Chapter 24
White, Scroll, Tap, Barrel, and Clip all stood and stared at the sight. The scene was so surreal it was hard to fully comprehend. The fortress, sitting so still in the sky, was at a stark contrast with the roaring sounds of cannons and panicked ponies. Save for the ominous, pulsing pillar of light, the castle seemed almost serene.
“He’s going to flood the island.”
White looked around, his mind racing towards the usual conclusion: “All right,” he said, “We just got to get as many ponies into the mission house as usual, and–”
“That won’t work,” said Scroll. “If they flood the island, the mission house won’t be any safer than anywhere else.”
“Unbelievable...” said Tap. “I fucked around a dozen soldiers for that balcony.”
“What do we do?” asked Barrel.
Nopony had any idea. Clip stuck to White’s hind leg, as everyone racked their brains, trying to drum up some sort of spark. Then Scroll’s face lit up.
“The mountain,” he said. “The mountain at the center of the island. There are caves there. If anywhere on the island will be safe, it’s there.”
“Worth a shot,” said Tap.
“We have to tell the general,” said White.
“But–” Tap started, but White wouldn’t hear any dissent. He made a break down the road.
“General Quake!” he called. “General Quake!”
There were only soldiers on the street now, giving him a few puzzled glances. White looked around, trying to find the general.
He saw the general, standing tall and imposing in his armor and guns fixed to his sides. General Quake was fixing for a battle, and he was going to enjoy it, or at least feel something that was as close to “enjoyment” as was possible for him.
“General Quake!” White called again. Quake’s ears pricked up – he recognized that annoying tenor.
“Fuck...” General Quake muttered.
“General, you have to listen to me,” said White.
“Can’t I just have one fucking day where you don’t prance in front of me?” The General snorted. “Do you just enjoy pissing me off? Is that it?”
“Please...” said White. “You have to get everypony out of here.”
The general looked to his hapless lieutenant, who shrugged pathetically. “Huh?”
“Monarch is gonna flood the town,” explained White. “If we can get everyone into the caves on the mountain...”
“No,” said General Quake, brushing past him. “That’s fucking stupid. I’m not gonna run from King Horner like some kinda pussy. Move the cannons, dipshits.”
“But sir!” White called.
The general turned around. “Didn’t hear me? Are you gay and retarded? Nopony is allowed up there unless I say so.”
“Well then...” intoned White in a voice as low as his tenor would allow. “Say so.”
Quake ignored him and moved on to his soldiers. “Well get bigger cannons if these ones aren’t hitting!”
White stood and watched as General Quake walked by, barking orders at the soldiers. The unicorn stood, his eyes fixed on the general, and it seemed as though the entire world was drowned out as one burning, righteous thing escaped his mouth.
“You talked to me about saving lives!”
The general stopped and slowly, slowly turned. He glared at Brother White with a twisted, perplexed expression consisting of contempt and confusion. Even the cannons seemed oddly quiet as he glared down at the missionary. White almost felt as though his breathing were louder than the explosions.
“What the fuck did you just say?” he asked, walking up to him with a flint-hard galre.
“Back at the last attack,” said White. “When I refused, you talked to me about saving lives. Well you know something?” The general was standing in front of him, glaring down. White wondered if the general could knock over a pony by snorting hard enough at him. “This is saving lives. Get everypony out of the town. Get them into the caves on the mountain, high above the town. If you do this, nopony is going to die today.”
“Did you hit your horn on something and send it back into your brain?” Quake asked. “I’m the fucking general. I’m in charge, and you do not give orders to me. We retreat, they wipe out the town.”
“They’ll wipe out the town whether you leave or not!” White shouted back. He froze. He had just interrupted the general. Balking at the realization, he backed up.
The general stood, not completely sure of what to do. He could easily just ignore the unicorn or beat him up. Hell, he could probably just stomp his foot and scare him off and go about what he was doing. But out of the corner of his eye he saw the other soldiers, standing, waiting for his verdict.
“Well, he’s got a point,” said the lieutenant. Quake looked at him with a face so flatly unreadable that it was almost comical rather than intimidating. “I mean,” the lieutenant continued. “I think, well...” There were some murmurs of agreement among the soldiers.
