New Objective
His breathing was labored, and the sweat that ran down from his horn was mixed with crimson fluids. Hobbling, he marched sporadically away from the huge golden obelisk that had pierced the surface of the earth. The ground before him lay in uneven chunks, and it would have been a task even for an uninjured unicorn to navigate all the pits and falls before him.
However, with patience and guile, every now and then bearing the sharp pain shooting through his right forelimb, Prime Enforcer Shell reached the edge of the sundered ground. As he approached the remains of Blue Shelf, the first of several frazzled soldiers galloped his way.
His beret missing and his uniform torn in several places, the stallion came to a grinding halt before Shell and saluted, trembling. "Sir! Prime Enforcer, sir! You're b-back from the facility?!"
"I... h-have emerged," Shell wheezed, then shuffled to a stop. With glowing telekinesis, he braced his broken limb while squinting at the carnage and wreckage around him. "Report."
"Sir, the object that pierced the ground emitted some sort of anti-magic shield. Until a few minutes ago, all of our mana-driven weapons and tools were malfunctioning. This included the manafences. We're struggling to get most of the devices operable again, but we've had to deal with a rampaging herd of manticores."
"How many Enforcers are accounted for?"
"We've been too preoccupied to make a proper headcount, sir. My guess is less than two hundred."
"In the Queen's name..." Shell muttered, his one eye gazing towards the toppeled towers and fallen zeppelins. "We had six hundred guards less than two hours ago."
"We were attempting to open communication with the rest of the Confederacy, but the communicative leylines have been unreachable since the obelisk appeared—"
Five Enforcers galloped up, led by a breathless lieutenant. "We've salvaged the manacore of a fallen zeppelin and we think we ca use it to fight off the last line of carnivores—" He froze at the sight of Shell, immediately saluting. "Prime Enforcer, sir!"
"Good work, lieutenant. As you were."
The soldier gulped and stammered, "Well, sir, it's been utter chaos since you've been gone. It took all of our efforts combined just to fight off the manticores. A lot of stallions fell prey to their savagery. I regret to inform you that—"
"What's that?" Shell asked, squinting past the soldier's shoulder.
The lieutenant turned and glanced down the forested mountainside, towards where the first of three boats were casting off from the docks along the glittering river. He turned and said, "They appear to have emerged from underground, sir. They number in the hundreds. We suspect they're what remains of the laborers in Black Level."
Shell took a deep, deep breath.
The lieutenant winced. "I'm sorry, sir. I understand. I'll switch every able-bodied stallion to the pursuit of those runaways immediately." He turned to shout the appropriate commands to his lackeys.
"No," Shell said.
The lieutenant glanced back, wide-eyed. "No... s-sir...?"
"Let them go," Shell muttered.
The Enforcers exchanged worrisome glances.
"But sir..." The lieutenant leaned forward, his face pale and sweating. "They're property of the Ledomaritan Confederacy! They know of the Queen's experiment deep down in the bowels of the earth! Surely, they know about the door and the key!"
"But they aren't the key," Shell said in a droning tone. "Which makes them hardly worth our combined efforts to track down, and our numbers are slim enough as it is. Today is a dark day, my little ponies..." Shell hobbled through the group and gazed past the smoke and debris of Blue Shelf. "We lost far too many comrades in the past two hours. Nearly two dozen fell into darkness inside the machine where I came from. But as I made my escape from the nether world, I saw the subject and the ones responsible for her freedom escaping before me."
After a deep breath, Shell turned and glared at those close enough to hear him.
"Gentlecolts, Blue Shelf is lost. Our experiments here are over. It is our task—our duty, now, as Ledomaritan guardians—to expend every effort and resource in tracking down the pegasus subject and her companions. Within them lies the key to our victory over Xona in the war. We can acquire slaves from the non-equine filth anyday. Allowing our pegasus—our key to the underworld—to escape Ledomaritan sovereignty is not an option. Do you understand this?"
Without hesitation, the soldiers nodded and replied, "Sir, yes, sir!"
Shell's brow furrowed. "Good. Gather your comrades. Salvage any weapon or tool that you can find, energized or not. Within two days, the Council of Ledo will be wary of our silence and send a rescue party by zeppelin. We shall take to the air and commence with our new objective."
As the soldiers ran to their various duties, Shell gazed once more towards the dark horizon opposite to the setting sun.
"We shall catch that flying pony," he murmured icily. "Or we shall die trying."
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911 words. Obviously a conspiracy.
Damn, Shell's pretty tough -- probably the toughest villain so far. Gonna be interesting to see how this goes.
Better ponies have tried.
At least Shell is good at thinking... on the fly.
-Minty
Captain HookShell's got himself a white whale in the form of a blue pegasus.And that how this fic turned into the cartoon "catch the pidgeon"
Can we skip to the part where they die horribly while trying to recapture the world's only hope for salvation and awesomeness?
Discussion question for anyone who cares to answer: If Shell knew (and believed) that capturing Dash again would ultimately result in the end of the world, would he still be trying to do so? Fat lot of good it would do him to save Ledo from their enemy if everyone then dies anyway because he decided to fuck over the entire planet.
I think he would, mostly because I want him to try and die horribly in the process.
I belive you're missing a "N" somewhere here
He's annoying, and a good villain.
