Rainbow’s bangs fluttered in the high wind. Morning sunlight glistened off her lashes. She was lying back, gazing perpetually upwards, her ruby eyes scraping the blue sky.
She stared and stared until she could almost discern dark shadows from the azure sphere looming high above her. All around her, a gigantic cloudbed spread in almost every direction. The vaporous particles tingled with warm energy, drifting upwards before fading into nothingness past her wings.
Slowly, she brought a hoof up and drew an invisible circle in the sky, as if crafting a ring out of thin air. She exhaled, and her breaths became visible in the cold, thin altitude.
“I would never have left you guys.” She gulped, trembling slightly. “Never.” Her head shook from side to side. “Not so long as you were around.”
The void beyond the blue sky answered with silence.
She sniffled. Her pendant wore heavily all of the sudden, threatening to plunge her blue body back through the bed of clouds. She leaned her head to the right, squinting at the rising sun. The world melted before its solar glory. All was one with the light; it was so inviting to get lost in it.
It was an invitation she could no longer afford.
With a breath, she dug her wings back into the clouds, breaking them. Her body sank through, flipped in mi-descent, and angled out into a calm glide. After half-a-minute, she broke through the overcast ceiling over Lerris, descending in a wide spiral towards the Noble Jury.
When she approached the parked vessel, she heard a stir of commotion, breaking the harmonic dissonance in the cool, northern air. Raising an eyebrow, she flapped her wings and shot like a blue bullet towards the airship. When she finally reached earshot of the ponies on board, she instantly heard Bellesmith’s distressed voice.
“...not in her bunkroom! Not in her cot! Not anywhere to be seen! I’ve check everywhere! Everywhere!” She choked on a sob, rubbing her hooves over her distraught muzzle. “Where’s she gone off to?! Why would she do something like this?!”
“And we’re going to find her, Belle!” Pilate exclaimed, grasping her shoulders in the middle of the top deck. “I promise you--”
“How could she have gotten past us to begin with?!” Belle cried as she stomped her hoof with a brief frown. “How could she have gotten past you?! I built O.A.S.I.S. to pick up the bouncing of a flea?! You’re telling me that neither of us can keep track of one l-little filly?!”
Eagle Eye scrambled up with Ebon in tow. “I just woke up Props and Josho! We’re gonna cover the east side of town and they’re gonna comb the west outskirts!”
“Good idea,” Pilate said with a nod as he leaned close to Belle’s shivering figure. “One unicorn and earth pony per team.”
“Guess that leaves us to the south fields!” Zaid sing-songed as he motioned to the metal mare. “Hop along, hot stuff! I may not be a unicorn, but I’ve still got a nose to find the little scamp with!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Roarke grumbled as she fit her forelimb into a pneumatic sleeve and activated her suit with a steamy hiss. “I’ll cover the lakeside first and then come join you. You’d better not slow me down.” As she hopped off the vessel, her lensed gaze blindly brushed past Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus gulped. She touched down onto the deck and stammered, “What happened?”
“It’s Kera, Rainbow,” Pilate said with a nervous shudder. “She’s… she’s…” He clenched his teeth and seethed. “She’s up and run off!”
“C-can you blame her, Pilate?!”
“Belle, please--”
“Well can you?!” Belle shrieked, frowning hideously. “We talk about her behind her back like she’s some sort of livestock and expect her to be okay with it?!”
“How else were we to discuss what’s at hoof?!”
“With her?! With the whole group?! I don’t know!” Belle wiped her cheek, shuddering. “All I wanted to do was protect the filly! Not drive her away! She doesn’t need this! She needs ponies who can trust her enough to level with her!”
“Look, we all do dumb things!” Rainbow Dash said, waving her forelimbs. “And Kera’s no exception! I knew a pony once who liked to be melodramatic when poop hit the fan, and boy were there days when I wanted to shove her sewing machine down her throat.”
“Rainbow… darling, I-I appreciate your g-good spirit…” Belle sniffled, her lips quivering. “But… but…”
Rainbow grasped the mare’s hooves with her own. “Say no more. I got this.”
“But Rainbow! She’s crafty, elusive, scared--”
“I said I’ve got this!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward and nuzzled the mare. “You’ve been in my head. You know when I’m telling you the truth! I’m gonna find her!”
Belle nodded, clenching her teeth. “I wish… I wish I was so lucky to relate to all ponies as I relate to you, Rainbow Dash…”
“Yeah, well…” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and took off. “Where’d the fun be in that?” She shot in a prismatic blur, scouring the northeast countryside. “Hey elk!” she shouted back. “If you don’t hear back from me in an hour, lift off and start searching the hillsides!”
“Floydien hears the color wheel! Nancy Jane is ready and waiting!”
Belle bit her lip, leaning against Pilate as she stared at Rainbow’s rapid flight.
“Beloved? I’d better… uhm… go and assist Zaid. I suspect he and Roarke could use all the help we could get.” He gave her shoulder a nudge. “Maybe you’d like to come with me? Unless… you’d rather assist some of the others so that we spread the search around the most.”
