//------------------------------// // Those Sequestered and Those Adjourned // Story: Utaan // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// "Hrrrrrrrrrmmmm..." Kepler's hairy nostrils flared. Smiling, the wyvern scanned the horizon with his spectacled eyes while he gripped the rudder wheel. "So this crreaturre was rrenderred blind by an airrship crrash, and yet—with the aid of a magical device that connected with his brrain—he was capable of rreading wrritten materrial? Ha-Hah!" He chortled past his tusks. "Oh, how I would have loved to witness such ingenuity at worrk!" "Kepler..." Ariel chided from where she sat on the deck plates. "Didn't you hear Rainbow Dash? This Pilate wasn't a 'creature.' Just... a striped horse called a... called a..." She winced despite herself. "...a zeppelin?" "No, Pilate was a zebra," Rainbow Dash said. "A zeppelin is what he crashed in." She leaned back, lying lazily on her back and gazing at the stars drifting high above the Stardust. "But... heh... I totally wouldn't mind you and him meeting each other, Kepler." "Oh?" "'Cuz... like... you're cut from the same cloth." "Hah! But perhaps not the same ink?" Kepler winked. Pinkie Pie giggled. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "What I mean is—you're both very scholarly and you appreciate history." "I would imagine so!" Kepler nodded, keeping the ship straight as the waters grew more and more choppy. "Judging from his seemingly vorracious hungerr forr books! Enough to rread them beyond his limited sight!" "It boggles my mind," Logan said from where he stood by the cabin's open doors. "How in the Hell can a zoidberg—" "Zebra." "Whatever. How can anypony stick a bit metal ball to your brain and ask it to read stuff for you?" "To be honest, I never really... understood the way O.A.S.I.S worked," Rainbow Dash said. She glanced over at where Twilight and her friends hovered. "Nor did I fully figure out the inner workings of Bellesmith's 'sequencing.'" Clearing her throat, she looked at the Heraldites seated next to her in the middle of the deck. "But... where Rohbredden advanced through steam and dredge coal? Ledomare, Darkstine, and Val Roa excelled in industrialized magic. That's how they got ships to fly in the air or guns to shoot death beams and... uhm... pocketable stones to 'talk.'" "Most... most fascinating..." Kepler murmured. "Heck..." Rainbow Dash smirked. "Some kingdoms industrialized both ways... with steam and magic! I once visited a place called 'Gray Smoke' which was basically this huge flippin' city of metal floating in the sky." "No shit." Logan blinked. "Sounds like Rust—but in the clouds." Rainbow winced. "That's... a little too darn fitting a description..." "Sounds positively mesmerizing," Rarity cooed. "I would have loved to have seen this city!" Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. "No, Rarity." She looked aside. "You wouldn't have." "Yeesh..." Logan rubbed his fat chins. "Flynn would be spanking himself to all this technobabble talk." Flynn trotted onto the top deck, sweating and soot-stained. "Spanking what now?" "You missed it," Ariel droned, smirking slightly. "Rainbow Dash just spilled the beans on all of the technological secrets of the worlds beyond the Blight." "Awwwwwwww..." Flynn's ears drooped as he pouted. "And here I had come to tell you guys that I had just stabilized the manaflow." He looked in Kepler's direction. "We should be good to cruise for another six hours." "Splendid, oh hairrless one!" "Ugh..." Flynn winced. "Could you not...?" "Actually..." Rainbow Dash smiled from where she reclined. "Flynn would have gotten along with Booster Spice." "Booster who?" Echo asked, squatting next to Bard and Nicole. "Another dude with goggles who joined the Jury back in Val Roa," Rainbow Dash explained. "I'm pretty sure he's Flynn's long lost earth pony brother." She smirked. "Because I couldn't understand a word he said anymore than I can understand Flynn's." Bard chuckled while Wildcard smirked. "Hmmmmm..." Flynn squatted down next