“I've already got her prepped and ready to go!” Booster Spice said with a grin, trotting around the glossy shell of Whizzball inside the Noble Jury's hangar. “Ironically, I was running a diagnostic on this thing right after we dropped off the zebras here in Bountiful! So it's guaranteed to be in tip-top shape!” He smiled proudly. “And I've gotten rather expert at piloting the naga technology, if I do say so myself. That means, for the next twenty-four hours or so, we should be flying smoothely! Heck... the two of you can even sleep during most of the trip!”
“Twenty-four hours trapped inside a cramped ship with two nerds,” Josho muttered, slugging his gun and ammo.
“Hey!” Eagle Eye frowned as he caught up with him. “How am I a nerd?”
“...is that a three-hundred page catalogue on Val Roan dress fashion that I see in your bag?”
The tips to Eagle Eye's ears turned pink. “M-maybe...”
“I rest my big fat round case.”
Booster Spice chewed his lip. “At leat I'm a h-helpful nerd, r-right?”
“It sounds like a most arduous journey,” Bellesmith said, standing in the doorway to the lower stairwell along with Pilate. “Are we certain we can't send the Noble Jury up there instead?”
“You heard Team Blonde,” Josho remarked. “If the Noble Jury does something now to lose the burn in its engines, then we're all screwed, and so is the rest of the Val Roa.”
“You need to wait for Rainbow Dash's call,” Booster Spice remarked. “The moment she needs help, the Noble Jury needs to be nearby to help her, Floydien, and the rest out.”
“Presuming they succeed in punching a hole through the Soul Sentry shield, of course,” Belle remarked.
“All in due time, beloved.” Pilate smiled. “And I'm sure these three stallions can handle the trip. They've been through worse.”
Eagle threw his bag into the side of the sphere. “You ever been prisoners to talking foxes?”
Booster gulped. “Er... no?”
“Be glad you're you.”
Josho chuckled. “Ohhhhhh I'm going to have something to write home about over this.”
“A twenty-four hour ride stuck inside a cramped ball with the old stallion?” Eagle Eye remarked. “Booster, I hope none of the consoles are sparking or anything, because the three of us are liable to get roasted alive.”
“I'm more concerned about what waits for us at these coordinates,” Booster remarked. “If it's something some changeling conspiracy arranged, then it certainly cannot be pretty.”
“You have your sound stones, yes?” Belle asked.
“Yes, Belle.” Eagle nodded, tapping the shard on his forelimb. “They're all keyed in to the Lounge sphere's communications system. If you just have Props ping Whizzball with that fancy array of hers, then we should be able to talk to you guys at all times.”
“Listen to you,” Josho belched. “The Princess of Gizmos.”
“Wouldn't that be on my tiara?” Booster said with a smile.
“Ugh...” Josho rolled his eyes as he slipped into his seat. “Worst threesome ever.”
“You'd better go now before night falls.” Belle sighed, her ears drooping. “Please take care of yourselves. The Jury feels empty enough as it is.”
Eagle Eye bit his lip. In three bounding strides, he rushed over and gave the mare a deep hug.
Belle nuzzled the side of his head. “Ebon will be alright,” she whispered in his ear. “At the end of all of this, we'll be together,” she said. “In Val Roa.”
“I could be inside a raggedy thrift store for all I care,” Ebon whimpered. “So long as Ebon and you guys are there.”
“One step at a time, EE,” Belle said, leaning back to smile at him. “Be brave, like Rainbow Dash.”
Eagle Eye smiled at that.
“She really means 'be stupid,'” Josho's voice rang from a distance.
Eagle Eye frowned. Rolling his eyes, he trudged back towards Whizzball. “Booster, you'd better sit between the old stallion and I. That way we don't try to murder each other.”
“Erm... I-I figured I would do that because I'll be in the pilot's seat.”
“That too.”
Booster gulped and waved at the couple. “Happy trails!”
“Likewise.” Belle glanced aside. “Pilate, would you do the honor?”
“Gladly.” The zebra reached aside and yanked a lever. “Until next time!”
