A midday sun rose over the ruins of Lerris. Due to the clouds and trailing smoke, it was no brighter than that very morning. The Noble Jury had long landed along a southeast patch of grass. Its hangar doors hung open, and a thin train of ponies shuffled back and forth, carrying pieces of metal equipment. With quiet teamwork, they set up a small encampment along the edge of town, complete with blankets and first aid kits. It was a hopeful gesture. Nopony said much of anything--least of all Rainbow Dash, who flew briskly over the camp as she gave the buildings another flyby.
She wasn’t alone in her task. Roarke covered the central parts of town while Eagle Eye and Josho explored the ruins of farmhouses to the west. With swift wings, Rainbow darted into every building that afforded the space for her body to squeeze through. Fighting the scant fumes of the previous evening’s blazes, she called out, loudly announcing her presence.
There was never a reply.
At last, she resorted to pulling fallen debris apart, lifting crossbeams and searching beneath collapsed rooftops. She eventually did find the villagers of Lerris--or at least whatever shreds remained of them. Each discovery she made put more and more weight on her wings, so that she carried on with the grim task with increasing ennui. Ultimately, she resorted to shoving a stake into the ground of each house she searched and scratching a visible marker for how many bodies she found inside. Checking across the town, she found Roarke doing the same thing. The two mares exchanged cold glances, and then Rainbow Dash rushed back to her task.
Night fell. The encampment that the Jurists had set up lay bare. Roarke and Rainbow continued searching, the first aided by a lantern and the latter aided by the glow of her pendant. Floydien and Zaid had exchanged places with Josho and Eagle Eye, and they searched the remaining farm houses with somber resolve.
A light rain washed over the town past midnight. After searching and researching the same row of apartment buildings, Rainbow had finished calling out for names. She had finished doing everything altogether. She sat on the scant remains of a second story balcony, her pendant creating a blurry aura of red rain pattering around her. She took shallow breaths, squinting at the desolation all around her. At some point, her eyes drifted tiredly across the village. She caught sight of Roarke’s lantern-lit body rummaging through the wastes. A pair of copper lenses glinted, staring straight back at Rainbow for a moment. Then--almost with a flinch--the Searonese mare turned away and resumed with her task. Rainbow clenched her jaws shut, allowing her eyes to rest for the first time in hours. All she saw in the darkness was flame and lightning. With a wince, she uncoiled her wings, sighed, and flew back into the dilapidated rows of houses.
On board the Noble Jury, Pilate lay on the bed inside the tiny one-room infirmary. He wasn’t alone. Eagle Eye squatted beside his mat, tightening a bandage around the nape of the zebra’s neck. After tending to the stallion’s wounds, Eagle waved a glass of water in front of him. He paused for a moment, bit his lip, then leaned the glass forward until it brushed lightly with Pilate’s muzzle. At last, the zebra registered the gesture. He nodded slightly, grasping the container in two shivering hooves. Eagle Eye assisted, tilting the glass so that Pilate could take a few liberal sips. Once finished, Eagle Eye put the glass away and exchanged a few soft words with the stallion. Pilate nodded, and Eagle Eye trotted off, leaving the zebra alone. Pilate could only wince, curling himself tighter beneath the one blanket draped over him. His gray eyes stared wide into nothing, and his ears twitched in a constant, anxious fashion. He tried to make out the sounds coming from the passenger quarters a few rooms away, but he was at a loss. His breaths came out in pitiful little squeaks.
Down a few compartments, Props sat with Bellesmith, replacing a few bandages over her wounds and wrapping them over her tender body. The blonde mare smiled delicately before murmuring something in Belle’s ears. Belle nodded quietly, but gently dismissed her friend. Props trotted slowly out, her eyes glossy while she nevertheless complied.
Belle sat in silence. Gradually, she turned and gazed at the filly seated on her cot.
