Friends That are Left
"Every now and then, I-I still feel it." Pilate gulped, then clutched the sheets around him tighter as he leaned his head against the infirmary bed's pillow. "The sensation of catching on fire from the inside out. It... it's the m-most pain I've ever felt, beloved," he said. "At least... since the crash... the crash that started all of it..."
"Shhhh..." Belle stroked his cheek with her unbandaged forelimb. "You don't have to talk about it, Pilate."
He bit his lip. "But of course I do! I... I was in so much pain..." He grimaced. "I said things, Belle. I should have been stronger for you and Kera, but all I could think of was asking you... begging you for comfort."
"You were under a lot of duress."
"And you weren't?!" Pilate's breath squeaked. "I heard things. And I felt things, but fate made me blind to all of the atrocities that happened that night. I can't say the same for you, and I can't say the same for... for..."
A hush fell over the confined space of the infirmary.
Pilate sighed heavily. "Has... has she said anything, Belle? Has she spoken a word at all?"
Belle slowly shook her face. Her eyelids hung low. "No, Pilate. She... she breathes. She sleeps. It... it takes a bit of coaxing, but she eats and drinks. But... no words. No expression. She just... exists." She bit her lip before stammering forth, "She even lets me brush her hair. The gorgeous little thing is so pretty. So beautiful. And yet... I'd give anything j-just to hear her c-complain about it again—" She bit onto the end of her hoof.
Pilate's ears twitched, desperate to hear Belle's voice. He winced when all her could hear were the quiet building blocks of a tearful sob.
"We had everything, Pilate." She gulped and stroked his mane as she stared off into the bulkheads. "We had a home. We had a daughter. We had peace. It just... it j-just doesn't feel real. That this could have happened. That he could have found us."
Silence.
"But... but he didn't destroy us, beloved," Pilate said. "You. Me. Kera. We're still here." He whimpered through a painful smile. "We can st-still make something of this, and with Rainbow Dash by our side—"
"It isn't the same, Pilate. We shouldn't pretend that it's ever going to be the same. Maybe if things were different. Maybe if... if..." She couldn't finish that sentence.
Pilate blinked into nothingness. He felt cold, and realized that Belle's hoof wasn't stroking his mane anymore. His breaths quickened, and he murmured, "Belle? Bellesmith?" Silence. He gargled up a pitiful breath. "I know it's... it's bleak now. But remember what I've told you before. We must always have hope. We must. I mean... we have each other and... and Kera will come around! You'll see! We still have the Jury and... and it can be our home... it can... can..."
His face grimaced and his ears folded back. A cold shiver overwhelmed the zebra.
"It's my fault. I... I pressed this upon Kera. I pressed it upon all of us. If... if I had never brought us to Lerris... if I had left it all alone... and just stuck to what we knew... and the ponies we trusted, then maybe... m-maybe he would never have caught up with us. Maybe... maybe you would have had your daughter... and a beloved who could still protect you..."
Silence.
"I'm... I'm so sorry, Belle. I... I'm so sorry for everything." He gulped and murmured across the room. "Belle?" He twitched. "Belle...?"
She was gone.
The zebra lifted his head. He held his breath, shook, then slumped back into the bed. Pilate's face collapsed in a pent-up sob, and her curled his forelimbs to his face as he wept bitterly into the mattress.
Belle sat a few spaces outside the door to the infirmary. She had collapsed, slumped to the floor with her back to the bulkheads. The mare buried her muzzle into her forelimbs as her shoulders heaved and heaved. When she finally lifted her muzzle, it was stained with tears. Belle's eyes rolled back as she sniffled and wiped her cheek dry. In a pitiful breath, she gazed towards the door to her quarters where she knew a catatonic foal lay waiting.
Before she could move, she saw a blue body blurring down the crawlspace near the bow of the ship.
Belle gasped, her moist eyes narrowing. With a curious tremor, she trotted forward on shaky hooves and peered down the vertical chamber. "Rainbow...?" Her voice echoed against the metal walls. "What...?"
The whole ship shifted. It was only then that Bellesmith realized that the Noble Jury had slowed down, only to pick right back up.
Breathless, she climbed down the metal ladder to the bottommost deck.
Rainbow Dash sat, her body making a thick shadow as she faced out the sunlit windows of the observation room. Belle trotted up softly and came to a stop behind her.
"What... what's going on, Rainbow?" Belle asked in a quiet tone. She glanced up at the crawlspace and then back at the pegasus. "I saw you darting about just now. Did the Noble Jury stop for something? What's wrong?"
Rainbow's wings coiled up. At last, she sighed. "She's gone."
"Who's gone?"
"Roarke," Rainbow droned. "She left."
"She..." Belle did a double-take. "She what?!" The mare started to pant. "When? I-I mean... how?!" She flinched, looking back and forth from the rear of the ship and where Rainbow sat. "It... that... w-we need to go after her, then!"
"Belle..."
"We gotta bring the Jury around or send out a search party or—"
"Roarke left because... because I told her to, Belle."
The mare stared at her, her jaw dropped. "Rainbow Dash..."
