With a telekinetic wave, Shell opened the door to the cabin. He was almost instantly pelted with the flying leg of a shattered wooden table that ricocheted off the doorframe. He stopped in his tracks, gazing calmly into the lanternlit domain as the loud cacophony of smashing furniture rattled to a stop.
"Unnnngh...HIC..." Enforcer Josho was lying upside down, his portly weight wobbling back and forth. The air around him tingled with magical essence as his horn pulsed in a strobing pattern. "Heh... heheheh..." He rolled up onto even haunches, floating a half-empty whiskey bottle besides his muzzle. "That last one was a—HIC—doozy! Heheheheh..."
Shell took a deep breath. "Enforcer Josho," he droned. "May I ask what it is that you are doing?"
"Nnnngh... m-making a fool of my fat-flanked-self!" The older unicorn grumbled as he lumbered up to all four limbs.
"That much is evident," Shell said, closing the door and trotting into the room. He gazed lethargically at the piles of wooden debris and shattered glass across the floor. "Allow me to guess. Xonans are coming out of the walls?"
"Hah!" Josho belched, took a swig, and smirked at Shell. "I only—HIC—wish! Ohhhh by the Spark! What I wouldn't give to thrash a good few of those tattooed freak's skulls in! I'd make... unnngh..." He teetered back into a wall, slurring. "I'd make a friggin' necklace out of their horns..."
"A charming prospect, to be sure."
"Oh, for sure!" Josho grinned slyly. "And as soon as they'd show up, I'd teleport their butts into next year! HIC!" He coughed up a bit of sudsy bile and wiped the dribble off his bearded chin. "Y'know, I used to be one of the finest teleporter's in the Queen's Army! Did you know that?"
"I do not... recall that from your file..."
"Oh, but I was! During open combat, I'd blink into the fray, grab a Xonan nutjob, blink into the sky, drop him, and reappear on the ground in time to hear his screams from above! Ha!" Josho took another drink, belched, and grinned. "I was starting to wonder if I still have it. Looks like I do! Wanna see?"
Shell glanced at the carnage across the room, then squinted his one eye back towards Josho. "I do not believe that is necessary—"
"Watch and learn, hotshot!" Josho grinned devilishly, braced his hooves, and shot a pulse of light out from his horn. His body dematerialized as the strobing glow shot across the room and flashed in front of a bookcase. Josho reappeared—albeit upside down—slamming against the shelves and littering the ground with several books as well as his groaning body. "Unnngh..."
Shell closed his eyes, taking two or three deep breaths.
"Heh... heheheh..." Josho stumbled back up, grinning in mixed pain and rosy euphoria. "I'll get the hang of it. Just gotta flex my ethereal muscle, y'know? Heck, it was a bunch of crazy leyline entanglements that brought me here. Maybe this is the destined return of Josho!" He took a liberal drink, exhaled, and wiped his chin from where he sat on the floor. "Prime Enforcer Josho! Master teleporter and slayer of Xonan filth!"
"Did you..." Shell glanced across the room towards where a liquor cabinet hung open, its glass panels glinting in the lanternlight. "Did you take those from the Captain's private collection?"
"Hey, he never locked it up! You call that 'private?'" Josho frowned as he stumbled back onto his hooves. He tripped and leaned against the wall to his left. "Unnngh... friggin' zeppelin. Ahem..." Trotting a serpentine line, he made for the one table that was still intact, lying on its side besides a small cot. "Besides... Captain Filta's flying the ship."
"His stallions are flying the ship. He merely commands it."
"Same difference!" Josho grumbled, lifting the table up and sliding a rickety chair over. He sat down in a slump, groaning, his lavender beret a lumpy mess atop his crown. "Flying... commanding... it's all by the books air crap. No getting dirty... no getting blood on one's hooves... no real action, y'know?" He slapped the bottle down onto the table and leaned forward with a hairy grin. "Not like real work... the kind of work that made stallions out of you and me."
Shell's nostrils flared as he gazed into the corner of the room. "You and I do not have that much in common, Enforcer Josho."
"Pfft—heheheheh... well that much is certain!" Josho grinned drunkenly. "You have twice as many medals on your uniform than I take pisses on a Saturday night. But it doesn't the change the fact that the... that the grit..." He pointed with a hoof. "The real dirt we've gotten under our coats come from the same places... from marching the same lengths... from chasing after all the same crap and being forced to do all the dirty work that comes with defending this Spark-forsaken Confederacy." He squinted. "Does that bother you? The fact that the Confederacy is a bag of hoat air these days? Heck, you can have me in irons all you want for saying it, but you—HIC—y-you know it's true!"
