At last, the Noble Jury lowered far enough that it was no longer being rocked about by thermal currents. It still hovered relatively high above the bottom of the crater—or at least the bottom as perceived by those on board the vessel. As the sun continued rising, a golden haze glittered across the dense forest canopy below. The basin was colored by a verdant emerald hue all throughout—even in the few sparse patches of wet and exposed earth.
Roarke stepped gingerly out of the rear stairwell and onto the main deck. Her lenses retracted to take-in the enormity of the landscape below and around them. Beyond the ship's stern, the east faces of the Sky Stabs were covered with dangling foliage that spilled over cliffs with copious vines and lichen. Along various spots of the craggy summits, enormously tall waterfalls had formed, emptying melted frost from the western heights into the belly of the crater. As the skystone ship hovered its way east, its crewponies experienced the continuous roar of rushing water and the ensuing echo against stone walls. Beneath all of that was the ever-present hum of nature, shrieking wildlife, and buzzing insects.
The door to the cockpit opened. Rainbow Dash trotted out, followed shortly by Zaid and Props. Rainbow made her way to the port side, staring out with a gawking expression. Zaid and Props were no less awestruck by the enormity of the microcosm they had just stumbled upon.
"I suppose this defeats the point of wearing leather coats," Roarke neutrally mused.
"Just look at the size of this place!" Rainbow Dash said. She pointed off the port side, outlining where the western wall of the Sky Stabs bent northeasterly, disappearing into gray humid mist and fog. "I can't even see to the far side of the crater!"
"Same can be said from this angle, Dashie!" Props said, pointing past the bow. "I can't tell where anything begins or ends in this super sauna!" She smiled. "Reminds me of the factory districts of Gray Smoke!"
"Oh yeah?" Zaid muttered. "Reminds me of the showers back in the Herald's monastery."
All three mares stared at him.
"What?" He shrugged. "Khao hated stinky robes. I couldn't blame her."
"It's unnaturally humid," Roarke remarked. "Judging from the distance between the mountain summits and the tree canopy, I suspect that the base of this crater is well above sea level."
"What, you think this is some sort of volcano or something?" Rainbow asked.
"It would be the simplest explanation."
"Yeah, well..." Props giggled, tossing her blonde mane in the warm breeze. "We're not exactly used to 'simple', are we, Roarkie?"
Roarke raised an eyebrow above one lens. "Roarkie...?"
"I'm not seeing any crazy light beams," Zaid commented. "Maybe the dudes west of here were exagerrating?"
"They've had plenty of decades to do it," Roarke said. "There's nothing more appealing to superstitious ponies than the unknown. We could very well be the first living beings to have explored this place."
"I dunno about that," Rainbow said. "But it sure is friggin' exciting."
"Totallies!" Props giggled.
Roarke sighed. "Shouldn't we simply ascend and fly as swiftly as we can out of this place?"
"I don't think Floydien will want to encounter more turbulence if he can avoid it," Rainbow said. "We're pretty safe at this altitude. I'd say, let's just coast on through like this and..." Her words trailed off as she stared down over the ship's edge. "No way..."
"What is it?" Props asked.
"No friggin' way!" Rainbow's ruby eyes sparkled.
"It's squirrels, isn't it?" Zaid winced. "Please say it's not a civilization of sentient squirrels. Cuz then we'd have to explain to them about Floydien's dead friend. Plus, squirrels don't make good cheese."
"Floydien heard that spit!"
"Elks don't make good cheese either!" Zaid hollered.
"I can't believe it!" Rainbow giggled, a smile plastered across her face as she hovered on flapping wings. "Celestia on a bike!"
Flash! The sword hanging off of Rainbow's saddlebags glimmered in the morning haze. "Yes, Rainbow? You summoned me?"
"D'oh!" Rainbow turned her head over her shoulder, gripping the hilt. "Call you back, Your Highness!" She sheathed it the rest of the way into her satchel. "Buck me, this is amazing! I gotta get a closer look!"
"A closer look?" Zaid asked.
"A closer look at what, Dashie?!"
"Apples!" Rainbow said, already flying out into the misty air. "From real apple trees! The edible kind!" She began descending. "Goddess, they look delicious even from here!"
"Rainbow!" Roarke galloped up to the deck's edge. "Are you sure this is wise?!"
"Nope!"
"Whatever happened to flying swiftly to Val Roa and stopping Chrysalis?!"
"We can charm her with apples!" Rainbow laughed, then shouted up as she dove backwards with a salute. "Tell Floydien to bring the ship to a stall! Oh, and grab a pony or two and come down and join me for the plucking! Better bring Whizzball!"
"It is not..." Roarke slammed her hoof down so hard against the deck it produced sparks. "...called Whizzball!"
"Ha ha ha ha!" Zaid doubled over, slapping his knee. "Looks like Best Pony disagrees with ya, robo-ovaries!"
"Gravity is about to disagree with your testicles, Mr. Zaid."
"Yeah... ahem..." Zaid gulped and trotted briskly for the cockpit. "Count me out of this away mission..."
4685429 This is absolutely Un'goro Crater.
Never change, Dashie.
Not everypony is like you, Dashie.
And the Roarkesicle shipping continues~
And now I can't imagine Celestia WITHOUT a bike in that sarcophagus, and that just makes it silly,
AND THE SHIP IS WHIZZBALL DAMNIT
I am all for this nickname and will use it constantly from now on.
4689957 Well, she has to entertain herself somehow, right?
4689938
Nah, they're up north, remember? That means it's Sholazar Basin.
Apples!
What else could you ever need after finding freaking apples?
Nothing!