"She's fine," the mare muttered. "She's a strong pony. In fact, she's better off without us. Face it. You and I both know that this sort of a journey wasn't in her blood."
"How..." Belle gulped and trotted a few steps closer. "How could you say that? I mean... Rainbow Dash, you're the reason she ever turned face to begin with!"
"All I did was beat her senseless," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "And senseless ponies do senseless things."
"No." Belle frowned. "You showed her that there was a life worth living beyond pathetic, blind fealty to a mountain stronghold full of psychopaths! If it weren't for you—"
Rainbow Dash turned and glared over her shoulder. "It was because of Roarke that Kera chose to stay in Lerris."
Belle froze in place. "What... makes you say that?"
"Because she told me. Directly to my face." Rainbow's nostrils flared. "She said that back in Archer Pointe, when she had some alone time with Kera, she told the filly about the coming trip to Lerris. She told her that she would have to make a choice because you and Pilate were too 'weak' to."
Belle's brow furrowed. She stared with disbelief into the bulkheads.
"She went behind our backs and screwed around with Kera's head." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I don't care how good her intentions were. Things would have been a lot different if Kera's head wasn't so full of Roarke's words." She sighed and stared out the window ahead. "So... I sent her away." Her ears folded. "Before she could hurt herself by making another confession..."
Silence.
"Even still, Rainbow..." Belle spoke quietly but firmly. "Roarke is not Shell. We could use her. We can use everything we can get for the trip ahead—"
"I can't use her."
"Why not?!" Belle gazed at her pitifully. "Because she cared for you in ways she never had the chance to say?"
"That's not important right now," Rainbow Dash muttered, her scowl increasing with each breath. "Nothing is except for making a safe trip across the Frozen Sea—"
"Even Pilate and myself?!" Belle snapped. "And the way we feel about you?!"
Rainbow looked back, and when she did she was glaring. "Just tell me one thing, Belle." Her nostrils flared and flared. "Did you know?"
Belle merely blinked.
So Rainbow snarled, "Did you know about Imre? About her being Shell's daughter?" She gulped as her shoulders shook in anger "Did youknow about the way she died?! About how her loyalty to me and her remorse over her father drove her to do what she did?"
Belle opened her mouth, lingered, then finally blurted, "Yes."
Rainbow was silent.
"I knew the moment Shell's party boarded our ship the day Simon died," Belle murmured. "The day I saw that... th-that ghastly piece of her hanging about his neck. And... and..."
"He made you sequence with her, didn't he?" Rainbow said in a cold tone. "Why else would he have spared you then when he did everything to torment you and Kera and Pilate in Lerris?"
Belle opened her mouth, but her eyes instantly watered. Lips quivering, she plopped down on her haunches. "I... became Imre..." She shivered. "In his fractured mind, Shell mistook me for her. And... and I used it to my advantage."
Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw.
Two tears ran down Belle's face as she stared aghast into the bulkheads. "I honed his fractured psyche like it was a missile and guided it towards Seclorum's hideout... all b-because I wanted to stop Lasairfion's attack." Belle brushed her cheek and pulled at her short bangs as she whimpered, "Because I wanted to help bring an end to Nevlamas' chaos... and b-because I wanted to see my beloved again... and you... and Kera..."
Silence, until Belle's voice cracked forth a pained sob.
"I'm responsible..." She hugged herself in the middle of the observation room, weeping. "I-I turned his insanity back into an obsession. I... I just wanted to reunite with you and everypony else again. I... I didn't think beyond that." She grimaced. "I... I had him right in my clutches... when he was at his weakest. I was his Imre... and Imre could have slain him."
Rainbow slowly shook her head. Her eyes watered as she said, "All I wish... is th-that you would have told me the truth." She sniffled. "You should have told me about Imre the first chance we reunited at Seclorum's."
"Rainbow Dash, please... I... I wanted to... but... b-but..."
"It's okay. I understand, Belle." Rainbow Dash stared ahead, her eyes drying against the sunrise. "You needed me to be strong in your belief."
"Your... b-belief?"
"That I'm not some kind of monster..." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "That I'm not some sort of horribly unlucky glutton for circumstance that drags calamity across every place she goes." She breathed deeply. "Everything Shell ever said was bullcrap, but he hunted me for a reason. And who's to know who or what else won't take up the chase beyond this cruddy sea?"
"Rainbow..."
"I can stand somepony like Roarke keeping secrets behind my back. But not you, Belle." She shook her head. "Not those few ponies I have left to call friends."
"Rainbow!" Belle sat up, sucking her breath in for the solid breath to say, "Don't take on this attitude! Don't you get it?! This is exactly what Shell would have wanted."
She slowly turned around. "It's not just my attitude."
Belle blinked confusedly at that, but then she winced, rubbing together the hooves that had stroked a zebra's mane just minutes ago.
Rainbow trotted forward and spoke in an icy tone. "When we reach new land across this sea, we're going to find the first safe haven that comes to us..." She took a deep breath. "And we're going to part ways, Belle."
"Part ways?"