Shell said nothing.
"Mmmmf... Bunch of stuck-up mudslingers who sit in the Council's seat when they could just as well be sitting in an outhouse." Josho levitated a glass over and tried pouring the contents of his bottle into it, only to find next to none. Frowning, he looked over his shoulder and telekinetically grasped a fresh new bottle from the cabinet. "All they do is bark and demand and bark and demand. They think that shouting a command at the top of their lungs is all it takes to get a campaign run. What do they know about killing? Have they ever gutted more than a fish?" He struggled a bit with the bottle, squinting one eye as he finally popped the cork loose. "Have they ever been beyond the front? Seen the villages of their enemies burning? Seen the bodies—both big and small—so that they know that even... even the f-foals have tattoos...?" He lingered, his mouth agape as he gazed at his bent reflection in the lid of the bottle. Swallowing, he started pouring a drink and muttered into the lanternlit recesses of the room. "Shell, I'm tellin' ya, when you and I die—and we will die—all that was strong in this Confederacy will die with us, and whatever remains is gonna have to find a way to stand against a whole lotta filth that's been piled up over a whole lotta years."
"The Queen's Kingdom is strong," Shell said in a neutral tone. He sat across from Josho, his one eye cold and emotionless. "The Confederacy has resources—"
"Hey, I've got tons of fat!" Josho said with a wheezing laugh. He leaned over the table, his rank breath wafting across Shell's face. "But to bodyslam the enemy, I gotta get within spitting range, ya feel me?"
Shell's eye narrowed. "Once our target is captured, the chaotic power contained with her will give us access to—"
"What? A bunch of underground canyons made out of gold? HIC!" He nearly dropped the bottle from the power of the ensuing belch. Recovering, he poured himself a drink and slurred, "I've been stationed in a rathole of a town for years, and still I don't have it nearly as bad as you."
The Prime Enforcer merely stared at him.
"What, you don't believe me?" Josho grinned drunkenly. "With all due respect, sir, you've become the Confederacy's whipping colt. I don't care how bad things may or may not have gone down in Blue Shelf, but they got you chasin' after a pipe dream! All of these weapons and airships and bombs they're tossin' at this stupid rainbow peacock! Hah! And then they toss you at her as well! I must say, it's been a glorious chase, but they're waistin' some pretty snazzy potential. You, after all, have a track record that burns my beard off. Prime Enforcer Shell! The slayer of Xonans! Did you or did you not lead the successful charge into Hazel Province?"
Shell exhaled, gazing down at the table. "I most certainly did..."
"So what if it was a hit and run maneuver?" Josho raised the glass to his lips, smirking. "You tore the Xonan military a new one! Their casualties outnumbered your battallion, three to one!"
"We had to perform a hasty retreat—"
"Mmmf!" Josho finished half the glass, swallowed, and pointed. "Yes. Following orders. Loyal to the last. Who cares if the offensive had to pull back? You gave the enemy a day that they wouldn't forget!"
"Certainly not the orphans," Shell said in a dull tone. He raised an eyebrow. "Tattooed at a young age, correct?"
Josho stared at him over a second sip of his glass. He swallowed, wiped his chin, and smiled. "I knew there was a real reason why I came here."
"Enlighten me..."
"At first, I was riveted... pumped up..." Josho's teeth showed in the glinting lanternlight. "Years of minding a dead-end post, I finally could see some action again. All that magical entanglement crap with my horn? It was my salvation! I was gonna see some action again! I was gonna start busting heads for the Confederacy again!" He sipped until the glass was empty, but paused in a sighing lurch before indulging in the next pour. "Well, it sure didn't last long. But it was worth it, sir." He winked at Shell. "I got to work with you..."
"Enforcer Josho, exactly what 'work' have you been up to?"
"Not the friggin' point! HIC!" Josho shuddered, then pointed with a smirk. "I got to function side by side with Shell, the one and only. Captain Filta's not half bad, but he certainly hasn't risked his neck for Queen and Confederacy."
"We all do our part, Enforcer—"
"But some of us more than others." Josho's face fell flat as his eyes rounded in the amber light. "You... You are one of a kind. You work to get the job done and to do it exceptionally. Casualties just isn't your bag. I mean, up until this blue pegasus nonsense, you had a great track record. But who's counting that much! Give it time, cuz the ponies who bought it at Blue Shelf will be avenged. I know this. I've seen stuff like this happen before."
Shell stared, and yet, there was the slightest hint of a twitch to his good eye.