Wree! Wree! Wree! Wree! The warning alarm bellowed.
Belle muttered. “Wrong lever, beloved.”
“Erm...” Pilate winced, thrusting the lever back. The alarm silenced instantly. He felt around, grabbed the next lever, and yanked it.
Whurrrrrr-Chtunggg! The hangar doors opened.
“If you don't hear from us in twenty four hours!” Eagle Eye shouted through the noise of the closing side panels. “That means we crashed and Josho was forced to eat us!”
“Hah!” the obese unicorn cackled. “More like ten hours—!”
Whizzball sealed itself up. The glossy surface rippled as it spun around, then hovered out the rear hangar. For a few seconds, it puttered slowly over the rooftops of Bountiful and the many zebra tents. Then, with a burst of amber skystone, it rocketed north, disappearing into the soft red clouds above.
Bellesmith sighed, leaning over and resting her head against Pilate's shoulder. “Why do I feel as if this is a preview...”
“Hmm? A preview to what, Belle?”
She bit her lip. “Every one of us... splitting apart... one by one...” Her nostrils flared. “Even if we do succeed in Val Roa, how much of us will actually stay together?”
Pilate shrugged. “Eagle Eye's been searching for a home to call his own. Now he has a beloved of his own to share such a future with. Josho seems keen to live just about anywhere. The same could be said with Zaid, unless his attachment to Props proves permanent.”
“Wouldn't Props wish to join Prowse on the Tarkington?” Belle remarked. “And I imagine Booster would be going back to Amulek and Roarke would—” Her words trailed off.
Pilate tilted his head towards her.
Belle sighed. “It would be very nice if we all could stay in contact somehow.” She gulped. “At the very least.” Silence. “But... but dwelling on it is only keeping my mind off the fact that you and I... that you and I and Kera will have to be saying goodbye to one pony in particular...”
Pilate slowly nodded.
Bellle looked at him, eyes misty. “Do... do you think Roarke would try going with her? I mean... even if Rainbow Dash attempted talking her out of it, Roarke doesn't exactly have a heavy sense of self-preservation. Besides, the two of them are just so... so...”
“That is something for them to work out together. But Roarke is no fool, beloved. She knows just as well as you and I do that there's only one pony who can make the kind of trip that Rainbow Dash is on and survive.”
Belle bit her lip.
“But, enough of that for the time being. How about something else for your mind to dwell on?”
“Oh y-yeah...?” Belle sniffled, rubbing her eyes dry. “Like what?”
“Well, with our Searonese veteran infiltrating the Cartel and our best combat experts heading north... on top of our team leader and head pilot being stuck in Val Roa Proper, it seems as if we've gotten a shortage of alpha members.”
“Meaning...?”
“Somepony new has to take charge,” Pilate said. He yanked the lever again, pulling the Noble Jury's hangar doors shut. “Especially now that 'Operation Zebra Salvation' has culminated.”
“Well, I can think of some candidates.” Belle smiled. “After all, we still have our chief engineer and a backup pilot and...” She leaned in to nuzzle him. “A very very handsome navigator.”
“Yes, but that leaves us all predisposed with our multifaceted tasks. I do believe we need a pony of great intelligence and tenacity to manage the group in the event that we need to answer Rainbow's call.”
Belle blinked at him.
“You, beloved.”
“Me?”
“You're the best you you could ever be, you.”
“Pilate, to be perfectly honest, I've felt like a fifth wheel ever since I whisked Kera and Phoenix out of Blue Nova.”
“Well, it seems to me as though this is the perfect opportunity that's been waiting for you,” Pilate said with a smirk. “So, what's our orders, Captain, my captain?”
Belle smirked bitterly. “I think a crew vote is in order.”
“Done and done.” Pilate smiled back. “They all agree with me.”
“Y-you mean you went behind my back and spoke with them before about—”
“Indeed.”
Belle took a deep breath, trotting up the stairs. “Spark alive, Pilate! You've certainly found your way amidst the shadows of this ship.”
He chuckled as he trotted after her. “Just the blind leading the blunt.”