“Roarke?!”
The metal mare sat, squatting, in the middle of the engine room. Her thin blue eyes reflected the lavender glow of the tome within its iron cage.
Booster Spice stuck his head in further from navigation. “Roarke? There's something you may wanna see here!”
The mare glanced over, blinking. With a firm breath she stood up, shook her metal-plugged joints loose, and briskly trotted after the stallion as he led her towards the front of the ship.
Booster Spice climbed up into the cockpit and Roarke followed after. They both stood up behind the piloting chair.
“What is it?” Roarke asked.
Zaid pointed straight ahead through the windshield. “Check it out for yourself.”
Roarke squinted.
Lying ahead of them, south of the mountains that hugged the edge of the Val Roan central plain, stretched long arid fields of sparse vegetation and dry brush. This far east, the land had transformed into a veritable desert, but the desolation was nothing near the scope to match that of the Grand Choke's legendary descriptions.
But that wasn't what Roarke noticed first-hoof. In several random patches, flames could be seen, spitting smoke and ash into the air. The closer that the Noble Jury hovered, it became obvious that towns were burning, each in a smoldering patch. Bodies below trotted hurriedly between buildings, gathering wagons and piling up loot and storage.
“Are they under attack?” Roarke asked.
“Looks like it!” Booster exclaimed.
Roarke clenched her teeth. “Green Bandits?”
“Not sure, but I wouldn't doubt it.”
“Is it go time?” Zaid asked, gripping the controls. “Please tell me that it's go time.”
“It looks like we're too late to stop what's happened here,” Roarke said.
“But we can still stop it, right?” Booster Spice asked.
“Highly unlikely.” Roarke shook her head. “But we can definitely inflict much pain upon the attacking party.”
“So, why won't we try to stop it?!” Booster exclaimed.
“I didn't say we wouldn't.” Roarke's nostrils flared as she turned to the stallion. “Go fetch Eagle Eye and Josho. I'm taking the Lounge transport. You and Zaid follow up.”
“Yes, ma'am!” Booster scurried back down the passageway.
“Get Props prepared!” Roarke shouted as she opened the doorway to the top deck. “Have Pilate and Belle ready for backup!”
“Can't you at least say 'Go time' though?!” Zaid sputtered.
“Rainbow Dash isn't here.” Roarke paused to glare back at him. “When she is... then we can do with the pointless catch phrases!”
“Awwwwww.”
“Keep the Jury in a low flight!” Roarke pointed before galloping out. “Whatever you do, follow my lead!”
Shooooooooom!
Whizzball descended on a cluster of buildings still spitting ash and flame.
Several zebras looked up, gasping. They dropped what they were doing and hid behind their wagon trains.
The black sphere reflected rows upon rows of bright fires as they sent smoke into the heavens. Not long after landing, the side doors hissed open. Roarke glided out, fully-armored. Eagle Eye and Josho galloped tightly behind her, weapons drawn.
“Stop right there!” Roarke shouted through her crackling helmet. She held a hoof up with a fetlock-mounted mini rocket. “Drop your weapons! All of you!”
“There is no attack... There is no attack!” one zebra shouted.
“Roarke...” Eagle Eye murmured. He leaned in, wincing at the smoke and devastation. “Put your stuff away, for real.” He gulped. “I think whatever happened here happened a long time ago.”
“Yeah...” Josho nodded, clutching his shotgun. “Something's off about this.”
“Please... we s-simply wish to leave this place!” A zebra mare said.
Roarke glanced left. Glanced right. Cl-Clak! She retracted the weapons in her armor and strolled calmly ahead. The zebras shivered more as she drew closer. Nevertheless, she approached the mare who had spoken and stood before her.
“Who set these houses on fire? Was it the Green Bandits?”
The zebra winced, shook her head, and stood up straight. “No.” She gulped. “It was us.”
Josho and Eagle Eye exchanged glances.
Clak-Clak-Clak! Roarke retracted her helmet so she could stare with calm eyes. “You?” she inquired. “For what purpose?”
The zebra mare took a deep breath. “For months, now, our southern farms and water wells have been attacked... over and over and over again!” She frowned. “And despite all of our pleas, there has been no help from the north! No answer whatsoever to our constant entreating!”
“The Val Roans have abandoned us!” one zebra shouted.
“They care only for elk and deer kind!” exclaimed another.
“They would stand by and let our foals die, rather than protect the land that the Council rules!”
“That's awful...” Eagle Eye said. Josho and Roarke glanced at him. He frowned. “Well, it is!”
“We've lost too many loved ones to the Southern Cartel,” the mare said, She brushed back her stiff mane and shuddered. “The goblins took my husband last harvest. I... I know that they're using him as a slave...” She gulped. “Or for food. I've long given up hope of ever seeing him. Everypony here has given up hope... for it's clear to us that Val Roa has given up.”