“Quiet!” Quake hissed, silencing his troops. “Get everypony out of the town,” he growled.
___________
“Barrel!” yelled Tap from the bottom of the stairs. “What are you doing? We have to get out here!”
Her brother appeared at the top of the stairs, clutching the stuffed seagull in his mouth. “Rdih!” he called back down.
Tap turned and went for the door, the sound of stomping hoofsteps reassuring her that Barrel was right behind. She opened the door and stood in the doorway, looking at the ominous fortress in the sky.
“Are you afraid?” Barrel asked. The doll sat on his back, just like a regular seabird.
“I should be,” said Tap. “But after a while these things, even the really awful stuff, get so commonplace that you just sort of get used to it.” She stepped out of the doorway. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
Ponies were filing out into the streets, guided by the soldiers, many of whom were wondering why they had been asked to direct traffic. Tap and Barrel made their way out into the crowds, Barrel’s stuffed seagull clenched in his mouth.
“Shit,” said Tap, “it’s like the general actually got organized with something.”
“Everyone get to the caves!” called the soldier. “Stay in line and go where the soldiers direct you.”
The ponies did not form much of a “line” so much as a thinly-directed amorphous blob of ponies, taking the trek out of the town and into the forest to the mountain in the middle of the island.
“And if we tell you to keep out of someplace,” said another soldier. “We mean stay out. We will fire if...”
“Tap!” called a voice. She turned and looked through the crowd to find Scroll, poking his head through whatever gaps he could. “Excuse me... sorry... coming through...” he said meekly, trying to push ahead through the crowd. “Tap!” he gasped, breaking through the mass. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking over at Barrel. “We’re fine.” She groaned. “I’m still sore about what this means for the tavern. I knew it was gonna get knocked down sooner or later, but now I just feel cheated.”
“I just hope everypony makes it out of here safely,” said Scroll. “I can’t believe that the general actually...”
“Well, I’ll believe it when it actually happens.”
___________
“Okay, now I believe it.”
The ponies milled around the caves where they were allowed. The place was crowded, packed with more ponies than Quake had ever intended to be there. Quake wasn’t too thrilled about needing to share his special military space with the local populace, so he kept them corralled where it was convenient, away from whatever armories or explosives he had hauled away in the mountains. He certainly didn’t want any unwelcome ponies near that water machine. The ponies themselves were confused, unaccustomed to being suddenly ordered out of their homes. Still, many could easily reason that here was a better place than in the town at the moment. All they could do was wait for it to be over.
Barrel sat in the corner, his stuffed seagull tucked beneath his arm as he watched the crowd of ponies staring out the mouth of the cave. The fortress was continuing its ominous pounding of the sea beneath it, the pillar of light looking like something out of one of Brother Scroll’s cheesy sci-fi comic books. Then, there was one blinding flash of light, and once their eyesight returned, they saw a towering wall of water hurtling towards the island.
All of the ponies would later recount how slowly it seemed to approach, until it crashed down over the docks, enveloping the entire town. Houses floated away from their foundations, the walls splintering like twigs beneath a stomping hoof, the hard work of strong backs negated in a matter of seconds.
After that, everything was silent. The fortress stood, cold and immobile in the sky, and the ponies stared at the waterlogged wreckage, hardly able to believe it. So far away on the cliff, it seemed unreal. The town was completely flooded, with roofs barely poking, lopsided out of the water. No buildings were still standing, not even the supposedly safe mission house.
The missionaries stood near the edge, with Clip at White’s hooves.
“Brother White?” asked Clip. “Where are we gonna stay now?”
“We’ll think of something...” said White.
Scroll stood off to the side, trembling at the sight. “Oh Celestia...” he moaned. “What do we do now? What about my books? What about the library?”
The ponies were starting to mumble. The uncertainty was starting to hit. Rebuilding was bad enough as it was usually, but what if everything had been wiped out? What would they do then? Worse yet, the rubble had dammed the water up, keeping the water in the town. Not only had the town been ruined, but it would take even more demolition to restore the land to conditions that were suitable for building again.
“Everyone in the cave!” called a soldier.
The crowd stirred, with varying cries of “what?”, “for how long?”, and “but our homes!”