Kera squatted, staring directly at the corner of two metal bulkheads. She had been bathed twice over the course of the passing day. With all of the bloodstains gone, she actually had considerably less wounds on her body that needed bandaging than either Belle or Pilate. A single strip of gauze stretched over her throat from where the Enforcer’s blade had grazed her. The only hint of pain was in her eyes, tiny and icy cold, staring infinitely into nothing.
Quietly, with motherly gestures, Belle grabbed a hoof-brush and tended to Kera’s mane. It mattered little; her hair was straight enough as it is. But it didn’t stop Belle from sitting on the bed behind her and stroking the filly’s mane for the better part of ten minutes. At some point, she stopped, leaning in to kiss and nuzzle the child’s ear from behind. Kera didn’t budge an inch. It was this that brought the tears to Belle’s eyes. She leaned in and hugged Kera gently, resting her chin on the foal’s shoulder as she refused to let go.
The next morning limped over the gray horizon. The search had stopped completely, turning into something else. With metal tools, Floydien, Eagle Eye, and Zaid dug a deep array of holes in the earth. Hours into this, a grim procession marched forth from all parts of the town. Roarke, Josho, and Rainbow Dash were the first ones to carry the bodies. Later on, Flodyien and Eagle Eye passed the digging onto Props and Ebon Mane so that they could assist in the heart of the village.
By that afternoon, seventy graves had been dug and filled. It was not enough. There were more bodies beneath the wreckage--everypony knew. At this point, however, all Roarke and Rainbow could find were pieces of the ill-fated villagers.
The group paused, congregating by the neatly arranged graves as they muddled over what step to take next. All the while, Rainbow Dash perched on a low hanging cloud above the valley. Her ruby eyes reflected the disturbed pieces of earth stretching below. A deep shudder ran through her body. She looked down at her hooves. A familiar pair of goggles rested in her grasp. When she tried looking at the initials, her vision went blurry.
With a blink, Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. Swiftly, she slapped the goggles on, turned around, and dove off the cloud with spread wings. Trembling slightly, she glided southwest, skimmed over the mountains below, and made for a tiny speck of buildings along the gray horizon.
After a day with no updates, I was freaking relieved to see that notification hit my mailbox.
As horrible as this scar is, it'll be the last one that Shell will ever be able to leave. I don't know how the Jurists will manage to recover from this, or where they'll go from here...
...but east is a good start.
Rest in peace, Lerris. You never deserved this fate. No one on this continent did.
Onward and eastward.
Not quite yet.
Pilate, you got some 'splainin' to do.
Okay, seriously, how did Shell manage to kill the entire town? I mean, a few in the initial moments of surprise, sure, but wouldn't people start running for the hills once they realized an insane, murderous idiot was killing people and burning the place down? And, really, how was he even capable of doing that much? He'd jammed a foreign object into his head, and it was apparent that this was an infected wound. It'd been many, many days since he'd been in a major battle where he was injured with no medical assistance. Even being super crazy doesn't make you impervious to injury. And there were proper unicorns among the townsfolk! A half-dozen Lerris townsponies could have have dogpiled on him and he would have been screwed. How... HOW did he manage to kill everyone? It makes no... damned... sense.
Seriously, IC. This is why writers get stories pre-read and edited before sending them out. I know the grand Austraeoh experiment doesn't permit that kind of delay, but damn it would have been worth it, if even for this one time.
Even Zaid is solemn.
4012784
I wouldn't be surprised if he became a zombie temporarily. To be honest, he did beat up a lot of his own troops that one time.
I'm pretty sure Shell never learned PK Star Storm
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Kera... I just don't know what they can do with her now.
Seventy six foot graves dug in the course of half a day? Huh. Floydien must be better with magic than I thought.
4012784 To be fair, this is something that happened "off-camera" so to speak. if the entire fic had been released at once, it would be easy enough to suspend disbelief and roll right along.
But I agree, quite unrealistic, and it probably wouldn't have been too hard to make more believable.
