Ebon Mane instantly shuffled aside when Rainbow Dash trotted up. The pegasus halted as soon as she got a clear sight. Her ears folded, and she stooped down on trembling knees. Gulping, she looked up, flashing a glance from one equine to another.
"I... I don't get it... wh-when?"
"Around the time the first lights flickered," Ebon said. "Every unicorn's horn was going haywire. And then... erm... and then the Jury--"
"Everything running on mana went down," Props said, squeezing the book in her grip as her blue eyes glistened. "At first, I thought it was engine failure, but then I realized it was happening everywhere and to everypony's tech..."
Rainbow Dash bit her lip, staring back down with glossy eyes. "Her... her manacore." She gritted her teeth. "Friggin' A... that's what happened. It failed her."
"It all happened so fast, Rainbow Dash," Pilate said as he held Belle and Kera close. "There's nothing anypony could have done fast enough." He gulped. "Including you—"
"I'm not fast enough?!" she barked, sneering.
Pilate and Belle winced. The other ponies looked away, all save for Kera, whose face was trickling with tears.
Rainbow gulped and glanced back. "But... b-but the Jury is fine now! Maybe... maybe she c-can be fine too! Maybe she got better—"
"That was over thirty minutes ago, Rainbow Dash," Ebon Mane said. "She... sh-she's been cold ever since."
"I'm sorry, Rainbow." Pilate breathed. "She's gone."
Eagle Eye's face scrunched up. He turned and hid into Josho's big shoulder before he had a chance to sob. The large stallion said nothing.
Rainbow exhaled calmly. The edges of her eyes shimmered as she gently reached forward, playing with the metal-ringlets at the ends of Roarke's mane. "Belle," she murmured. "Tell me... what am I doing wrong?"
Belle sniffled, then glanced aside. "You... Y-You've done nothing wrong, Rainbow." She leaned over and nuzzled the pegasus, pausing in her sobs just long enough to speak evenly. "You've given everything to save all of us—and more. This battle came to a complete halt. I wish you could have seen it." She smiled delicately. "One way or another, you keep on flying, and you're spreading harmony where the world needs it."
Rainbow bit her lip to the bleeding point. "Then... how come I keep meeting ponies... and they just k-keep dying?"
Belle stammered wordlessly. A tear rolled down her cheek as she hung her head.
Rainbow's nostrils flared. "This isn't what Imre would have wanted." Her face wilted in pain. "This... isn't what Twilight and the girls would have wanted." Her jaws clenched. A slight whimper fluttered in the base of her throat. "Celestia, why am I even still alive...?" She leaned her head down, her body starting to heave. Belle and Props reached over from opposite sides, rubbing the pegasus' shoulders.
The Noble Jury hung in silence. Even Floydien's red eyes grew glossy.
And then Zaid groaned. "Pffffft. Yeah, alright. Enough of this shiet—" And he fiercely shoved his hoof into the back of Rainbow's neck.
"Mmmmmmmfff!" Rainbow's lips pressed hard against Roarke's cold muzzle. She sputtered and lifted her face as everypony gasped. "Zaid?!?"
The stallion shrugged. "Well, that's how it always worked in my book!"
Rainbow was glaring daggers. "How what worked?!"
"Gaaaaah!" Roarke suddenly inhaled, her whole body thrusting upwards.
"Luna Poop!" Rainbow fell back with a shriek.
"Spit!"
"Giggling Gagglesprockets!"
"Whoah dayum!"
"Haaah!" Zaid grinned a crescent moon. He jumped high and pumped a hoof into the air. "Biz-zowwww! Woooo! Yeah!" He slapped his hooves together. "What'd I friggin' tell you?!"
Roarke sat up straight, sputtering and spitting, her mane rattling like a throng of rattlesnakes while everypony (and elk) gawked.
"Storybook story, motherbuckers! Sleeping goddess-dayum-beauty! With explosions!" Zaid raised his hoof high. "Now who likes grilled-cheese?! Huh?! High-hoof!"
Floydien zapped Zaid into a mast.
"Ooof!"
As the stallion collapsed, Ebon shuffled over and sat besides the metal mare. "Roarke! How... in the wide world of hay alfredo are you still alive?!"
"Grkkkk..." Roarke quivered all over, clutching her lower abdomen. "B-b-backup... core..."
"You... you..." Ebon's eyebrow turned into ellipses. "You have a backup manacore?"
"Well of course she does, silly Ebony!" Props chirped, rolling her eyes. "Didn't you take Searonese 101? Why fill your body with two-thirds gizmos if you can fill it with three-fourths gizmos at thrice the cost?!"
