"Nnngh!" Pilate grunted as he was shoved against the hard rock of the stone floor.
"Shell!" Dalton exclaimed, frowning. The old unicorn was being escorted at taser-point across the large chamber before the solid metal wall of Black Level. "You have what you need. Must you toss him around like he's some object as well?"
"Your sympathy is noble, but misguided," Shell droned over his shoulder as he strolled up to the struggling zebra. "I know you're feeling conflicting emotions right now, Dalton. But, if anything, you've done this equine a favor." His horn glowed brightly. "If it weren't for the part you played, his usesfulness would have culminated in a closed-off chamber of Department Blue."
Pilate gasped as he was yanked up to his aching hooves by bright telekinesis. Shell dragged him towards the immaculate metal sheet, forcing his wincing face to tilt up towards the reflective material.
"We're here, Mister Pilate," Shell said calmly. Two dozen unicorns formed a crescent circle of charged tasers around the pair. "Those hundreds of voices you heard along the way here? They're ponies who have submitted to the Council of Ledo, thanks to the guiding hoof of the Enforcers and myself. At this point, it would serve you will to do the same as them."
"If you think..." Pilate hissed through a bloody mouth. "That I'm going to cooperate in any fashion..." He spat. "After what you've done to Blue Shelf... After what you've done to my Belle—?!"
"I do not ask for your cooperation, zebra," Shell muttered, yanking Pilate harder so that he was facing against his own reflective sheen in the metal. "That orb of yours is fused to your nervous system; I simply ask that you stay alive. Once I've gained access to the heart of this world between worlds, then we'll discuss your competency."
"Is this what you had in mind for Rainbow Dash?!" Pilate grumbled. "Will you kill her off when you're done with her as well?"
"If this works, Mister Pilate, then I suspect that what lies beyond the door is something that only the subject can empower." His one eye narrowed coldly. "And if that's true, I intend to take her to the realm beneath Xona and activate what I find there."
"I... I don't get it!" Pilate stammered. "What in Spark's name would that accomplish?!"
"I'm quite sure you felt what was inside that sarcophagus before you put the pendant back on it," Shell droned. "I think we both know what will happen to Xona if that gains access to the basement of our enemies."
That said, Shell yanked the sphere loose from Pilate's neck and held it before the wall. The curved features of O.A.S.I.S. flickered brightly.
"You're... You're insane!" Pilate managed to wheeze.
"Correction," Shell said. "I'm alive, which is the least I can say about Xona or any other kingdom that thinks it can oppose Ledomare from here on out." His eye twitched as he saw a circle of illumination forming across the wall. "Ah. I do believe something is happening."
"It... It's responding," Dalton said with a gulp.
"Ughhh..." Pilate's face scrunched in pain as the runes on his skull plate strobed in alternating patterns. He sweated profusely and his limbs dangled in Shell's magic grip.
The soldiers gasped and murmured as dozens upon dozens of symbols appeared across the surface of the wall. They flickered in a counter-clockwise pattern, then all brightened at once. With a hiss of cold air, a firm slit of golden light ran down the wall. The cavern shook; pebbles littered the floor from above. With a great groaning noise, the door began to open.
"Hmmmm..." Shell took a deep breath as his beret blew off from an unnatural gale. He turned and glanced over his shoulder. "Has a nice smell, doesn't it?"
Dalton said nothing.
Shell is one crazy unicorn; I fully expect things to go south instead of east.
It has that new world-machine smell.
I guess opening doors isn't exclusive to RD, if OASIS could do it simply by absorbing some of her harmonic aura.
OH SHI-
I read Shells lines in a bane voice
So Shell, what would somepony who could make a door like that possibly want to keep away... or keep in?
You don't build a door like that to keep someone out.
You build it to keep something in. Oh, Shell, what have you done?
181665924.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luf47sZa8g1r1sw0eo1_500.jpg
I hate Shell like I've hated few characters before him. I want him to know he's a miserable failure in everything he's ever attempted before he dies horribly. I want him to know that his contributions to anything of worth will be forgotten and that his life has been absolutely without value to anyone but himself. And then I want him to die, and I want him to know that he could have avoided it if he wasn't such a monumental douchebag.