“So that's it?” Josho asked. “You're just going to burn everything you own and leave?”
“We shouldn't be alive right now,” the mare said. “The goblins have been attacking with such frequency that it's surprising that we're still in one piece.”
“They've retreated?” Roarke asked.
“They h-had no reason to!” the zebra exclaimed. A two story building collapsed behind her, but she didn't flinch. “They had our farms surrounded! Our homesteads within their reach! But at the last second, they pulled back!” She frowned. “Well, they'll be back soon, and no Val Roans will bother to protect us. But we're not about to let the goblins have any piece of us!”
“We're leaving this place,” an old stallion said, his stripes gray and faded. “The homes of our fathers... forefathers?” He slowly shook his sad face. “They mean nothing if our children cannot live there in peace.”
“We'll find another place to dwell,” the mare said. “Alafreo... the southern swamps...” She shuddered. “We'll even work for the Lounge if we have to. But we cannot...” She bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes. “We simply c-cannot live here anymore!” She covered her face, sobbing. “Nopony c-can live in Val Roa anymore...”
Roarke took a deep breath. The air thundered with skystone engines. She looked up to see the Jury flying overhead.
“If they've retreated when all that they needed was in their grasp...” Josho thought out loud. “Then the goblins must have been ordered to retreat by a higher authority.”
“And for a bigger cause,” Eagle Eye said. “But what?”
“Invasion,” Roarke muttered. “It's a sure sign.”
“As in Val Roa?!” Eagle Eye balked. “That's suicide! The Soul Sentries Arcanista spoke about would fry the goblins to a crisp! We had to bend over backwards just to get Rainbow, Kera, and Ebon through!”
“You forget...” Roarke turned to glance at Eagle. “There's a Coronation happening soon. The timing simply can't be coincidental.”
“Hmmmff... Never fails,” Josho grumbled.
Eagle looked up. “What's that?”
“The best and worst thing to come out of a huge power shift is another huge power shift.” He glanced aside at the smoke and burning buildings. “Think about it. This 'Prince Eine's fella's parents have kicked the bucket, and he's surrounded by deer and elks and cruddy moose-goons with a whole lotta power. Seems like the perfect time for the Council to take over and kill the monarchy for good.”
“By what?!” Eagle Eye exclaimed. “Calculating an invasion with the Cartel from the inside?!”
“They wouldn't even need to succeed with the attack,” Roarke droned. “Simply give the populace of Val Roan proper an excuse to legitimize the transfer of power to the Council.”
“And all the while...” Eagle Eye gazed with glossy eyes at the devasation. “They ignore the perils of their own subjects... what a waste...”
“Perhaps...” Roarke nodded. “Perhaps not.” She stepped forward, approaching the sobbing mare. Reaching out with a metal hoof, she raised the zebra's chin up.
The mare gazed up at her, eyes quivering.
Roarke squinted. “Do you all have a solid plan for your exodus?”
She nodded, sniffing. “We were... h-hoping to head west and find a province willing to give us shelter before we made our way into the lands beyond Val Roa.”
“Have you ever heard of a place called Bountiful?”
Eagle Eye and Josho did double-takes. “Uhhhh... Roarke...?”
“Bountiful...?” The zebra blinked.
“I think we may have just the place for you to stay.”
“Psssst! Eagle Eye leaned in. “Roarke...!”
Josho cleared his throat and tilted his muzzle towards her ear. “Isn't it rather presumptuous on our part to assume Bountiful can hold this many zebras?”
“What if Arcanista doesn't approve?” Eagle squeaked. “I mean, it's her town!”
“The Duchess is still flesh and blood,” Roarke said. “Which means, with the simple application of miniature explosives and surgical blades, I could very easily recondition her into a duke...” She turned and squinted at the stallions. “...and you two into baronesses.”
“H-hey!” Eagle Eye clapped his hooves together and grinned at the zebras. “Wagons west, everypony! Looks like you all have yourselves an escort!”
The zebras exchanged glances, murmuring with the first sign of enthusiasm in a long while.
“This... won't exactly be easy,” Josho said. “Much less that swift of a task, Roarke.”
“I'm well aware of that,” the metal mare said. “But these zebras won't be safe from the goblins this far south on their own.”
“I thought we were supposed to be on standby for when Rainbow Dash needs us.”
“And we will be.”
“You really think this isn't biting off more than we can chew?”
“Think hard about it.” Roarke leaned her head aside. “Would Rainbow Dash—loyal to the core—do things differently?”
Josho took a deep breath, leaning back. “Nope.” He frowned. “But between you and me, she can be really... really stupid.”