There's no problem that can't be solved with apples!
4689938
So the Jurists will be ambushed by Trexes that are entirely too stealthy given their massive size?
4689982 DON'T AGGRO THE FEL REAVER
4690001
---I approve
4689963 But I'm not too sure that Roarkie will appreciate her nickname. Oh well, I didn't plan on living long any way!
4690001 I have to admit I may have soiled myself from laughing.
Okay, we are in the crater and the crater has apples.
I was expecting something else, something vastly more hostile than apples.
Rainbow got drunk off one mug of cider earlier, lets see if she manages to with a bunch of apples. Even if they don't have alcohol.
So much hype over a bunch of apples.
The title is a pun! I cannot handle this!
Roarkie Most Renamed
That were the one. Majipoor Chronicles. The far distant future super advanced palace city high on a mountain, surrounded by a permanent forcefield in order to have far lower altitude enviroment.
I remember strange old stories. 8(
The Keeper of the Isis Light, from Dragonfall 5 and The Wonder Horse? Another that Canterlot reminded me of.
Oh, and I take it Zaid doesnt want to wear the Red Shirt, even though he is in with Props?
4690090 Wouldn't have it any other way.
*Pretends to crack knuckles* Right, let's do this.
4690175 Me neither, I just wasn't expecting apples.
Featured Box again, ladies and gentlecolts
We've had Celestia on a unicycle and Celestia on a tricycle, but this is new. We still need Celestia on a Low Rider.
Not sure what to make of this place, but it did have lots of "fauna" so I doubt the tree will grow a tentacle and grab them out of the sky or something.
I am willing to grudgingly trust these apples. Please don't make me regret this trust, IC.
Roarkie is best nickname. Oh boy Dash finally has apples again, I bet she will fill the kitchen with them, and the store room, and her room and then the whole of the Jury will be apples. It will even be powered by them .
I am suspicious of these apples. They seem too good to be true.
Also, "Roarkie".
Pfft.
I did not see this coming. I truly did not see this coming, and I don't know how I didn't see it coming before. But it happened, and I definitely laughed my ass off.
>verdant emerald
Isn't that like saying "scarlet ruby"?
It's not Llamas!
That said, I betcha it's those demon apples from Star Trek: Voyager, that cause crippling pain starting at a pony's hooves and slowly make their way up to their...well, I let them figure that out.
Make Zaid eat them first though, just to be safe!
Roarkie needs to chill and enjoy the ride. Especially if it yields apples and possible squirrel civilizations.
Also, I'm imagining it as an exercise bike. I can't imagine sitting around in a sepulcher does much for Celestia's posterior.
I wonder... could this be the Grove of Truth? I know that Discord made that up, but perhaps he modeled it after a real place?
Either way, Roarkie and Whizzball, unstoppable duo!
Roarke and Zaid have an awesome slap slap kiss relationship building.
Dash gotta be careful; she generally uses phrases more colourful than the bicyckle one involving the royal sisters.
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Ilove how Zaid is absolutely terrified of Roarke's threats when she's never acted on one and probably wouldn't go through with them if he continued annoying her. (She does know what parts of his anatomy he values, though...)
Sheathed
4691191 real world equivalent!
Roarkie! I love her obvious affection for dash. It's very sweet. Wonder what's up with this place.
Even though I've been reading these stories for a while now, I still don't know what the jurists look like. I mean, I know Eagle Eye is purple/lavender and Roarke has red braids and I've seen a picture or two displaying Kera, Belle and Pilate, but that's about it.
We really need more fan art.
Can't decide whether to go for this or this.
4689963 I have already been pronouncing her that way ever since her introduction because I thought it was just the correct thing to do.
4693010 So...
You're saying it you were doing it before it was cool?
That nickname got me thinking--and forgive me if there's been a discussion about this somewhere before--how do you guys think "Roarke" is pronounced? I always imagine saying it "Roh-oar-kay", but I can see the "e" at the end being silent. What do you think?
Isle of the Apple Eaters.
4693025 Son, I was doing it before it was even cooked.
4693339 From what I've gathered it's apparently silent. I will of course still stick to Roark-E just as much as to Zaïd and burn every nonbeliever.
Roar-k is how I think it.
4693339 I've always said it Ro-ark. Which would also make the nickname sound logical: Ro-ark-ie.
If I was Canadian, it'd be Ro-ark-ehcelestia on a bike
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Apples is full of squirrels
... Yes I know I'm 6 days to late to be making predictions
Roarkie and Whizzball
Sounds like a bad sitcom when you say it out loud.
"I can't believe it!" Rainbow giggled, a smile plastered across her face as she hovered on flapping wings. "Celestia on a bike!"
Flash! The sword hanging off of Rainbow's saddlebags glimmered in the morning haze. "Yes, Rainbow? You summoned me?"
Apples! Finally! I think I was beginning to think they didn't actually exist far off.
-Spirit
4690168 One day, IC will add a jurist to this story who talks just like you, where half of their dialogue will be brilliant twisty metaphors, and the other half will be indecipherable to my tiny brain. I'll keep reading, but if grey matter starts to dribble out of my nose, I'm sending you the bill for my new keyboard.
4691973 Yes! More fanart! I need more Austraeoh fanart to survive. Quickly, can anyone draw? Anyone? Oh, that's right, I'm still 33 weeks behind the Jury... But I'm catching up!
The apples are a lie!
Wow, its been a long time since we've seen apples. I think the very beginning of Austraeoh was the last time they were mentioned (with the exception of when Dash had to throw away the rotten one after windthrow.)
You know you're in good cahoots with immortal royalty when you can just hang up on them for seemingly no reason.