1867805
I don't recall Shell learning that stopping Dash meant the end of the world. Shell just sees a weapon, a very powerful weapon. It's kind of a clever double meaning. When Shell talks about "the key," he means Dash is the key to salvation by opening the door and fighting a war via mass destruction. When everyone else talks about "the key," they mean Dash is the key to salvation of the world. It fits with Shell's narrow-midned world view, his one-eyed, one-dimensional, monomaniacal tunnel vision.
1867910
I know he isn't aware, I never implied that he was. I asked if people thought he would stop pursuing her if he DID know.
1867805
He'd try to find a way to do both. He wouldn't be able to let Dash's latent power go without finding a way to use it after the threat to the world was taken care of.
1867959
Ah, I misinterpreted your question. I honestly doubt it, Shell wouldn't be able to comprehend that information. He wouldn't believe it.
1867805
I get the feeling that he would too. Shell seems like the kind of guy that would kill all of his own guys if he couldn't kill the others.
Subject: Enforcer Shell
Suffix Title Obtained: "The Determinator"
Preview: "Shell, the Determinator"
-Minty
Argh! Okay, I'm up to chapter 72 now!
SO beautiful, so sad, and yet so happy. Now I finally get it. I get Rainbow's reasons. And I love it.
31 chapters left, ):(, then the Drill Sergeant shall be upon you.
DS Tweak is coming...
Ahh, Shell you're gonna fight to the bitter end won't you?
Then again, that would be in-character.
1867805
He may even try exploit the fact that the world will die without Dash continuing her quest. Shell wants Dash as a weapon; a means of controlling the world. What if he also had the power to 'turn off' parts of the world and let them die? By keeping Dash confined, or by cleverly manipulating her, he should be able to keep certain parts of the world active, I.E. the parts with the Ledomaritan confederacy.
(Perhaps this wouldn't work since Dash's "spark" might be linked to her own will to continue)
You will die trying.
But kudos to Shell for being a tough motherfucker.
I finally caught up. Now what?
Fuck, Shell. You just don't know when to die, do you, you great stinkin' hard-ass?
1867739
Don't you mean crocodile? Ahab was the one with the white whale.
After reading through the last few chapters, I finally realized why Rainbow named Belle Ding-Dong. Boy am I slow...
This is kinda random, but I wonder if Dash is gonna contact Princess Luna once again...
How long has it been anyway?
1863297
It's impossible for them to do so unless they suddenly sprout wings, I think. If Dash had to slow her progress down to accommodate two ponies who can't fly, the chaos would consume her long before they reached the dark side of the world.
1868262 Ah my fellow American, it is nice to see you here.
1867805 I think he would let her go if he knew.
He isn't completely evil, just blindly loyal to his country.
He wouldn't dare risk the end of the world because it would also end his country.
And I was wrong again!
It's nice to see some things never change.
Shell got his own chapter. Well then. I wonder where Elijunbryo will take us next.
Shell got his own chapter. Well then. I wonder where Elijunbryo will take us next.
Oh, Shell ain't letting go too easy, is he? I'm looking forward to the chase that comes from this. This is the first time that a villain, and any other protagonists, get to carry over with Dash to another level of her journey, so its going to be interesting to see how this development changes things. Zeppelin battle, anyone?
Finally! I'm caught up now! The Drill Sergeant is here, ):(!
Uh, w-wait. Does this mean I have to wait for updates now?
Fuckbeans...
1868954
Shell is behaving in a very traditional way, it evokes the same imagery, zeal, and monomaniacal behavior that you'd see from Hook and Ahab both.
I was being snarky
1869822
I know that feeling, but now you can participate in the commentary.
Ain't Shell a stinker?
I'll be happy when I see them die trying.
Yay, I managed to complete Austraeoh and catch up with Eljubyro in one day... ...I`m gonna have to wait for updates now, right? Dammit.
1870848
Basically every day or two there's a new update to be found. No worries.
Wait never mind! Shell is still alive! And it seeks that he too Ian going...
Eastwards!
I'm worried that Shell will be the end-of-Eljunbyro boss fight.
Oh, Shell, you are the LAST pony able to make that reference.
-minty
Let me just get one thing straight here. I just survived several weeks of AP classes, finally see an end to the hell in sight, come back to catch up on all my stories and...
Of course this fucker is still alive.
i am going for the latter.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
It appears we haven't seen the last of Shell after all. He is, after all, probably the hardiest Austraeoh villain we've seen so far, second only to Axan. It'll be really cool to see how Dash deals with the forces of Ledomare in her coming travels. I really want to believe that Belle and Pilate will go with Dash, but it just wouldn't make sense...argh...These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. So mountains have wi-fi. Well. That's food for thought. But it isn't terribly convenient, so I may not post as many evaluations as I normally do tomorrow.
Guess who's baaaaaaaaaack
Could it be, that we have a singular antagonist in this story?
Persistent sonofabitch
Something tells me Shell's taking 'Midnight Armoury' a little too seriously.
SHIT A SERIES ANTAGONIST!
1902610 agreed.
Yeah, you're going to die trying.
4101730
"Imma die tryin'... or... or die tryin'."
Shell, no... don't be the big bad guy that hunts the protagonist for the rest of the story and it's sequels. I think this is personal now. He's going to be on another continent hunting Dash while Ledomare is getting destroyed two continents back. He's wasting his time after a certain point to save Ledomare. Heck I don't think he cares about winning the war for Ledomare if he does some how bring RD back and succeed with whatever he has in mind, he can just start another war to win, and be a dictator, probably named his empire Shellion. He's clearly power hungry.