“General’s orders!” the soldier resumed.
The general’s massive frame loomed from the mouth of the cave, still decked in his armored saddle and guns. “Everyone’s gonna get in and shut the fuck up,” he said. “You’ll stay here until I say so. Now move in.”
Still mumbling, the crowd of ponies shuffled into the cave. The missionaries still stared at the wreckage of the town, with Clip looking up at Brother White.
“White?” Clip asked.
“Hey, kid,” said Quake. “I said get inside.”
The missionaries turned around, faced with the scowling general.
“Come on, Clip,” said White. “Let’s head inside.”
“Not you,” growled the general. “You stay out here. You,” he looked at Scroll, “and the pinko colt get inside.”
There was a pregnant pause while the missionaries exchanged confused glances.
“I said get the fuck inside,” said Quake. “Are you gay and retarded?”
“You already used that one...” said White.
“NOW!”
Scroll slunk and scurried forward, Clip following a distance behind. Scroll stopped at the mouth of the cave and looked back uneasily. White gave him a reassuring nod – Scroll paused, looking back and forth with an unconvinced expression, before disappearing into the darkness. Quake stood stock still, his bristling firearms threatening anything and anyone he was facing.
“Bet you thought that was real fucking funny, didn’t you?” he asked. “Humiliating me in front of my soldiers like that.”
“You could’ve just blown me off,” said White.
“You have no idea how much you fucking piss me off, do you?” Quake stepped forward, each time a menacing thud sounding from his hooves as they advanced over the stone, forcing White to back away from him. “Let me explain one thing. If you ever pull that shit again...”
White stopped. His back hoof had brushed off the edge of the cliff, and he looked down at the trees below.
“I’ll forget about your Fraternity. I’ll forget about your friends and your princess and whatever the fuck else there is back in candyland...”
“That’s a fun place, went there for my birthday...”
“If you fuck with me in front of my troops again, I will fucking kill you,” growled the general. “You got that?”
White looked back at the general, standing in front of him like a giant statue that wanted to kill him. If Quake had let out a quick breath of air he might’ve caused White to topple over the edge. He took a quiet gulp and nodded.
“Good. Remember it,” snorted the general. He turned and walked back towards the cave, leaving White where he stood.
White started to follow, but then paused. He looked back at the destruction and saw a small light coming from the fortress. A hot pressure grew in his head, furrowing his brow, and without warning, he raced down the path back to the town.
___________
Scroll sat on the floor, waiting, as Quake came back. General Quake looked at him, Clip, Tap, and her brother, all of whom had set themselves up in the cave and had been looking in his direction.
“The fuck are you looking at?” he asked.
“We’re waiting for White,” said Scroll.
Quake snorted, looking back. “He’s right... huh. Fucker ain’t there.” He blinked. “The fuck did he go?”
The others looked at each other, with confused and worried looks.
“Wait... he couldn’t’ve...” Scroll muttered. He shot up. “I gotta find him!”
“Me too!” Clip piped up.
“No,” said Scroll. “Stay here with Tap and Barrel,” he said, looking at the other two. “Stay here until it’s safe to leave.”
“Why should I?” asked Clip.
“Clip, please,” said Scroll. “Stay here. Stay where it’s safe.” He looked back out toward the entrance. “I gotta go!”
“Hey!” shouted Quake as Scroll burst past him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Following him!”
___________
White galloped as hard and fast as his legs would carry him. They burned and ached, but he kept pressing on. Down he went, down the side of the mountain, into the forest. The earth grew damp, and then, muddy, until he began running through water as he got closer and closer to the town, or what was left of it.
The destruction he’d been used to. By this point he could bear to see if the blacksmith’s had been destroyed, or if the peach stand failed to return afterwards. White slowed as he began to wade through the water. He drew in deep breaths, tired from the running but still pressing onwards. He plodded through the water before missing a step and slipping, splashing into the water. Gasping for air, he pulled himself out, his mane now drenched in the sea water.
No buildings remained standing. Neither the carpenter shop, nor the bakery
What had once been a roof floated past him, and he climbed on, panting and heaving. He hauled himself into it and looked up at the light floating down from the fortress, glaring, his nostrils flared.
The light danced and floated down to the roof.
