The Noble Jury has seen many a sky on fire. We've survived cannonfire, brushes with battleships, boarding parties, and chaotic dragon minions.
Parked here for four days straight in one of the quietest, most serene valleys in the world? I think we're the most tense that we've ever been. Each day feels like an entire week of adrenaline packed into a gray sunrise and an even grayer sunset. Every hour looks and feels the same. Quite frankly, I don't know how the villagers of Lerris cope with it.
Granted, the ponies who live here don't have nearly as much on their minds. They're not thinking about losing some of their closest friends. They're not thinking of the frigid trip waiting just beyond the mountains. They're not thinking about all manner of nebulous enemies preparing to leap at their jugular just an ocean away... or closer.
Why are ponies like us so drawn to travel? We could very easily have found someplace in Ledomare to have hidden away. Between Floydien's guile, Pilate's intelligence, and Roarke's experience, we could very easily have discovered a hiding spot from the forces chasing us.
But we didn't resort to such an act, did we? No, we flew on. Why? Because we were led, inspired, and motivated by a pony who has been "flying on" for far longer than us, having survived even greater odds and encountered uglier enemies.
Am I blaming Rainbow Dash for the tension of this crew? No, mother. I owe her my life, and I'm glad to be rid of all the landscapes behind me. Still, I think it's one thing to emulate the pegasus. It's another thing to be her. I dread the day that we all find out that we simply cannot follow her for the same lengths that she has left to travel.
Maybe that's the reason for the tension. I'm not entirely sure. All I can do is keep these ponies well fed and hope that my supplement for their stomach will somehow find its way to their hearts...
"The what?!" Ebon gawked, making a face as he dished out pasta onto Josho's plate.
"Yeah, I know." Rainbow nodded from where she sat reclined in her seat of the Jury's mess hal. "Doesn't sound very fierce, does it?"
"I've heard of the 'Legion,'" Josho said, spooning up some noodles the very moment Ebon trotted on to give Floydien his serving. "They're a group of mixed species who took up mercenary jobs along the Southern Shore. But the Lounge?" His face twisted in confusion. "Doesn't ring a bell. And I'm a soldier who's seen many bells cracked."
"Mmmmmf!" Props finished slurping up a noodle and chirped, "Maybe it's nothing to be afraid of! From the sound of it, they're probably a bunch of super talented minstrels!"
"Heh..." Ebon glanced over his shoulder while dishing out more pasta. "Only you, Propsy."
"That's enough, sailboat," Floydien grumbled.
"Whoops! My bad..." Ebon trotted down the table.
Eagle Eye dabbed his muzzle with a napkin and looked up at Rainbow Dash. "Who told you about them?"
"Who else?" Rainbow shrugged. "The... er... 'Lerringtons.'"
"Hey, I like that!" Ebon rang.
"Mmmf... You would," Josho belched.
Eagle continued. "Well, I was speaking with a spouse of one of the rice farmers."
"Oh?" Ebon glanced over from the kitchen doorway. "When? I spent the first day here with them."
"Right." Eagle nodded. "And while you were busy getting your hooves muddy in the fields..." He paused to shudder, then continued. "...I was getting to know the local color."
"Did it involve sewing at all?" Josho droned between bites.
"That... it..." Eagle turned beet red. "No!" He cleared his throat and looked back at Rainbow's end of the table. "Anyways, turns out one of the mares who lived uysed to travel around a lot. When she heard that the Jury was heading east, she mentioned a mysterious group of fliers who regularly pull over ships that try to make the crossing over the Frozen Sea."
"What do you mean 'pull over?'" Rainbow Dash asked, eyes squinting. "You mean they board airships?"
Eagle shrugged. "She didn't say. Only that they wore masks and were really, really creepy. She described them as traders, but these don't sound like any normal merchants that I've heard of." Eagle glanced at the rest of the table. "Could be this 'Lounge' that Rainbow was talking about."
"Yeah..." Rainbow tapped her chin in thought. "The locals mentioned something about freaky masks too..."
"Maybe they're Xonan border patrol?" Ebon asked as he trotted back out of the kitchen. "I bet they'd be super anal about who gets to cross over into their territory from the east."
"Nah, this 'Lounge' isn't ponies," Rainbow Dash said. "That's about as much as the ponies around here could tell me."