"And just where do you have the room inside your cold, cold body for a backup manacore?!" Ebon squawked.
"Nnnnnghhh..." Roarke growled, her eye-lenses pistoning in and out. "You think a mare like me plans on using her b-birth canal anytime soon?"
"Oh, uhm, well I guess that makes—"
"You!" Roarke gripped his throat.
"Mmmmm-mommy!" Ebon wheezed.
"Why didn't you kill me when I asked you to, breeder?!" Roarke grumbled. "I told you I deserved a warrior's death!"
"B-b-but I couldn't! I-I didn't know how!" Ebon sweated profusely, trembling in her grip. "The only thing I know h-how to kill is an empty stomach!"
"How about I empty your stomach?!" Roarke shoved him hard across the deck and dragged herself up on trembling hooves. "Just reach in there and hollow it out with a Searonese war drill?! But I bet you'd love that, wouldn't ya, you sorry-tailed sissy?!"
"Heeeeeeeeee!" Eagle Eye plowed Roarke down to the deck, hugging her intensely. "Roarke, you're you againnnnn!"
"Grrrrrr!" Roarke snarled, thrashing helplessly at him with limp, un-armored limbs. "Get off me! I will murder you and your entire family!"
Instantly, the majority of the crew cooed and drew in, hugging the metal mare in a tight circle. Even Kera and Belle stopped sobbing long enough to nuzzle whatever piece of Roarke they could get a hoof-hold of.
Josho rolled his eyes, though it took all his muster not to bear even the slightest of smirks. Floydien stood tall in the background, cracking his neck joints. He caught a pair of ruby eyes from across the group, nodded, and turned right around before entering the cockpit. Slowly, with gusts of steam, the Noble Jury pivoted over the battlefield and glided its way east.
Rainbow Dash stared, her eyes darting back and forth from smiling face to smiling face. Roarke was throwing a hissy fit, in answer to which Eagle Eye merely giggled. Ebon laughed while Props hummed a merry little tune. In the middle of it all, Belle leaned back to take some time to nuzzle one another while Kera began dramatically weaving a tale of the last ten minutes inside the machine world.
Slowly, with an agonized groan, Zaid stood up. "Alright..." He raised a hoof and smiled crookedly. "I'll settle for some PB&J." That said, he collapsed onto the deck, out cold.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Slowly, her smile faded, and she gazed deeply—thoughtfully—into the eastern horizon, squinting against the sunrise, as Floydien made off for some nebulous destination.
Hah.
Zaid is Russian hero.
3795876
Zaid's role as representing the reader isn't new, but it's certainly well played here.
Seeing as my namesake character is deader than sediment and nobody including myself will remember his useless abdomen in three chapters, I name Zaid my heir. As a grilled cheese aficionado and shameless Rainboarker with no sense of propriety, he's basically my soul brother anyway.
So yeah, if he can take that scimitar from Shell, he can keep it.
Dude! What the fuck!?
You have played my heart like a stringed instrument!
I don't even know what my feelings are saying anymore...
They kissed? Fucking finally. This is the most high-strung and curious relationship I have ever seen.
3795902
Better late than never right?
For that matter, the string of updates could have ended ON the cliffhanger. Wouldn't that have been fun?
...are you really telling me that Rainbow's kiss lit up Roarke's crotch? Jesus Christ, Colon.
Anyway, happy chapter is happy. Everyone's back together again (including EE and Josho, who showed up out of goddamn nowhere), and we're all set to head east... presumably... nope, no unfinished business or lingering distractions at all.
Am I the only one who read this line in John Hurt's voice?
If Zaid isn't part of the Noble Jury at this point, I don't know what I'm going to do.
3795933
Sounds like Chobits xD
...well, almost, but eh~ *shrug*
Nothing like a kiss from Dash to activate Roarke's genital area
~Basso
3796336 Oh yes~
Yes, Ebon. Why. I'll not ruin the atmosphere by stating what everybody knows I'm thinking.
3795895 You are of course aware that changelings can only create copies by replacing real and actual persons, that they don't usually kill their victims and that their homelands apparently lie straight to the east.
I seriously fell asleep before this chapter was published. I went to bed pissed.
Thanks for that Deus Ex.
As soon as I saw the title of this one, I knew what's about to happen.
Classic, and thank god.
Yay! Rainboarke Lives!
You know, it would be funny if Shell disappears for the next 2 or 6 installments then pulls a Gollum when he reappears.