4012784
Unless there is some kind of Its a dream/hallucination type deal going on here (which I seriously doubt) the reason is simply because the plot said so, and nothing more. I really have to admit I really do hate it when writers do a bunch of character and plot development with something (like IC/SS&E did with Lerris,Pilate,Belle and Kera) and then promptly undo it a chapter or two later. That kind of thing needs to be done very carefully and its IMO very, very hard to pull of right and really this right here is one of the ways to do it very wrong.
4012784
What he said. That's why I'm glad Shell is dead. Maybe now we can get a proper antagonist instead of a force of nature wearing Plot Armor.
Don't misunderstand, ):(. Love ya like a brother, and this story is still engaging, but this feels... too much. It's overkill. We already knew Shell was a bastard, and that he was insanely powerful at combat magic, but goddamn if this chapter didn't my suspension of disbelief bend like a Cirque de Solie performer having a Grand Mal.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS3Dwn7netg]
Meanwhile at SS&E's house:
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4012784 We saw the extent of his magic,supercharged by Imre's horn,he was able to push not only Dash,but the entire roof of a building off with his levitation field during their fight,is it that hard to believe that he'd be able to flashfry up to 30 ponies at a time with the raw mana he was firing from his horn,and that's to say nothing of his skill with weapons and the armaments of the glider he rode in on,I'd say it's less "How did he do it" and more "why didn't he contact the jury sooner?"
4013007
Would that be the glider that would have been disabled because of the storm that was forcing the Jury out? Or would that flash-frying of 30 ponies at a time be something that he could do with a stolen horn that was, essentially being ground into an infected wound on his head? Crazy and stronger than your average unicorn I'll give him. Logic and story-defying superpowers, I'll not. It doesn't fit with what we've seen him do before. Knocking a roof off with telekinesis? That's something he's been capable of. Murdering everybody in town with little resistance and no survivors? Not on his own he can't.
4012784
Yeah, it's complete, bewildering bullshit.
Sigh. No going back now. Hopefully the inevitable, insufferable pall of depression and angst doesn't last too long... Seriously though, the entire town? Am I supposed to believe he killed EVERYONE? With a bum leg, a broken mind and a malfunctioning plot-device horn? Come on! I mean, it was implied there was a part of Imre left in there... Couldn't there have been some kind of mental conflict like it was implied there would be? Guess that plot device wasn't as appealing as nuking the entire town to prevent the group from from splitting up.
Also, it'd be cool if whoever is downvoting all the "negative" comments would read them first. Not that I care, it's not like that little red number is giving me AIDS. Common courtesy s'all.
In an earlier chapter's comments section, I described Lerris as 'a village of the dead and dying'.
I guess that's truer now than ever, huh?
I'm kind of worried. There's no mention here about what they did with Shell's body.
4012784 Shell was able to stand against Dash for longer than many. I hope you all realize that it would be a piece of cake for Dash to burn and kill the entire town of Lerris, had she wanted to. Shell, in his insane state, could do the same. Granted, it wasn't easy, but the mental state he was in allowed him to not give a flying crap about any wounds he sustained while burning and killing. It also would allow him to take risks that no sane person would. Not to mention that he had one, if not two, manarifles that he is an extraordinarily good shot with, while also being able to use some of his magic on other things. He probably would have taken out the more powerful ones first, leaving a bunch of older, weaker ponies. Also to mention, he could have used the manacore from the managlider he came in to cause a large explosion and injure many ponies at once. Also, he had pickings from numerous weapons of warfare from the battleground, so he could have taken out villagers with superior weaponry. Add in that he had the element of surprise and probably only had to face a dozen (at most) at any one time, it becomes highly possible that he would be able to slaughter the town.
As for the injury, he would obviously know practical combat medicine as well as being able to heal himself with magic. And he would have supplies from the battlesite.
Well on the bright side, the Jury wont lose Belle, Pilate, and...
Yeah, there's no bright side to this...
wait, where is she going?
southwest... so back to Archer Point?
4012784 I've explained this elsewhere, but...
Everypony in Lerris was hunkering down for the storm. Closed shutters, closed doors. Loud wind. Shell could easily go door to door, killing one family at a time. And nopony in town was ready for an attack. Peaceful place like that, untouched by the war for decades, everypony knows each other, no crime...
