's lips pursed.  "The Cartel..."

"I see something!" Eagle Eye said, squinting through the trees.  "Blurring... spinning..."  He blinked, his ears folding back.  "Propellors.  Lots of them."

Roarke snarled.  "Get ready!"  Cl-Cl-Clak!  Miniature rockets protruded from her suit.  "Try and spot some weak points--!"

"We're sitting ducks out here!  The Noble Jury's holding too much weight!"

Eagle spun.  "He's right, Roarke.  With just one Harmonic charge..."

"One single sharp maneuver, and we'll drop like a rock!"

"We gotta hide!" Eagle stammered as the beating in the air grew louder and louder.  "The Jury!  Every zebra!"

As the plateau  filled with shrieks, cries, and murmurs, Roarke looked all around.  She glanced at the ravine, then at the trees.  She took a deep breath.  "Everyone!" she shouted, both into the air and into the sound stone.  "Drag the wagons into the trees!   Booster, patch me into Zaid!"

"Snkkkkt!  Moshi moshi!"

"Breeder, now is not the time to joke!"

"Hey, I didn't make this cockpit smell like pee just cuz it's chic!  Talk to me, Roarkie, before I chew my own ears off!"

"How're your flight skills in tight locations?"

"...just how tight?"

"Zaid, listen to me carefully..."  Roarke looked up as a dull wind kicked up.  "For we haven't much time..."