“Hmmmm...” Roarke tapped her chin and gazed up at the smoke. “'Roarke Most Stupid.' Has a nice ring to it.” She rattled her armor for punctuation. “Given the proper accessories...”
“Heh...” Josho shrugged, stifling a belch. “Works for me.” And he began signaling the Noble Jury to hover at a low, protective glide. “One zebra train coming right up...”
Wrong cardinal direction, asshole, get it right next time or you're outta here.
Even when you travel west you have to say wagons east. Get with the program.
The plot thickens. All the Classic signs of a long-game endgame.
Thirty-five push-ups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
Is there a reason RD is travelling east? This serious is so fucking long, I can't remember if it was ever explained.
Am I the only one getting major Pelennor Fields vibes off all this?
So… is the Grand Secretary on the young Prince's side, or the Council's side?
Oh, just get him/her on camera already.
So we find the local zebras having a brew up, but without Keras favourite, giant grasshoppers.
Well, looks like Chrysalis has,
<sunglasses>
Put some more Pawns on the BBQ.
Giggity.
Well, that's not ominous at all...
5202820 To go to the midnight armory (hey... an armory is sort of a stronghold stronghold=bastion. Chryssy for midnite bastion confirmed...sorry off topic) and protect the Harmonic Prism to restore the destroyed 5 elements (they were truly destroyed rather than just shattered like NMM did to them), or something like that.
I have a theory the rest of the mane 6 might somehow be revived from this restoration process as they were weilding them when they were killed.
Okay...even if she like the name Roarke most Stupid I pitty the foal who would call her that.
Roarke continues to be awesome.
Roarke is learning from the best.
Yes. Yes, it does.
5202820
All in Book Two, as I recall.
If you want to see what the main series is mostly about, you can read it in the style I did when I re-read it- Eljunbyro, then Austraeoh as flashback, then Innavedr and onwards.
It's really, really good. I encourage you to read it.
5202830
Nope. A great confrontation is coming to rustle our jimmies to the moon.
5202881
forums.euw.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=197995&d=1402666153
roarke #1 pon
Here we go
So, a group that's actually doing the logical thing when their village is hopelessly outmatched and soon to die.....................damn, lologic winning feels really hollow this time around.
5203189
I don't think my Jimmies can handle that much rustling
5203301
img.memerial.net/memerial.net/4372/jimmies-rustle-softly.jpg
5202787
I sense a lot of negativity coming from you, Arccy.
This just keeps getting more and more interesting as it goes. I really can't wait to learn how this is all being done.
Roarke's pretty much the new Dash already, won't be too long before she does this catchphrase thing also.
Rainbow Dash is rubbing off on you, Roarke...
If you were to make an actuall desert, you could greatly inflict damage on the car tell. It is like the hot version of scorched earth.
She is planning to give Bountiful an army, yes?
5204104 My ex couldn't understand her own father when he started speaking in his native dialect... or maybe it was the alcohol... she never did decide one way or another.
Wow, Roarke, it's truly amazing how much you have changed and grown since your introduction.
Brings a tear to my eye.
5204530 Becoming an army in exchange for a safe heaven and land does have a historical precedent in real life as well as fiction.
Well, at least now we have someone to take Dash's place when she finally kicks the paint bucket.
I can't wait to see Arcanista's reaction when she comes home to find her town bustling with displaced zebras.
5203742
Sorry Zaid-senpai.
Heh heh heh. Sexchange jokes.
More like Roarke Most Awesome.
Are we going to get complete closure on the Jury or will this story flash back to their continued adventures without RD?
Either way, I can't wait to see what awesome ponies RD makes friends with on the Dark Side of the world. I vote for a bat-pony and changeling party!
I was scared there was going to be a goblin attack when they weren't ready.
-Spirit
Hmm . . . the goblins possibly attacking Val Roa, huh? This should be interesting. It's odd knowing there is still so much story left, and it feels like we're getting close to funding out what's going on in this city. Time will tell, I suppose.
Some zebras just want to watch the world burn.
5204530 Even if it is an army of pyromaniacs I feel like the elk are a ton more powerful in comparison to these Zebras.
Jeeze, lots of stuff is going down around Val Roa. The last few chapters have been quite promising, what with the plan for getting into Val Roa and the couple of flashbacks. I've already got my suspicions for just what in the hell happened to Dash when the Jury got taken down by those Soul Sentry things. I gotta get back into the habit of commenting often on this story as I read it.
~SolidFire
Please. How far has Roarke come.
To see her acting as the
unquestionedonly slightly questioned leader of the Jury in Rainbow's absence is awesome, but this feels like a trap. What are they walking into here?This is definitely Rainbow's girlfriend.
Hmm