*knock knock* "Oh no Ethel, somepony is caught out in the storm. Put on some tea while I get the door..." *creak* SLASH SLASH SPARK and it's over. Move to the next house, repeat. Start at the downwind edge of town, and nopony would smell the smoke either.
Tactically, it wouldn't be difficult to pull off. I won't comment on the plot arrangement or literary themes. But "tactical implausibility" is NOT one of the faults of Shell's massacre.
Seventy graves, and one of them aint the Marshall, and did Shell find his way to them by following their route, or town to town.
Dash has realised, Archer Point directed them to this last town, did Shell do the same, and the same.
How many other villages, hamlets, farms, did Shell, visit, in tracking the Jury?
He needs cremating, then his ashes casting in concrete, then placing in an oceanic trench.
When Kera finally breaks, its going to be suprising if the Jury remains intact, nevemind in the air.
I wonder where she is going
4013443 Poor old Hap, She'll just had to kill you didn't he?
4013605
If Shell somehow wiped out Archer Point too, I quit. That's just... pushing my suspension of disbelief too far.
Ugh, this is some of the most I've commented on this quest in a while, and it's just to complain about the shitty direction it has suddenly taken. I'm only complaining because I care, I've gotten really invested in this story just like everyone else here. It's kind of a slap in the face to see asspull on this level in a story of this caliber.
4013661 Yep. I'm a crispy critter now, and I bet he didn't even break a sweat killing me.
4013443 4013207
Nope, not buying it. First off, it wouldn't have been a 'piece of cake' for Dash to have destroyed Lerris herself (were she wont to do so). There would have been resistance, counterattacks, heroic sacrifices, and she's as mortal as any of them, repeatedly proven to be as vulnerable to the old 'rock to the face' as anyone else. Could she have done it? Maybe, sure. Chaos-powers and all that (but it'd HAVE to explicitly be her chaos-powers coming out). It'd stretch credulity to the breaking point even then, but maybe. With no survivors? Now you're getting too fanciful. Could Shell have done it? On his own? Injured and septic and leaving no survivors? No. No. Freaking. Way.
A few houses murdered and firebombed? Yeah, he could have done that. Killed a couple dozen ponies? I'd accept that, easily. IF the rest had fled. They were mostly old people, they were mostly peaceful people, they could have taken off once the first few houses were turned into torches and not stayed to fight, letting Shell have his confrontation with Dash in the bloody and abandoned Lerris. Exactly the same outcome, storywise. Except that's not what happened. What happened is that he killed every. Single. Pony. Many of them sadistically right in front of Kera, and probably Belle and Pilate too, since they both knew about that part. So he's dragging prisoners from house to house, where the occupants are blissfully ignoring the burning of their neighbours, as well as the possible screams of the dying. This is not something that would happen.
Also, remember people, Shell is not black ops material. He's about as subtle as a frying pan to the testicles. His idea of finesse is to burn a whole forest down to catch three people. This guy is, essentially, an idiot. He's not stealthily going from house to house, infiltrating and murdering like a ghostly assassin. He's kicking down doors, shooting anything that he sees that's vaguely pony shaped and screaming his head off about how it's all Dash's fault, how they're all traitors, his unnatural lust for his queen, etc.
And, yeah, he might know field medicine, but is he using it? No, no he is not. He's taped a foreign object into his head wound (and it's not even that secure!). His hooves were still covered with blood when he left the managlider, so he hasn't even washed up from whatever his last slaughter was. If Dash hadn't killed him, the severe infection would have. This stallion was not well in more than the mental sense. He was in no state to be thinking things through anyway, but that would just make it all worse.
Tactically, his complete annihilation of Lerris was flat-out impossible. The townsponies would have had to line up and volunteer to die. Hell, maybe they did. They knew their purpose in the story, maybe they wanted to get it over with.