Ebon blinked. With a look of concern on his face, he raised his hoof to speak—
Eagle Eye inadvertently interrupted him. "There was something else the mare said. About the Frozen Sea and the air passage over it."
"Yeah, what?" Rainbow asked.
"She said that the few creatures who have passed over spoke of... well..." Eagle shifted where he sat. "Of something in the snow."
"'Something?'" Rainbow's brow furrowed. "What kind of a 'something?'"
"Oh great." Floydien rolled his eyes. "More glimmer."
"Sounds like a long, perilous trip, whatever the case," Josho spoke up. He took a sip from a goblet and looked at the others. "Could be easy to hallucinate whatever."
"Yeah, but according to this mare, tons of travelers all spoke of the same thing," Eagle stated. "It was something 'large and ominous in the blizzard'." He gulped. "Like a mountain appearing out of nowhere. Some ships that came out of the Strip of Flurries didn't start by themselves. There were entire convoys that set out from the lands to the east, and... well... not all of th-them survived the trip."
"What, they crashed?" Rainbow asked. "Got captured? Exploded?"
Eagle shrugged. "She didn't say anything more after that. We... uhm..." His ears drooped. "We resumed sewing."
Silence... and then a creepy whistling sound.
Josho glared aside. "You mind, blondie?"
Props snorted back a giggle, cleared her throat, and dug through her pasta. "Sorry..."
Ebon hung his head, staring dully into the floor.
"Did a kitchen utensil die or something?"
Ebon looked up. "Huh?"
Rainbow had turned around in her chair and was speaking calmly to the stallion. "You look down in the muzzle. Everything cool?"
"Heh..." Ebon smiled nervously. "Thanks for your concern?"
Rainbow gave a devilish smirk. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Ebon glanced at Eagle Eye, then back at Rainbow.
The pegasus blinked.
"Can I tell you something?" he said.
"Yeah. Sure."
He trotted closer and spoke in a quiet tone. "It's... just something Roarke had said to me, is all..."
"Roarke said something?" Rainbow stared. "...to you?"
"Yeah yeah..." Ebon rolled his eyes. "Anyways, she's been building up this mega-super-death suit thingy lately..."
"Pfft. Totally."
"And I was all 'Well, what are you paranoid about?' And she gave me this attitude that amounted to 'Why are you not paranoid?'"
"I'm having a hard time imagining those words coming out of her mouth."
"Well, I'm paraphrasing."
"Ah. Go on."
"It's just that... I feel like she knows something that the rest of us don't."
"Like what?"
"Like..." Ebon shifted uncomfortably. "Like... our business at Seclorum's camp isn't entirely done."
"In what way?"
"Do I gotta spell it out for ya?" Ebon bit his lip. "Those... things that you saw, Rainbow..."
"Oh... those..."
"Yeah. Those." His burgundy brow furrowed. "Giant, buglike equines who could change into anything at a moment's whim? Who's to say that they couldn't spring a trap for us anywhere?"
"Well, all the best to be on the lookout, then."
"But not everypony is as brave as you, Rainbow Dash!" Ebon leaned in to whisper. "Nor do we have wings. We can't all be everywhere at once."
Rainbow whispered back. "What are you getting at?"
"What... wh-what if the ambush has already been sp-sprung?" He gulped. "And what if... what if one of those things is a pony in this village?"
The pegasus sat in dead silence.
So Ebon went on. "Or... what if... what if those creatures are some of us?"
Rainbow pursed her lips. She glanced silently at the rest of the table. Eagle Eye picked daintily at his food. Floydien nibbled at his plate with gently twinkling antlers. Props hummed to herself while drawing a schematic for an engine part next to her plate. Josho scarfed as ravenously as she could.
"That..." Rainbow gulped. "That would suck."
Ebon winced as he murmured, "I think it's about time you had a talk with your Searonese friend..."
That X is a SPAH! Or do you want to be a friend? We can be friends. And have fun. Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun.
X = Ebon
THOSE!
Too bad Ebon is the most likely to be one of them.If they were gonna replace anypony...it'd have to be Belle,she's the most normal of the group.
They'd get suspicious of Pilate not using Oasis.
Floydien...well he's Floydien.
Props is a might to eccentric to be properly emulated.
Kera is...well Kera,she wouldn't go down without a fight.
Nor would Josho.
Roarke would be...kind hard to replace.
Unless the entire village is changelings aside from Beau.
We're gonna get Wendigoes.