"Eljunbyro did what it set out to do," Rainbow said. "I can't hold back Austraeoh's part any longer. It's the least that you and Pilate deserve."
"Rainbow, neither of us c-could have stopped what happened in Lerris! Please!" Belle choked back a sob and gripped both of Rainbow's shoulders with her hooves. "Don't do this, Rainbow. Whatever this is—I'm begging you. Don't send me and Pilate away like you did Roarke! Everything is... th-thrown all over the place and splitting up now is not going to help things! Shell's dead. As horrible as the past is—it's the past. Please... we need you."
Rainbow stood still.
Belle stared at her, her lips quivering beneath a tear-stained face.
Quietly, Rainbow gripped Belle's hooves and lowered them to the floor. She said, "I'm going outside to scout the skies ahead. You need to stay here, below deck, where it's safe."
Belle shook, fumbling to say something.
With a ruffle of her feathers, Rainbow trotted past her, then shimmied silently up the ladder of the crawlspace.
On her own, Belle fell to her knees in the sunlight, and brought her hooves over her face.
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Damn it. Roarke was cool. And then poof.
Hope she finds something nice to do.
Poopy.
YESSSS!!!! DITCH THE WEAK PONIES! BECOME THE FLAME!
Rainbow...Rainbow please stop now...
A certain blue pony might just regret this night later.
And spend some time carving names into wooden doors where few have ever been before.
Yep, she done did got broke.
Flame my flank. That ship went cold before the Frozen Sea even was in sight.
Man, this ain't fun at all.
I get that there's trauma and whatnot, but the one thing I can never stand in characters is blatant stupidity. Don't much care how good a reason she has for it, Rainbow's being stupid.
This... is really what I didn't want to see.
A new book made of utter self-pity and brooding.
...And you better bring Roarke back damn it, no way am I going to believe this is the end of that. We lose one of the best characters because a barely plausible event made everybody too overcome with grief to think. All that character development down the drain. No, goddamn it, no.
The last chapters of this story have done nothing but ruin it.
okay, maybe not changelings... oh well
Ironic that as they fly into the north, the first thing that freezes is Rainbow's spirit. Hopefully it'll thaw out by the time they reach the far shore. Can't restore harmony with this sort of attitude, Rainbow.
I doubt this'll be the last we see of Roarke. If anything, Imploding Colon has a strong sense of dramatic flair. No way a character that's lived that long won't go out with a bang.
Disregard ponies acquire... wait a minute
Wow.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Thirteenth Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I...I actually think that I know what's going on here. Imploding might be returning to his roots - sending Dash on a journey on her own again. And that's why all of her friends have to leave her. Soon, very soon, the Jury is going to split apart...
And if that's the only reason why he made Roarke leave, then it definitely feels forced. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. GHGNNGN 1
-Spirit
i think Discords essence is tarting to affect Rainbow's psyche...perhaps shes less resistant to it when traumatized by something like this...
also, good luck Roarke, wherever you are....
Not a single feel to be had.
The original parting from Lerris? When they were leaving Belle, Pilate, and Kera in a new home? I cried manly tears.
This? Nothing. After all that garbage with Shell, I really just don't feel anything from this.
How could things have sunk so low? This is terrible.
Wherever your travels take you, Roarke most rare...
I hope at last you find happiness.
This has taken a massive left turn....shit hit the fan so hard that there's nothing even left of the shit or the fan.
4319300
That... could be pretty awesome.
But would it be worth it?
5898361 I don't think so. this isn't right. The whole point of eljunbyro and odrsjot was Rainbow Finding herself and her friends again, Finding her Reason to keep on going. What good would leaving that reason behind to rot do her? She is Loyalty, but what is loyalty without something or someone to be loyal to? She was lost without friends and she would be again?
Fuck, everyone is breaking down.
This isn't the ending I was hoping for.
6282952 Forget about fixing the machine world. This crew needs some major repairs first.
Eff your attitude, Rainbow. I'm getting sick of her self-righteous dismissal of everyone who cares about her.
6927489
6647984
Seconded.
6927489
Meh, it's not out of the expected in my opinion. She has it in her head now that she's a monster who brings nothing but danger and death to those she brings along with her. She probably doesn't even realize it but she's started pushing everyone away because she honestly thinks they will be better off without her around.
After reading the comments, it seems like most people are like dead inside. Welp, can't blame em... Cuz it does really fked up...
Oh shit, that one way to say "fuck you, goodbye"
I guess you can't kick somebody out when you're nomadic
"Where it's safe" safe from what?
8469030
Ever consider there some truth there?
I mean, she's like a villain magnet.
+- and all that jazz.
It may be a ethically gray subject, but the last time she did this she had to be revived by Eljunbyro after nearly getting torn to ribbons by a dragon god
Gee, Rainbow is like the world's biggest hypocrite right now. First off, being honest doesn't mean you make sure to say every little thing about your life and secrets to everypony, and two: Rainbow hasn't even told most of the crew about her past and the reasons why is is what she is right now, even though it seems pretty important to know.
MANE 5! SMACK SOME SENSE BACK INTO RD! I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE TO USE NECROMANCY TO DO IT, TWI!