to the group. "Good to know that you were in good brains as well as hooves." He sighed, staring at Rainbow Dash. "So this Jury... they followed you through all your travels?" "Most of them," Ariel answered. She pointed at the mare next to her. "Rainbow was telling us about how she picked up all her friends gradually... one by one... ever since..." She turned to squint at the pegasus in question. "...Blue Shift?" "Blue Shelf." "My bad." Ariel smiled toothily. "I'm getting the names of Ledomare mixed up." "That's okay," Rainbow droned. "I did too." "I'm guessing you hard to part ways with them?" Flynn said. Rainbow nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah." "It was at the Grand Choke," Remna murmured from the distance. She stood closer to Kepler, staring off the Stardust's port side. "They parted ways, and then the Austraeoh proceeded on her lonesome towards the east edge of the Blight." Her green eyeslits narrowed. "It nearly cost the mare her life." Rainbow rolled her eyes. Echo leaned forward. "How come Miss Iron Panties knows so much?" "She kinda sorta stalked me," Rainbow Dash muttered. "From the grave." "Ooooookay then." Echo leaned back. "Wow..." Nicole brushed her bangs back. "I knew you had traveled from a long distance, but... I-I didn't realize just how far." She gulped. "How come you never talked about Ledomare or Val Roa or these 'Noble Jury' friends of yours back at the Ranch?" Bard spoke aside: "Do ya honestly thank that either Blue or Marie would have let her get a word in edge-wise?" Nicole sighed. "You've got a good point..." "Things were tense enough back at Bard's—er... yours and Johnny's place." Rainbow gulped. "Besides... I don't like to brag." "Except when you do," Applejack said, causing the others to chortle. Rainbow groaned. "What?" Nicole asked. "Just the girls ribbing me," Rainbow said. "So... maybe I do like to brag. Just a little." She gulped. "But... it h-hasn't been very appropriate lately. At least... not since the Quade." "Well..." Ariel scooted about, her fuzzy ears twitching in tune with her smile. "...maybe now's your chance." "Huh?" "We've still got some smooth waters between here and... wherever," Ariel said with a wave of the hoof. "Why not... y'know... indulge in the moment?" "Indulge us, she means," Flynn said. Kepler chuckled while Wildcard nodded. "Hmmmf..." Bard folded his forelimbs with a smirk. "Tell her about how you, me, and Dubya yanked the carpet out from underneath the Syndicate. Twice!" "Or how about all that stuff you did with those two Colonialist weirdos back in Nealend," Echo said. "Theams was rambling about you taking down a leviathan or something..." "Oh!" Twilight Sparkle leaned in. "Maybe you can tell them about your victory in Val Roa!" "Yeah!" Pinkie Pie grinned. "Or that time when you drank magical alicorn cider and went into a subconscious dimension—!" Her eyes crossed. "Wait..." "I-I can't imagine we have that much time between here and the Sixth Seed—" Rainbow began. Remna droned: "Tell the story about how you conspired to destroy a dragon monarch's hoard, thereby exiling her broodlings." "Axan..." Rainbow growled. "Hooo boy..." Nicole winced. "...seems like you've had your fair share of hairy situations." "Yeah." Rainbow nodded. "I have." She gulped. "But... Celestia wasn't kidding." Her ruby eyes darted up. "...I did a lot of good as well." She looked over at Fluttershy and the others. "It's important to remember that. Always." Her friends smiled at her. "Well..." Echo smirked. "I'm all ears. Leafy, even!" Nicole sighed. "Do you always have to remind them?" "Are you complaining?" "Well, no. But that's besides the point." Wildcard gestured. "Hmmmm..." Bard smiled, whipping out his guitar. "The stage is yers, darlin'." He strummed a few notes lazily. "I'll even provide background music." "Heh..." Rainbow Dash stood up before the group with a devilish smirk. "Very well." Clearing her throat, she gestured with both hooves. "So... like... it all began this one day that I flew past two giant mountains..."