4013772
You don't have to be quiet or stealthy in a storm when everyone's indoors with their doors closed and windows shuttered.
For any other failings of this portion of the narrative, this point puts the least strain on suspension of disbelief.
Prediction: Dash flies to Archer Point and sees that the entire town has been massacred. Then she will fly east through the frozen sea alone. The others will catch up with her in Book 5.
4013806
It totally does. It assumes that while he's killing one houseful of ponies, no one in that house jumps out a window or the back door while he's busy murdering at the front, runs to the neighbor and starts screaming about the crazy bastard with the taped-on horn killing their entire family. Also, it assumes that nobody looks out their windows, sees the the several burning buildings (which WILL be visible through a storm), and thinks 'huh, something bad must be going on'. Nobody's like "grab the kid and run to the hills, Ethel! I'll distract him so he don't see where you go!" Nope. I reiterate: Every single pony died. They would have HAD to be actively trying to get killed. This is not even slightly plausible.
It'd be great to get some kind of explanation of how things happened - a flashback, something. I mean, Belle and them were there, after all. If nothing else, to put all this complaining over the plausibility of it to rest. I'm ready to get on with the story, and the sooner the drama in the comments blows over, the better.
Hot damn people don't like this chapter.
I don't blame them.
4013772 So you're saying that Dash, who single-hoofedly fought her way out of Blue Shelf against over a hundred trained Ledomaritans would be unable to take out a small, defenceless village filled with 70 old people who's weaponry consists of sharp farming implements at best. Shell, having various weaponry, would be able to take Lerris. He is a highly trained, highly lethal soldier. Lerris was utterly defenceless. They had no combat training whatsoever.
As for Shell "not being black ops material," need I remind you that he was the freaking Prime Enforcer for a black ops base? Did you forget all about Blue Shelf? Shell can be very subtle when he chooses to. He is cold, calculating, and utterly heartless. If it took killing the entire population of Lerris to get Dash, he would find a way to make it happen.
While on that subject, why didn't the citizens of Lerris flee? You would think that at least one would have, then return to the Jury. The fact that none fled meant that they didn't have time to flee. That meaning they didn't know until it was too late. Harsh storm winds covering up cries.
Also, the storm winds. They came through before Dash arrived. They would have put out any fire. But there was still fire AND still things burning when she arrived. What does that mean? Shell killed everyone, then set fire to the village. It says that numerous ponies were trapped under beams. I don't think that any more than three or four would have bee hit by beams had they been alive when the fire started. They were dead, then the house collapses. Why light Lerris? Shell's a sadist.
To everyone saying that he got them because they were hunkered down in their house, yes if that was the only thing he did, sure I could buy that (even if its still stretching it a a lot with the state he had to be in IMO) but you have to remember he also did it IIRC while dragging around Bellesmith, Pilate and Kera so they could see it all.
4013821 Don't give IC ideas on where to lead the story! I think we all really had a part in "predicting" what would happen after the jury left Lerris.
4013443 Hap, welcome to the league of the dead. Join me and Zap.
4013821
If he also did it there as well I will consider anyone's argument against this ending being bullshit to be null and void. I can barely see a reason (though some peoples arguments are pretty good I will admit) he was able to do what he did here let alone do it twice.
Oh gawd, I hope the ponies at Archer Point are safe...and the cider!
Well, that was a thing. I kind of figured something bad was going to happen. Especially when there were still so many chapters left with the Jury about to leave Lerris for good.
4013996
I dunno if you noticed, but Ledomaritan forces are, by and large, effing incompetent. Shell included, especially when it comes to any form of subtlety or tactics that don't involve 'hit it till it stops'. He was in charge of a secret base (not black ops, just secret) because he was such a blunt instrument. He intimidated the workers and he was able to force the project along in the face of all reason because he was so blind to subtlety that it never occurred to him that turning researchers into slave labour would engender the spirit of rebellion. If he'd been able to think outside of his tiny, metal box, and perhaps had a tiny iota of understanding of approaches to problems other than 'hit it till it goes away', then the events leading to Dash's resurrection and escape might never have happened.