"Everypony that has something to avenge is a legend in the making," Josho continued. "So what is that gonna make you? A stallion who's already a legend?" He grinned and sipped from the bottle this time. "Mmmf... Damn straight, it's nice to be workin' with you again. 'Cuz—HIC—it reminds me that I have something to avenge too. You lost most of your unit? I lost my whole Spark-forsaken life. And what does the Confederacy care for either of us? We're just burps in the leyline to them. They'll send stallions to replace us when we've given our all, but it won't be the same. We've got history on our sides, Shell. With all its glory and honor and crap. It's ponies like us that..." His eyes curved painfully for a brief second as he regarded his reflection in the bottle once more. "... ponies l-like us that make all of the ugliness worth it. Because in the end, we're preserving something, y'know? Working with you has reminded me of a lot of things... but I know that it is all worth it in the end."
With a cold breath, Shell murmured, "This..." He gestured towards the table, the bottle, and the two of them. "This is worth it in the end?"
"You betcha..."
Nodding, the Prime Enforcer glanced at the bottle. "May I?"
Josho smiled. He hoofed the object over. "Knock yourself out, Prime Enforcer."
"Much appreciated." Shell took the bottle in his telekinetic grip, turned it over, and smashed it savagely over Josho's horn.
"Mmmf—" Josho sputtered into his drink before dropping the glass and clutching his bleeding forehead. "Gaaah—"
Snarling, Shell flipped the table over and aimed his horn straight at the stallion. Josho was lifted up in a glittering field and slammed repeatedly against the nearby wall.
Josho writhed and sputtered in pain.
"Nnnngh—!" Spinning, Shell flung the obese pony across the cabin, towards the wide windows.
With a shatter of glass, Josho tumbled out onto the deck of the Steel Wing. Deckhands gasped and spun to look. Josho tried getting up, his shivering body overcome with dozens of cuts and bruises.
With a thudding sound, Shell stormed out of the cabin with his prosthetic. He made a bee-line for the ship's edge, all the while pulsing a beam of magic out of his horn. Without breaking his stride, he dragged Josho's gasping body along with him.
"Augh! Whoah—" Josho yelped as he was forced halfway over the edge of the ship. His beret fluttered loosely to the sea of moonlit trees below.
"You know what it is worth?!" Shell shouted into the windy night, his one eye flaring brightly. "Being a lone, battered corpse! Being abandoned to die in the wilderness like you are about to be, so help me Spark!" He shoved the gasping stallion even further over the edge, precariously. "Glory and honor?! That belongs to all our brothers we've left to rot behind enemy line because the Council changed its mind about the engagement!"
"I..." Josho hissed, clamping his hooves around the magic field ensnaring his throat. His mane blew in the wind as he stared wincingly at Shell. "I-I understand—"
"How?!" Shell spat, his teeth flashing in the starlight. "Because you've seen children?! I've murdered them, you insufferable coward! I've had villages burned to ashes in order to root out the enemy! I've interrogated my own beloved to death! I've sequestered dozens of our own citizens to become the fodder for a weapon of chaos! And for what? So that I can be shipped off to some Spark-forsaken pasture where I will waste away like you, a trotting pile of jaded dreams without the decency to take a mana-gun to his own skull?!"
Josho's face was wrenched in pain and confusion.
"Nnngh!" Shell flung his telekinesis.
Josho shrieked—only to strike the ship's deck and not the open air. A few crew members made to rush to his side, but stumbled back as soon as Shell trotted forward and pressed his metal prosthetic into Josho's quivering gut.
"You're right, Enforcer Josho," Shell growled. "I will die. But I'll be damned if the Confederacy I leave behind is one populated by fools who are cursed to carry the same burden I have, to bathe in the same blood that I still smell at night, all because I allowed the last fibrous strand of integrity to keep me from doing what everypony else in this fractured Kingdom is too afraid to do."
With a stumbling of hooves, Captain Filta rushed up to the hectic scene. "Enforcer Shell! What's going on? I heard noise—"
"Captain, wake all of your stallions!" Shell spun at him, snarling. "Prime every cannon with incendiary shells."
Filta and several other ponies did double-takes. "Sir? But that will—"
"Foxtaur is worthless," Shell grunted, trotting off of Josho and towards the ship's edge. "It's a piece of the same wasteland of war, the wasteland that comprises everything around us. It's time to stop holding the machine back. Even if every tree becomes a cinder today, it will be Ledomare's paradise tomorrow, so long as our children have the power to call the ashes theirs." He spun about, his glowing horn highlighting an iron-wrought frown. "Arm the cannons! We'll flush the enemy out in pieces if we have to!" He slapped his metal hoof-brace down with finality. "Burn it to the ground!"