“I would like to do that, Pilate.” She gulped. “But I’m afraid…”
“Of what, Belle? Tell me.”
She whimpered, “That she doesn’t want to see us…”
Um. Yeah. There's something called secrets? They aren't good when its information effects members of a group. Kera will be fine physicaly. Don't know mentally. Might've found a Shell. Who knows.
Also, you guys read slow.
Yay, I'm caught up again. I'm always surprised at how well set up the atmosphere is in this story. It's just so easy to fall in to it.
This reminds me of an episode of star trek -- could someone evade a class one search? Yes.
Finny was the character.
I've gotta say, I didn't see this coming. Kera would be upset, yes, but running away? Didn't think that would happen.
This is Australia...
3956512
She could still be hiding aboard the Jury for all we know. If you are evading a search you can be anywhere.
Or she could be up among the clouds...
Poor Kera...
And so. it begins the countdown to the sad ending of Odrsjot.
I am a bit confused of what Kera is so upset about.
Is it because Belle and Pilate wanted her to stay, or because they never mention RD dying.
Or probably both.
I knew she was gunna be pissed that they've been doing this.
I can't say I'm surprised.
Hopefully they'll have a nice little heart to heart and everything will be okay.
Yeah right.
3956399 she sees sea Shells
I'm calling the chapter name now
I wonder where Kera has used all her stealth and silents to hide.
Or if she.
Occasionally one way someone or something is hidden, is by just not being there at that time.
I'm gonna stick to my last comment. Pilate's totally a changeling right now.
It'd be one hell of a reveal to end the story.
You can't blame her.
~Basso
3956656
I'm pretty sure its because Belle and Pilate had been keeping this stuff from her and because they were going to choose to go with Rainbow Dash instead of staying with her, even if they planed to come back. I really don't blame her for being upset about this.
3956517 The best place to hide is under a nose.
3956991 Or behind backs.
3956656
They were discussing her fate without her input. I'd be wanting to shoot someone for that.
3957160 this is true too
Annnnnnd cue dramatic storm.
I'm thinking Kera is ultimately going to stay in Lerris. And if she does, Belle and Pilate will stay with her. I imagine this story is going to end with the breaking of the fellowship.
They've been in Lerris for what, 4 weeks now? 5? Plenty of time for certain unkillable characters to make a reappearance and maybe meet with Kera but neither recognizing the other due to dirt and grime with insanity and sadness clouding judgements. Wouldn't it be great for Shell and Kera to meet up and talk about their problems to each other without spilling any major details that give away who they are and without realizing who the other in the conversation is?
Called it, ha ha ha!
I'm usually WRONG but now I get to revel in my rightness for a change!
... Ooooh WHY DID I HAVE TO BE RIGHT!
I hope they find her!
3956976
I disagree. If I'm understanding her character and her motivations correctly, I believe she left because she knew Belle and Pilate were going to remain back with her in Lerris, and she didn't want to be responsible for breaking the group up.
She thinks that if she isn't around, Belle and Pilate won't have a reason to stay behind.
the opening with rainbow on the clouds..I had a feeling she was missing the girls a lot more than usual recently.
Catharsis is more painful the less restrained the one experiencing it is - and Kera is a storm child. Good luck, little scamp.
Heh.
3958447 Especially with all this *non-explosive* drama in Lerris. She just isn't ready to lose more friends. When Rainbow finds Kera were going to be in for a tear-jerking conversation.
3957803 Oh, and hand backs! No, wait nevermind.
3958407
The problem I have with that is Pilate said they would, in his best case scenario, go with RD as far as they could (until RD died in this case) then return to Kera if she decided to stay in Lerris so running away doesn't really change that plan all that much other then the return part; if that had been her reason she would have just chosen to go on with the Jury. Kera is a kid, a tough kid sure, but a kid none the less; really they were basically saying that they wanted to abandon her for RD and come back when it was convenient for them to do so. That has to be really damn hard to hear for a kid that has already lost so much.
you didn't check the bathroom
she's in the bathroom
she had to go really bad
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Pretty sure that she's still on the Jury somewhere...when Belle and Pilate find her, I hope that they have a heart to heart moment. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
20 chapters more until something sad happens. It's already building...
-SPirit
3964529
Kera . . . don't do this.
Actually...that was to be expected after she overheard their conversation. Children are just like that.
Oh dear, poor Kera. I guess she's just gone off somewhere to blowoff steam... although I wouldn't be surprised if she did something more drastic considering the nature of these stories.
shes a scared child. Doing what any scared child would do. She thinks that everyone is fighting and hurting because of her. So she ran away so that they had nothing to fight or hurt about.
Well, that took a turn.
Just as I thought they were going to head east again they took a nose dive right for my feels...
Those first three paragraphs drew such a wonderful picture.
Relax guys, she's got this.
http://imgur.com/j3Bp3RH