I'm calling it.
A mysterious mountain in the arctic? Somehow I doubt it's merely a fata morgana. Perhaps Stratopolis? And the Lounge continues to intrigue me. Man, I'm really looking forward to the next book.
...so you can have a supplement for yours?
It doesn't matter what country you're in, what continent you're on, what planet you come from, or either what universe you dwell in, if people suspect there are spies, shit's gunna go down.
Yeah...kinda forgot about the spooky bug-horses for a minute there...
Stop keeping secrets, Roarke. You're silly.
No, Dash. You ARE the changelings.
Oh the irony of Ebony
I was starting to doubt that any of the ponies were changelings, but it just seems like too good of a plot point to pass up.
Hmmm... so, the Jury may have a spy. Better give everyone a flamethrower. Except Props; she's gotta man the dispenser.
Ebon...stahp.....this is too painful.
"Oh, woe is me! What ever shall I do? Ah! Dirt, dirt! Get away, dirt! Oh! Make it stop, make it stop! Ah! Filthy, disgusting dirt. It stings, it burns. Help! Oh, somepony save me, save me!"
22 chapters to go.
wow, we've reached so far already. :3
While one was gettng down and drty, another was working in the fields?
So now the betting is on if the Jury and Rourke will be allowd to fully complete repairs, upgrades, improvemets and psychotic amounts of backup weapon systems.
Yaay. grasshoppers.
Ominous and in the snow? This sounds a little like Sombra, but it could be anything else. I mean, we only just got to changelings.
Windigos?
or another dragon sister
snow beasts? Is this Star Trek now? Star Wars, even? All joking aside, Ebon does have a point. Roarke has been a little too gung ho for guns lately, but I think the reason why is completely different than what he thinks.
This will be fun.
And of course, Ebon would be the one to bring up the changelings.
~Basso
there is so much going on! I love it! yay more rainbow and roarke banter. I really hope someone brings up roarkes very sweet "don't go because you might die and I need you" moment from chapters ago..seems to have went untouched..
3942576
Windigoes as big as a mountain? Maybe, but I doubt it. I'm thinking giant ice pirate vessel.
please be giant ice pirate vessel
3943704 given that these changelings don't seem to know that they're changelings ("Seclorum": What am I?) it actually makes sense that he'd be the most worried about it. The lack of memories has probably got his subconscious ringing every bell and sounding every alarm.
3944081 Pykrete pirate ship?
No! Is the calm really already over?
I still think they are gorgons, would make sense that they cover their face
This "thing" out there, it could be advance windigos, or perhaps an unknown political entity to the far north.
Changling sleeper cell, definitely. I do believe it is Ebon and he has know idea what race he is.
Winter is coming.
3942524 The sheer idea of anyone trying to impersonate Floyds just cracked me up.
The other creatures are walruses I think. Also, I really love this new mystery with the changeling. ITS YOU EBON
[tensioning intensifies]
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, I hadn't really considered that Roarke might know something specific about the changelings. But for our purposes, I guess that she does now. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
suspuscus
-Spirit
paranoia.....
WILL......
build.....
from.....
this....
mark...my...worrrds......
Ebon, I swear, if you are a changeling, I'm going to laugh and then cry at the irony of this chapter.
5572439 i think he's a changeling, but like Seclorum somehow he doesn't know, and has only a vague memory of his Queen in the firm of a mother.
Nice job Ebon...
3942672 and Dashie was a zombie
Inb4 they'e all been replaced so well that none of them realize that they've all been changelings the whole time.
I resume my journey today, after an unexpected break. My bet for the "thing" in the blizzard is a tower of the machine world.
It looks like the peace of the last few chapters is about to end in a very crazy way. I'm closing in on the end to this story, and I can't wait. I just hope the ending isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Onward is all I can say.
~SolidFire
hall
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used
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If Ebon's a Ling ... then I wonder if he's a royal Ling, or a different type of one? If not, then I wonder why the Harmony Nuke didn't remove his appearance like the others [except for Chrysalis.]
Oh you tease
If Ebon actually is a changeling, it's gonna be next to impossible to prove that he's the real Ebon.
I didn't think Eagle was all that interested in sewing... with mares, that is.
It would also be hilarious if after this Ebon turned out to really be a changeling.
I would have said Lerristonians
Totally a Divine
Thar be a divine out there
Found the Changeling. Man, they're not even trying.