“You’re not alone. You’re not alone. You’re not alone. You’re not alone.”
Seething, Shell bucked a table over so that it crashed across the refuse-littered floor of his cabin on board the Steel Wing.
“I did not abandon you!” he screeched hoarsely into the shadows. “I gave you to her! The mare’s a friend of yours! Just like… just like she was.”
He gritted his teeth and covered his twisted muzzle in two twitching forelimbs.
“Nnnnngh… I have forgiven you. I have forgiven you, Imre. But why? Why? Why why why why why did you fraternize with the enemy? That was a life of danger. That was a life of peril. That was a life outside of the glory of Ledo. All that we have worked to build. All that I ever gave up!”
He knelt low and pounded the floor, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Why did you do this to me?! Just give me a sign! Something beyond the dark nights and the infernal sunrise! I could have given you everything! I could have given your mother everything! Her final breath and your final breath! Nnngh… like acid under the skin! Don’t do this to me! Don’t… blessed Spark, don’t…”
He felt for a necklace around his throat, but it was gone. Heaving, the adult stallion curled over and sobbed into the floorboards.
“I love you. I… love you. Your father… your protector…” He gnashed his teeth and pounded the floor with his injured hoof, oblivious to the pain. “Just stay with me. Just stay with me a little longer.” He panted and clutched his skull. “We can make this work. She can make this work! Just stay a little longer! I promise things will be different! I can get you anything! Even… even…”
His panting breaths slowed. The trembles melted away. Icily, he sat up, his teary face drying as he gazed into the darkest corner of the room. At last, the glaze in his eye faded, and the cold weapon of war resurfaced.
“Even the target.” He inhaled deeply. “The perfect prize for the perfect daughter.”
He tilted his head to the right. He grabbed the severed leg of his cabin’s table in the crook of his hoof. His face was calm, tranquil, but with each passing second the pressure he applied to the leg caused the structure to buckle, crackle, and break.
“Daddy never breaks a promise.”
Snap!
”The latest announcement from Roarke isn’t all that promising,” Pilate’s voice said, muffled slightly by the concrete crevice Bellesmith had slid the soundstone in. ”The goddess ‘Nagu’n,’ as it turns out, is none other than one of the Divines.”
”Divines?” Belle panted as she lay underneath the central mana array of the sequencing machine at the far end of the dark room. Her hooves dug through a tangled mess of wires, putting the finishing touches on a herculean repair. “You mean--as in one of the sisters of Axan, the dragon who ravaged Rainbow Dash?”
”Pretty certain Roarke knows a Dragon Matriarch when she sees one. Whoever Nagu’n really is, she’s become tainted.”
“Tainted?”
”With chaos. It’s so horrible, beloved. The… the Divine feeds on the flesh of the living and turns the suffering into the roots of chaos metals. The very material that summons the horrible beasts that have attacked Rainbow Dash and Kera is being made from the agony of tortured equine souls.”
Belle visibly blanched in the middle of her tedious work. “That… is absolutely horrid.”
”Roarke is assisting Nightshade’s party as we speak.”
“What do you mean ‘assisting?’”
”Well, if they stick around where they’re at any longer, who’s to know how long it will be before they too are fed to Nagu’n? They seek the book to stave off Nagu’n’s power and stage a daring escape.”
”They’ll rescue Kera and Rainbow Dash too, right?”
”I think we both know that Roarke is a far more sincere pony than the bounty hunter she used to be, Bellesmith. If anypony can save the day, it’s her.”
“Or more appropriately Rainbow Dash through Roarke.”
”Agreed.”
“Then I think we have a problem, Pilate.”
”You mean aside from the fact that you’re there and I’m here and Rainbow Dash is Spark-Knows-Where?”
“What I mean is: obviously things have changed,” Belle said, wiping the sweat from her brow as she connected the last two wires. “Lasairfion will be attacking the Ledomaritan front at anytime, yes?”
”Correct. And Nagu’n will be right behind her with the Sacred Hold.”