I am kind of curious after all this time in the story. Just how far has Rainbow Dash traveled since she left Ponyville to go east?
Holy buck, Shell's gone... ballistic.
Now I feel bad for Shell. He's just desperately trying to hold on to his integrity, because his country is all he has left to fight for. He's a disgusting bastard, but I can't help but pity him.
2183815
I'd say he's shell shocked to the breaking point. It's twisted, the whole situation is wound so tight that it's snapped. That's not quite fair, though, because it's not Shell's first time behaving like this. He harbors a lot more than battle knowledge and a sense of nationalism. His last fibrous strand of integrity is a fallacy. It is not integrity he holds on to, it's a false sense of sanity. Shell is not evil, he is worn raw and broken, and he has been like this for a long time.
Rainbow represents Shell's salvation. After all of his accomplishments he is no better off than he ever was, and getting "the weapon" back has, indeed, become his white whale.
Well, so much for that last glimmer of restraint...
2183815
I'd say it's time to... open fire.
One could almost not completely loathe him if his objective wasn't so horrifying.
Also ends do not always justify means. He fed his own civilians to a murderous chaos beast, fully knowing they would die, and in doing so gained nothing. Reasons notwithstanding, he is a complete monster.
2183871 Which is too bad, because, as an antagonist, I rather like Shell. If and when he comes face to face with Rainbow again, it's possible that she'll try to "repair" him, if you will. I mean, she's the Element of Loyalty, and Shell is loyal, if nothing else. Perhaps when he meets Austraeoh himself, he will understand the similarities between them and maybe, just maybe, support her cause.
And there's the difference between Shell and Rainbow Dash. Shell's loyalty to ideals blinds him to all else, including the lives of those he's hurting, and it's finally catching up with him.
Hm. Varying degrees of wankerosity going on here.
Shell has lost it. It took long enough for that facade to break, but he was always mad. You don't just do things like Shell has done and forget.
Very interesting characters you have created, amigo. And a nice tactic, making us feel bad for the enemy.
Lock n' load, boys. This is gonna be good.
2183873
Looks like things are starting to... heat up.
2184020
Hey, no one thinks they're evil. They just have different perspectives. Except maybe Emperor Palpatine.
Shell: Use all of the guns! Destroy the forest! Oh, and, uh, maybe we can get the target. If she's not blown up.
This is Australia...
There we go. He's gone off the deep end.
2184198
And it looks like the provisions stocked up in Foxtaur are going to... Go up in smoke.
Ideas born in moments of rage... those never backfire. Burn down the whole forest? Why didn't you think of it sooner?
Oh God, the Foxtuar home owners association is not going to like this
2184316
Rainbow Dash is in trouble now...Shell's hot on her heels.
2183871
Exactly. Shell is a career soldier who has seen and done things that no man should. In his early years, he did it for blind loyalty to the Confederacy. He truly believed that every innocent murdered, every village razed, every child tortured was a step closer to the end of it all; that his government was just and wise, that they ordered him to carry out horrible acts because it was the quickest way to peace.
But now he's seeing the truth. In Josho, that fat, broken stallion, he sees the reality of it all: it's all a sham. His government, for whom he has committed atrocities unspeakable, is no different than all the others of the world: selfish, petty, and only interested in the acquisition and retention of power. The illusion is breaking, and with it, himself. In this brief interaction with a burnt out drunk, his whole world is shattering before his eyes. Now, all that remains, all that matters, is Dash. He must get her. It's the only thing that will make it all make sense, that will make it all worth it, not just the loss of his men at Blue Shelf, but the loss of himself.
"The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
- General Douglas MacArthur
2184316 but in the end... it doesn't even matter
Well, he's lost his marbles.
Couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.
Truly gone fishin'.
Off the deep end.
1 can short of a six pack.
Got a screw loose.
Gone totally batshit.
Two tacos short of a combo plate.
Mad as a box of frogs.
On the crazy train to the insane asylum.
His sanity took an extended vacation.
For The Glory.../More Than Meets The Eye - Testament
Like name, like nature.
2184741
Well, that's... A sh-ame.
Aaaaaaaand there goes most of Shell's capacity for ending up a good character. He may or may not still have any faith in his country anymore, but he's gonna damn well try and catch Dash, even if it kills him.
Also, I find an odd similarity between Shell and Charles Muntz...
He's cruel and heartless due to past actions
His army flies around in giant Zeppelins
...and he's burning down a forest to find a rainbow-colored winged thing to vindicate himself.
Eh, close enough.