“Well,” said a low, familiar voice, “fancy seeing you here.” The light dimmed, materializing into the form of the unicorn general. “No dead bodies here to greet me,” he said. “Such a shame. I was looking forward to picking off the swimmers.”
“You... wiped out... the entire... town...” White gasped.
“Yes I did,” said Monarch, his mouth curling into a cruel smile. “I must say, I’m rather pleased with how it went.”
White stared at him, not moving except for his expanding and contracting belly, heaving with every breath he took. “Why?”
Monarch’s eyes narrowed deviously. “When one such as myself has as much... power as I do, it is only prudent to display it. If you don’t, then you don’t really have any power. You have to show it to keep it. So I come here, to this island, to show the dirts what I can do. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s merely a testing ground for my other plans.”
White hadn’t moved during all this. “You... you made a spell...” His head lowered in disgust. “To cause a wave to wipe out an entire city... as a test?”
“Yes,” said Monarch, his eyes alight. “And we have so many more. The Cannon Engine, for one, until the earth ponies stole it. They probably lost or broke it. But we have more, things that you arrived too late to witness for yourself. The Quenchless Fire, and the Plague of Dreams. The Famine Weeds, and the Storm’s Eye, and the Bane of Summer.”
White was silent, his legs locked and his mouth open ever so slightly. Monarch took on a self-satisfied smirk. “We have more,” he said. “More things are coming. More great, terrible things. And here you are. Have you decided to accept my offer?”
“I’m here to tell you,” said White. “I’m here to tell you that what you are doing is evil.”
Monarch laughed. “Oh, still keeping up the preacher act?”
“That’s my job as a missionary,” said White. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told you before: Stop the attacks on this island.”
“Or what?” asked Monarch.
“There is no ‘or,’” said Brother White. “Stop the attacks. Please. For all our sakes.”
Monarch let out a low chuckle. “Oh, I’ll stop the attacks here, when I’m good and done. And you’re going to come with me.”
“What?” asked White. “Are you gonna kidnap me?”
“No, I don’t need to do that,” said Monarch. “When you come to me, it will be of your own free will.”
“Fat chance,” said White. “I have a job here. I have my friends here. I have Brother Scroll here. Why would I ever go with you?”
“Safety, perhaps,” the general suggested, the smug smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
White’s thoughts turned to some of his more harrowing experiences: the lynching attempt, the shooting, and the near-execution at the hooves of some soldiers all stuck out in his mind.
“General Quake can’t like you,” said Monarch. “In fact, I’d say the only thing stopping him is the fact that you are... a diplomatic party, is it? And he fears retaliation from Equestria.”
White remained silent.
“Now, consider this: when my wave came, where was your mission house? Or rather, where is your mission house?” He tapped the wooden roof beneath his hoof. “Underwater, I presume, in several fragments. Now then...” He smirked again. “What, exactly, is your Fraternity going to do about that?”
There was another silence.
“Nothing, I imagine,” said Monarch. “And when nothing happens, I wonder how long it will take for our good friend General Quake to realize that there will be no more repercussions for what he might do to you than there are for me. And then, Brother White, what will stand between you and he?”
White shook a little, wondering, what if the general was right? What if it truly wasn’t safe for him anymore?
Then, behind the general, he saw a shape, wading through the water, clinging to the debris – Brother Scroll, desperately swimming, looking at Brother White with a pleading look on his face.
“Well?” asked the unicorn general.
“Well what?” asked White. “It’s still ‘no.’”
The general’s smile twitched, faltering ever so slightly at the corner of his mouth.
“Am I supposed to be scared by that?” asked White. “I’ve been scared since I got here, ever since I saw a pony murdered in front of me. The ponies here have threatened me, yes. They’ve even tried to kill me. And they might even threaten or try again. That doesn’t change anything. You destroyed the mission house, well I’m gonna build it right back up again, Fraternity or not. Because I have a duty to my mission. And I have a duty to my friend. He would never abandon me or let me down. So you know what? Neither will I. Never.”
The unicorn general glared at White, his poise unchanged but his eyes betraying a mix of disappointment and irritation.
“Consign yourself to failure, then?” he asked. “How long will you go until you realize that you’ve achieved nothing?”