Oh Shell, you silly, silly asshat. I would say something in the room (bat-creature things, maybe?) are gonna eat his face off, but that seems too simple. His plan is definitely going to come back and bite him in the butt, though. It happens to lots of villains, but right now I think he's channeling a bit of Admiral Zhao with all his arrogance about using Dash as a weapon and whatnot. Unless... maybe he's somehow figured out a way to control Dash and make her revert to chaos form? Unless he's just so cocky that he didn't even want to bother with securing her himself, but I'm thinking he's got another trick up his sleeve. Until tomorrow!
Screw you, Shell.
Oh my gosh.
Lost internet for two days and the world went mad.
1816747
Suddenly: everything is hilarious
Hmm. I don't think anything is really going to happen after this door opens, but it certainly seems more ominous than the last two.
MOAR, please!
1816659
...Anyway...
So yeah, Shell basically plans to release the new Discord. I can't see any problems with this plan.
Ooooooo....
oh shit oh shit oh shit
maybe itll be like indiana jones and the last crusade during the holy grail scene
And then everyone died, especially that dickbag Shell. And reality as we know ceased to exist.
The End.
Because trying to train an unstoppable killing machine into not unstoppably killing you has worked exactly 0 times.
Its like Shell never even watched the Alien series.
Battery - Metallica
1819008 You know, I'm starting to suspect that he hasn't seen those movies.
Also, that devious jerk! Freakin' Shell is a big meanie pants, as the pink one would say.
So as long as we're predicting things, I would predict that the behind the door lies naught but silent machines and long corridors. Y'know, like the other ones Dash opened earlier?
1819221 I think you might be onto something. I mean it's the same door, with the same symbol on it, so surely the other side of the wall will be similar if not the same.
In all seriousness, I have another idea. Linked to the other side of the wall. Someone will be there. And the use of someone is intentional. It'll be someone who is powerful enough to do something whilst still caring or at least knowing about Dash's important role in saving the world. I think it is most likely to be somepony like Whitemane, however it may potentially be axan. I mean why not? She's a big ass dragon...
Onwards!
1819963
If only that were true. I hope not.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So apparently there's a method to Shell's madness. He was planning to use Draconedash (oh, that's fresh!) to beat Ledomare's enemy Xona. But it just occurred to me that we still don't know how Shell figured out what's inside of the Machine. He would've figured Dash out from experimenting a bit while she was unconscience, but how did he learn about the Machine and get the chaos strips necessary for Dash.ms survival? Perhaps he used that library in Blue Shelf. But I don't think so...These as my thoughts so far.
-MASH
1816747 I read it in Tony Jay's voice
Megabyte? Frolo? your choice, but still in Tony Jay's awesomness
Also I was reading Duke Zaap Nator in Bane's voice. (with the mask and all)
1816659south instead of east. Honeytiger sees what non-zebra Pilate did there.
2016696
Ah, so you think the industry is your ally?
Ok yeah, I take back what I said about Shell. he's pretty much pure evil, even more so than Republicans.
>it would serve you will to do the same
Do you mean "well"?
He opened it! How!
Pffft Shell, please. You couldn't navigate that hell hole of a maze with any kind of technology, much less find anything anytime before the war ends. You'd probably run into our spiderbat friends sooner.
Even the fires of hell can look like the golden lights of heaven from far away.
And everything goes batshit crazy...
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i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/528/Naamloos-2.png
This song.
Ahh, so that's what Shell is up to, he's trying to win the war with Xona by any means available. Given the forces he's playing with, he's an idiot.
1816747 I love you <3
Oh, Shell. Take it from Rourke, and Tirek, and Sombra, and that one Nazi dude from Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you look for power you're going to find it...
6497508 ...often in the hands of something less than willing to share.
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Mmmmmmm...
I love it when I win.
Exactly who I was thinking of when I read this.
Heh.
God, Shell is really easy to despise isn't he