Well fuck.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we get a lot more insight into Shell's character here. As near as I can figure, he has been believing the illusion that the Confederacy is just and right. But as he continued to work for it, everything in his life boiled down to that one belief in the Confederacy. Perhaps, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that the Confederacy was rotten and corrupt, but he didn't want to believe it because, at that point, the Confederacy was his life. Josho drew the truth of the Confederacy out of Shell, causing Shell to begin to break because the Confederacy WAS everything he did. He's starting to truly go insane here, convincing himself that the lie of a just Ledomare is true. Also, these tattoed Xonans sound interesting. I'll be interested to see them later on. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
2185774
Yep. . . that pretty much sums it up.
2182681
Well. Yes. But. Don't poke holes in my logic!
Well I thought that maybe instead of beating the crap out of Josho, he Maybe found some enlightenment from his drunken speech. Well, I guess I was right the first time. Josho not only got beat up, he gets to burn with th rest of foxtaur.
2186917 you are correct. I had misread. thanks for pointing that out.
He doesn't sound as crazy to me as everyone here is making him out to be.
He sounds like he's really in it for the long game, and he hates Josho for wanting him to quit.
Whether the Confederacy is actually corrupt seems slightly Infrared Elephant. (IR-Elephant. Just say it out loud, you'll get it,)
Shell believes that he is fighting the good fight. (I know he's not, plot-wise.) And this is what makes him have hope for the future.
That's not crazy, that's patriotism.
nice move making him out to be a ptsd nam vet. you finally gave him a reason to exist.
2187801
Most every day, sometimes two in a day.
and dangit. First Roarke happens to my lovely ruins, now Shell's gonna light up my trees?
It's a good thing there's plenty of green stuff. No way is it all gonna burn. Not even if he lights the zeppelins and throws them in after their incendiaries.
(Do I contradict myself? very well, then I contradict myself. I am large; I contain multitudes. i'm a fracking forest)
called it..
I really like this line for some reason. I mean, I don't like that Shell's saying it, but its a pretty powerful sentence, if that makes sense.
And damn, I'm a colossal fail whale in trying to keep up with this thing. Now its finished and the next installment's already started - onward!
It doesn't matter, Shell. Even if you bring her in, they're never going to love you back.
Congratulations, Shell. An over-the-hill, fat, drunken, wasted good-for-nothing dotard just told you the truth you didn't want to see, and you weren't able to take it. A soldier's strength indeed.
Jake and Pilate said it. In the end, beneath all that feigned strength ist just another hollow fanatic running from the truth. Deep inside he knows how wrong he is - and it seems that reality has taken Josho's form and finally caught up with him.
To some, they will tell you it was a fate waiting to happen, in fact, most, if not all, will tell you that. Nonetheless, it seems that it is the time that Shell has snapped. He is as angry as he will ever be, and it seems that his normal calm, level-headed planing and usual strategic decisions are slowly turning into raging, rambling, compulsive and irrational calls to wreck mass destruction on the locale.
Perhaps this may be the final straw for Shell, and perhaps the opposing force of the Ledomartian Council will follow Shell's deterioration. Or perhaps the blind orders of a delusional captain will strike fear into the hearts of our travelers, or at the very least flush them out into a vulnerable position. In the future, we will know...
Onwards!
Good ol' Josho sure planted ideas in Shell's head... just not quite the ideas I was expecting. I hate to say it but I find myself liking Shell more. I actually hope he doesn't die.
>I used to be one of the finest teleporter's in the Queen's Army!
wats le apostrofee 4?
>the Confederacy is a bag of hoat air
Hoat? Hot?
Hot oat!
2184515
Josho is deep. Very deep. Even when drunk.
OKay, to be honest, that face has nothing to do with what I said, I just wanted to use it to get it over with. I don't have that many more until I've used them all! Also, apparently JOsho's deepness made Shell go absolutely mad. Uh oh. This is bad.
Dang. Shell is such a bad-ass!
He just turned into my new favorite antagonist
Burn, burn, burn in the burning ring of fire!
Damn...for a second, i thought Shell was convinced to stop being a bitch of the confederate council...
on the other hand,
BURN IT ALLLL!!!! MUAHAHAHAHHHAAAAAA
And damn, I could almost believe that my Joshell ship has been pulled up from the bottom of the ocean until Shell beat the tar out of Josho's drunk ass.
I shall have to wait for another day...
Shell has truly lost it now This won't end well.
Some stallions just want to watch the world burn.
Shell: "Good talk, Josho, that was very helpful."
Literally everyone else: "Thanks a lot, Josho!"