White’s face spontaneously erupted into a grin. Monarch raised a cautious eyebrow.
“What’s so funny?”
“You’re the one who’s achieved nothing,” said White. “This ‘flood the town’ business? So what? The earth ponies can just rebuild, but you know something? They all evacuated!” His voice rose as he lowered his hoof and stomped on the wood. He smiled triumphantly at the enemy. “You know what that means? It means that nopony died today.” He raised his head. “Nopony died today, Monarch. In spite of your big engine of destruction, you couldn’t kill one single pony today. And that means I win!”
Monarch glared, his face stony and devoid of his usual smugness. White didn’t know what was going through his head, or what was about to come out of his mouth, because the unicorn general was rudely interrupted.
“Hey!” shouted General Quake from a pile of rubble. “Fancy-dick!”
The others all looked up at him as he aimed his guns at the rooftop the unicorns were standing on. White cast one more glance at Brother Scroll as he saw his partner mouth, ‘Oh shit.’
The little wooden island exploded into splinters as the two unicorns escaped the blast, Monarch vanishing in a flash of light and White thrown into the water.
He hit the water and grabbed onto a piece of floating wood, kicking to try to propel himself.
“White!” called Scroll, still clinging to a pipe on the side of a now-waterlogged building.
Monarch reappeared in the air above General Quake, blasting down with magical energy. The rubble exploded; Quake, remarkably agile for a pony of his size, leapt onto another island of flotsam. A cannon from his chest fired a grenade at the unicorn general, who once again vanished, leaving the armament to strike a mountain of rubble.
White wasn’t quite sure how that little ball could cause such a big explosion. He’d have to have Scroll explain it sometime. Wood and stone was hurled into the air above, raining down into the water, before White felt a current pull at him.
That particular pile of junk had acted as a dam for that small section of the town, and now that it was demolished, water began to pour out. White grabbed onto what had once been someone’s house, clinging to its side much like Scroll was doing to another house. He looked back at his mission brother.
“Look out!” White cried.
Before Scroll could react, something hit him in the back, dislodging him from the relative safety of his perch. With nothing else to grab at, he clung to the block and ran with the current.
White looked at where the blockage had been earlier, and balked – it was flowing out like a waterfall. Scroll would surely plummet over the side!
White reached out with all his magic and grabbed Scroll. His horn burned from the strain, but he held Scroll and his large block.
“I got you!”
“Hey!” said Scroll. “It’s my book chest!”
“Well, that’s great,” grunted White, his eyes shut in concentration. “Then once this is over we can get back to that library!”
Scroll and White held on as long as they could as the water lowered, spilling out into somewhere else in the town. Gunshots and explosions rang out, signifying the battle between the two generals, as Quake leapt from one rooftop to the next, his guns blazing at Monarch, who continually vanished and reappeared before sending another bolt of magic at his adversary. The missionaries didn’t concern them. Nothing concerned them except seeing the other dead.
“Quit dancing like a coward and fight me like a stallion!” roared Quake. He turned around, his head looking back and forth, trying to find the elusive general. Then he froze.
“Cowardice,” said Monarch, as he reappeared before the massive earth pony general, “is a word invented by headstrong imbeciles like yourself so that you can pass off your suicidal stupidity as a trait to be admired.” His horn glowed as he walked up to Quake, who was covered in a sickly purple aura. Quake’s legs shook as he tried to stand against Monarch’s crushing magic. “Well?” asked Monarch. “I’m facing you, like a stallion.” He leaned in. “What are you going to do now?”
The slimey, smug smile on Monarch’s face rammed up as Quake’s front hoof slammed into his lower jaw, knocking him into the air.
“That good enough, fucker?”
Monarch righted himself in the air and sent another blast down at Quake’s feet. The magical explosion threw him into the water. By now the water level had lowered, leaving the general at a much lower risk of drowning, as he might have with all the guns and armor strapped to his body. As it was, the water only came up to his neck.
But the water around the general quickly froze as Monarch landed, and Quake was encased in ice. As the water lowered, Quake’s icy prison gleamed in the sunlight. Quake’s face contorted and he snarled. Cracks emerged in the ice, and the general roared in fury as he broke free, blasting away chunks of the frozen sea water like shrapnel, which Monarch ducked away from in time to avoid.