Colon, what. Ain't no party like a crotch-warming party, I guess...
wat
finally going back east again
Yes, for rocket launchers!
Don't do it! Don't give up hope for cheesy goodness. On second thought, you might want to settle. You'll probably die in the same chapter you finally get a grilled cheese anyways.
Oh gawd, I thought I was about to lose my favorite character for a second there!
Holy shit! Zaid,you glorious bastard! You saved the bucking day!
This was so freaking perfect. I would have been beyond pissed if Roarke died. Way to go Zaid for saving the day. In other news jaw surgery and being on a liquid diet for 5 weeks sucks but it was nice to have about 15 chapters to catch up on now that I am recovered enough to be able to read again
So, Roarke was cold and dead... for thirty minutes... and then she comes back to life with a little backup battery juice?
Uh huh.
I enjoy Roarke's character and I'm happy to see her live, but let the dead die, man. No need to pull a Deus Ex Machina on something that should be beyond possible to simultaneously kill and save a character in the same chapter(s). I would've been perfectly okay if that was the end of Roarke, if only because you can't save them all.
At least now she'll have the chance to die like a true Searonese mare.
24
Am I the only one who thought that this RD is a changeling? Specifically one who used to go by the name of Lasairfion?
Never change, Zaid. I swear he's the only sane one.
3800767 just because she was cold doesn't mean she was dead. Nobudy really saw her out of her suit so her being 2/3 gears and crap, her body temp is probably really cold. And I died laphing when she did come back though.
IIIIIt'S Dashie's evaluation time!
She's alive. Yay. Endmdmdjdiidwimemmkckfj. Very tired. I like this chapter...sort of a turning point in Dash's life. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
How many hearts did Mister Colon just tie on a string and yank around like a cat toy? What, ten on the boat and then another 2100 readers?
That man has a lot of string.
Huh. This would be a great stopping point. It's 50 chapters from the end and an end f an arc and it's 8 minutes after midnight.... Nahhhh. One more chapter!
New favourite Austraeoh line.
-Spirit
Now Kiss!!!!x4.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/3830518+_0b06d50ec9b00bb860dceedaa126d0c0.jpg
3801133 eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh you actually may have something there...last i saw of rainbow before this, she was chasing after Laiserfione...bizzare change of pace here. her suddenly dropping down on the Jury...maybe IC skipped a piece and will go back to how that came out after this...?
one thing i might add though, to combat your arguement...her character is spot on...maybe a little too spot on to be a changeling
but that makes this a psychological tug of war on my part...so imma keep that thought in the back of the head...
let us see where this goes, shall we?
They kiss after all this time, and it ends up saving Roarke's life. At least, I think it did. Nothing really points towards her kiss doing anything. But hey, Roarke's back, Zaid's amazing, and Kera is still the cutest thing in existence.
Zaid for best pony, no arguments
This will be the ONLY time I'll ever thank an author for breaking such an extremely emotional moment with comic relief. At least Rainbow now has the chance to say what she couldn't to Applejack.
'Take the world one day at a time, and live it while you can. You only live once, make the most of it so that when your time comes, you can say that you lived.'
I think Roarke is the only character who can make death threats and still be glomped like a metallic teddy bear.
All in all, glad the gang is happily back together again.
God damn that was some intense mood whiplash
I was about to cry and then WHAM
Zaid saved the day
also apparently Roarke has a manacore shoved in her vagina
welp
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/535/121/d5d.gif
5963772 Heh. That's funny. Babies.
I dunno. I don't think I could have taken roarke dying, might legitimately have killed the story for me.. Least not yet. And certainly not like that.
So glad everyone is alive dear god.
i lie ._.
I need a gif of Flodian slapping Zaid mid-air into the mast.
Happy ending
Zaid...I...I can't even
Get that stallion a sandwich...And then smack him again.
Holy hell, again, this was amazing! Glad I kept on going. Everything was too damned intense for me to stop earlier. I was so anxious for what I knew was gonna happen this chapter that I was shaking. I can't even begin to imagine what's ahead in the next bit of this story before the next book, because all of that crazy stuff seemed like a damn fine climax. Onward. Onward forever.
~SolidFire
AWWWWW YISSSSS
6244807 He read the tropes, and followed the instructions he found there. As such, we have found the resident bard.
Yeah, yeah. Backup power core that was somehow unaffected and manage to turn on at moment?
This is how the changelings going to be defeated guys, but Shining will be dash and Cadence will be Robot made.