Yeah, Dash fought her way past a bunch of ledomaritan soldiers, in that particular situation. She's got some nice advantages vis a vis chaos power, flight and speed. How would it be different in Lerris? Well, before she wasn't systematically hunting them down and murdering them while dragging prisoners and being, in general, a dying delusional idiot. She's not stopping to burn down every home, or personally slit the throats of every pony just to traumatize one filly. Dash would never do these things, but Shell did. While, again, being injured and leaving NO SURVIVORS. That's the sticking point. No. Survivors. A bunch of people dead? Sure. Everybody dead? Nope.
Utterly defenceless does not mean 'will sit there and let themselves die'. A sharp farming implement is as deadly (or more!) than any sword. A dozen ponies, old though they may be, weilding said sharp implements and falling on the sick, deranged (though lethal) soldier equals, at worst, eight dead old ponies, four grievously injured, and one dead Shell. And they so had time to flee. Shell doesn't have Dash's speed, and in his state would be moving even slower than his normal sedate pace. They had all the time in the world. They didn't. The only reason for this to happen is because the writer said so, and it's that which I am railing against.
There is a reason these 'destroy the village' scenes always have the bad guys with a squad or band of raiders. One person, no matter how lethally trained, cannot do it alone. You put that one person in the physical and mental state Shell was in, and he's lucky to be able to stumble from one house to the other, let alone manage to properly kill everyone inside.
4012784
Everyone else is replying to this comment, and I want in on the fun!
I don't really have anything to say, though. I actually agree with you.
Uh... that is all.
4013443 4014085
There's cookies and punch by the door.
4014338 punch as in the drink or 'to-the-face'
4014240 Of course they're incompetent when pitted against Dash. They were quite effective against the Xonans as well as the other groups they fought.
And you have one MAJOR thing wrong with your arguement. Shell is by no means an idiot. He is not a bumbling fool. He is not a weak soldier. Exactly four people have come close to killing Dash (when she isn't under the book spell): Nevlamas, Axan, Roarke, and Shell (in the sewers, in case you forgot). Shell is a highly trained, deadly warrior. But almost most importantly: He has nothing to lose. And that makes him very deadly indeed.
You say that a dozen ponies, armed with say, pitchforks, hoes, and the like against Shell would result in a dead Shell. I say that Shell would shoot all twelve of them dead before they even got within ten feet of him. If they got within melee range, he might have died. But he has ranged weapons. And it has been proven without a doubt that Shell is a very, very accurate shot.
As for the "moving even slower" than ever, I disagree. Shell, though utterly insane, has now reached the point in insanity where instead of being incapacitated by his insanity, he is terribly lethal and will not stop. The men of Lerris were defending their families. Shell had nothing to lose.
And I see you make no mention off my last point, as to when Shell set the flame.
4013027 A town of peaceful ponies who had no idea he was coming and no weapons to defend themselves with save a couple of fishing poles...totally plausible for him,his glider,even if he did just crash it into a building to start the fires,and his two scimitars to butcher everyone without getting hit once.
4013027
Everybody forgets that Shell is a trained and battle hardened soldier, while most of the population of Lerris was elderly ponies not used to fighting anything. Beau and half a dozen other ponies were the only ones capable of fighting back in any capacity. Plus Shell was juiced up on crazy magic juice or something. All i'm saying is sometimes the impossible is only seen that way by someone who won't make it possible.
Ugh... really?
To those who say Lerris was defenceless, I would note that the village was in the middle of a war zone, so they should have had bunkers, evacuation plans, alarm procedures or something like that so that some people would survive even if one of the two armies would come invading.
On the other hand, some real-life mass murderers have managed to kill loads of people single-handedly too. Also, Shell might have used his magic to incapacitate most of the villagers before killing them in front of Kera. The main thing I'm unsatisfied with is the fact that the superpowers of Imre's horn came from nowhere, and were insufficiently demonstrated during the fight with Dash.