Scroll, meanwhile, safely touched the ground as the water finished draining out, leaving him and his chest of books in the salty mud.
“Scroll, you okay?” White called down from the rooftop.
“I think so,” said Scroll as he looked over at the fighting warlords. “We gotta get out of here.”
White turned around and disappeared from Scroll’s sight.
“Hey!” he shouted. “You two, stop– WOAH!”
White flew off of the roof and landed with a SPLAT in the mud. Scroll ran over to him in a panic.
“White! You okay?”
“Monarch hit me in the face...” White moaned. “That was rude...”
___________
Both of the generals were covered in mud, nearly exhausted from their battle. The wet, muddy patches were dotted with smoking craters and riddled with shells and bullet cases. They stood at opposite ends of a tattered battlefield, glaring.
Monarch faltered ever so slightly, his hoof not quite hitting solid ground. Quake smirked.
“What’s the matter?” he jeered. “You ran out of magic?” He readied a gun. “Funny. I still got bullets.”
Monarch’s eyes went wide, and as the barrels on Quake’s gun spun up, he disappeared again and a flash of light shot for the fortress. Quake snarled at the sight.
“Go ahead and run!” he roared. “You come here, pick a fight, and run away! Well you fuckers all remember that I’m right here! And if you come at me, you’re fucking dead!”
___________
“Well, at least our house is in one piece.”
“Barrel,” sighed Tap. “It’s upside-down.”
“Well, okay, but...” Barrel pondered their living arrangements.
The missionaries trudged through the mud, looking back and forth at the distraught citizens as they worked to try to clear out their city, draining it of water. Rebuilding would be more difficult this time. The sea water had not been kind to the forest, and there were no buildings left standing.
Even the mission house, which until now had been a safe haven, had been wiped out by the deluge.
“It can all be rebuilt, right?” asked Scroll.
“I think so,” said White. He sighed.
“Well...” said Scroll. “There’s one bright side.”
White looked at him quizzically.
“It’s like you told Monarch,” said Scroll. “Nopony died. Everyone was saved.”
Brother White smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “I admit, looking at all this, there isn’t a lot to brag about...”
“I think things can get better here,” said Scroll, looking around. Already the ponies were sorting through the rubble, trying to piece together what they could, see if anything was still usable. “The town will be rebuilt. We can help. And the Fraternity will get our letter and they should send us those supplies we need. And the books survived, so we can build the library.”
White nodded. “That all sounds pretty good...”
Clip walked up behind them. “But... where are we gonna stay?” he asked. “I mean... if the mission house is gone...”
White turned around, looking down at the child. He struggled to find the right thing to say. “We’ll manage,” he said at length. “We can rebuild. Maybe Tap and Barrel can help us with...”
“Actually...”
The missionaries turned around and saw Tap, leaning against a post that was still somehow standing up in the mud.
“Lost your house, huh?” she asked. “I can relate. And, actually, I had an idea...”
The missionaries’ ears pricked up. “Yeeeees?” they both asked.
“Well...” Tap said with a nonchalant glance at her raised hoof. “I was just thinking, that since my house is gone, and your house is gone, and we kinda all get along...” She lowered her hoof. “Why not just save the trouble and build one house?”
“So...” Scroll smiled. “Like a dual-purpose mission house and inn?”
“Yeah,” Tap said with a smirk. “Something like that.”
“And free breakfast,” added White.
Tap chuckled and walked between them. “Well, hey, let’s not decide everything right away.”
___________
General Quake brushed a mountain of rubble off of the ground, growling to himself about everything that pissed him off. The missionaries. The other generals. The dipshit lieutenant standing next to him.
“Here’s the fucking thing,” he said as he uncovered a giant stone slab. With his massive strength, he lifted it, revealing a stone staircase underneath. Water spilled down, drenching the stairs. The cavernous passageway echoed with the sound of the water, as though it were a rainfall. “Once we get this damn thing working we can shoot that fucking castle out of the sky.”
He walked down the stairs, disappearing into the darkness beneath the town and the mountain.
“Then we’ll see how proud General Monarch is of his cannon engine.”