“Then that means they’re headed towards Seclorum,” Belle thought out loud. “We had hoped Josho would act as a messenger to intercede on Rainbow Dash’s behalf. But instead we ended up sending him into the lion’s den. Now Roarke is staging a coup from the inside, and the Noble Jury isn’t anywhere near ready to pick up either Rainbow’s group or Josho…”
”Props says she’s half a day away from refitting the steam engine--”
“Beloved, it doesn’t matter. If Lasairfion is staging the attack now, then nopony’s going to have the time to avoid a sheer apocalyptic battle. We may actually be better off staying separated and waiting until a better opportunity for reunion presents itself.”
”Perhaps we can afford that. But Rainbow Dash? And Josho? I know that we are in fairly helpless situations, but that doesn’t change the fact that the others need us. Desperately.”
Belle sighed, her face twisting in bewilderment. “I just don’t get it, though.”
”What is that?”
“What is to gain from all of this? Even if Lasairfion wipes out a good chunk of the Ledomaritan army, the backlash will inevitably cost her a good majority of her own troops. It feels like all that this offensive is going to cause is pure death and devastation.”
”Well, she is being aided by a Divine corrupted by the spirit of chaos, beloved.”
“I can perhaps understand Nagu’n’s angle. But Lasairfion? She has all the power she needs. Why instigate so much bloodshed?”
”And Seclorum is another curious matter.”
“Oh?”
”He’s done nothing but stew in the crucible of death. He knows that he’s outnumbered by Xonans in the location he’s defending. Regardless of his ties to Nightshade, it would seem as though he’s had a suicide pact for years now.”
“One pony with a desire for death and another with a desire for killing.” Belle gulped. “It seems too perfectly miserable.”
”Belle, could it be that by bringing Rainbow Dash to this part of the world, we… well…”
“What is it, Pilate?”
”Could it be that we somehow triggered these events into action? W-with Austraeoh?
Belle bit her lip. She didn’t mean to be silent for so long…
”Belle…?”
Scuffling sounds emanated from the adjacent corridor.
Belle gasped. She snatched the sound stone from its niche and whispered hoarsely. “He’s coming, Pilate! I have to go now!”
”Be careful, Belle! I love--”
Belle stuffed the stone into the fibers of her tail hairs. She scrambled out from under the table and stood up--only to find herself being stared down by the cold muzzle of Prime Enforcer Shell.
Even after all of their meetings, the mare still couldn’t hide her shivers. “I… uhm…” She cleared her throat and brushed a hoof over her thin forest of mane hair. “I think I nearly have the thing operational. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought. This may not be Nightshade tech, but it’s certainly military grade, which means I was able to replace the faulty parts with very little diff--”
“Where is she?” Shell droned as he shuffled across the decrepit concrete interior. He squinted his good eye at the far end of the machine. “Did you already attach her to the sphere-anchorage apparatus?”
“I…” Belle sighed heavily before continuing. “I put Imre’s remains in the fusion chamber, yes.” She gulped and glared at the Prime Enforcer. “But you have to understand. Her body is in such disrepair that I’m not certain the leylines will adequately find the spheres to anchor to. I have to examine the alicornia of her horn and see if I can find a spot to filter the mana through without creating feedback--”
“I’ve given you my daughter, dear doctor,” Shell’s voice reached a grating pitch. “That is not something I do lightly. Ever.”
Belle blinked awkwardly at him. “I understand. And I’m telling you that I have a few steps until--”
“Understand?!” He turned and snarled at her. “What could you possibly understand?! You’re no scientist! You’re a pioneer of heresy!”
“I am doing the best I can to help you and this isn’t doing me any--”
“I have given you my daughter, Doctor!” Shell snapped, shoving Belle onto her haunches.
“Ooof!” Belle collapsed, only to have the wired Sequencing Cap flung over her shattered horn with brash telekinesis. “Shell! Wait! Don’t--”
”And you are going to give her back!” he howled, eye twitching, and flung the switch to the infernal machine.
Belle’s eyes flashed with brilliant light. She threw her body back, screaming like a pony caught on fire. Sparks of loose mana flew from her skull as she thrashed about.
Shell backtrotted from the flickering anomaly, his body casting a cold shadow across the concrete. He watched Belle’s ordeal with a hungry, pale expression.
“Do not be afraid of the spark, dear Imre,” his voice murmured. “She is a messenger of hope.” A tear rolled down his scarred cheek. “Something your f-father could never afford to give you.” He choked back a sob. “Listen to her…”