//------------------------------// // The Purifier/And Despair // Story: TCB: The Ballad of the White Rose // by BillyColt //------------------------------// Memory 3 The Purifier “So, uh...” mumbled Applejack. “What is it?” The metallic device seemed oddly out-of-place, seated as it was in the middle of Twilight’s tree library, like a bust on display. It was an odd square machine, extruding pipes like smokestacks. “This,” said Twilight proudly, “is a Purifier. I invented it for the humans. I actually got the idea from Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled shyly and blushed. “Well...” she said, “not really. I was just talking about how sad it made me... seeing what the humans did to the world around them, and I just wished there was some way to fix it.” I never wanted this to happen... I never, ever dreamed that what we did would hurt anyone. I can’t continue doing this. What I’ve done is more than I’ll ever want to live with. “And, sure enough,” said Twilight, “I decided there is.” “Sooooooo...” said Rainbow Dash, “you made a big clanky metal thing to protect the bunnies? Seems an awful waste of time.” “Now, Rainbow Dash, don’t scoff,” scolded Rarity. “Thank you, Rarity,” said Twilight, turning to face her friends. “Now, the purpose of the Purifier is to act as a sort of... barrier to preserve and restore natural areas. You know how the barrier around Equestria works, right?” Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, had hopped over to the machine and was peering down the tubes. “Ooh, let’s make more and make a band!” “Uhh, Pinkie...” said Applejack. Suddenly, Pinkie blew into the pipes, producing deep musical tones. Twilight stared, trying to comprehend the seeming impossibility. Pinkie Pie simply looked up and blithely grinned. When we started this, I thought it would make everyone happy. But they aren’t happy, are they? “As I was saying,” said Twilight Sparkle. “You know the barrier?” “Ooh!” said Pinkie, bouncing up and down. “Wait, no...” “Well, the exact mechanics are not the same, but the principle remains,” said Twilight. “The air in our Equestria is magic. Humans and human-made structures cannot survive in it.” “So...” said Applejack, piecing it together. “Your goal is to basically smoke the humans out?” “But...” said Fluttershy. “Don’t worry, it’s not like that,” said Twilight. “We’re going to put them in a few places where humans don’t inhabit. Important natural areas like rain forests. The Purifiers will do away with the pollution and the human-made structures and, yes, act as a deterrent.” “But the humans won’t be able to go there again?” she asked. “Ah dunno. Somehow Ah don’t think they’ll play ball. Ah mean, them HLF folks. Won’t they be mighty sore?” “I wouldn’t worry about them,” said Twilight. “Once the machines are activated there’s no way they can get anywhere near them. Even if they wore hazmat suits, the air would eat right through them.” “I’m sure that even they will see reason eventually,” said Rarity, looking over the machine. “They’re not mindless brutes, contrary to what some of us think.” “Yeah, yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, bored of the conversation already and flying to sit on a bookshelf. “Besides, once the restorations are done,” said Twilight, “we’ll take the Purifiers away.” “Well, Ah suppose that’s all well and good,” conceded Applejack. You can dress it up all you like, Twi. But all the dressing, all the fancy talking gymnastics in the Equestria, in the world, doesn’t change the truth. You lied, Twilight. “Oh, won’t it be wonderful?” asked Rarity. “I can only imagine what it must be like for a human child, to see a rain forest all dirty and ruined. Then,” she beamed, “once the Purifiers have done their work, they can go see them in their natural state! Perfect and untarnished. Well, hopefully they won’t ruin it again, but, we have our work.” And as I watched them leave I was hurt by this awful, awful question. What did I give them, Twilight? Please, tell me. Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes and breathed in her pride. This was going to be her act, her invention that would save Equestria – no, not just Equestria, the entire world. “So, when do we put ‘em out?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Tomorrow,” said Twilight. “Sweet,” said Dash. I'm not very good at talking like you or the others are, so I'll just keep it simple: I quit. Chapter 4 And Despair In the middle of the ocean there was a tower. Many towers, in fact, all sticking out of the ocean. Many of them did not stand as straight as they should have, though. Some were toppled, feebly poking out of the water, crumbling back into the sea. The various buildings were connected by wide walkways, many of them crumbling, as well. Dotted around the city were large metal bowls, some of them still holding fan blades that alluded to a previous function. The White Rose landed in the middle of one such platform along the edges of what remained of the city. The ship’s ramp lowered, and the seven ponies on board walked on down. “What is this place?” asked Sweeps, looking around nervously. “I don’t like it.” “It’s a human city,” said Cogs. “Amazing. Too bad it’s been eroded by the air.” “The air?” asked Sweeps. “The air,” repeated Bolter. “Corrosive to human structures.” “Spooky place,” said Vox, stepping off of the ramp and onto the concrete. He let out a cry as his hoof seemed to sink right into the ground. “What the-?!” He lifted his hoof up, revealing that the ground now had a very distinct indentation.” The ponies were silent, as the ground creaked under the weight of the ship. Firebrand stood at the base of the ramp, looking out over the town. “We shouldn’t have landed,” said Firebrand. “All of you get her back in the air.” He looked back out to the city. “I’ll take a look around myself and get back. In the meantime you pick out a movie.” Before Wordsworth was able to go “wait!”, Firebrand had spread his wings and took off into the city. “Okay,” said Bolter. “So, we got Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Wall-E.” - Firebrand had not been shocked to see the city, nor gloomed by its dilapidated condition. He had expected it, after all. As he flew past the broken windows of the dusty buildings and peeled, rotten posters, all he could feel was the same smoldering anger that he’d felt for years. He scanned the buildings and the roads, littered as they were with decaying rubble and garbage. Seeing an opening – a window that appeared to rotted right off of the wall – he flew inside, carefully testing the floor with his hooves before landing. He was marginally more safe than his friends would have been. The pegasus magic that allowed him to walk on clouds was all that allowed him to walk on the surface of the human ground without shattering it, but even then it was very slight. It was something like an empty office building, littered with papers. Just like the rest of the city, everything was in a state of decay, with the papers so worn and decayed that Firebrand could barely make anything out. ...confusion regarding our allegiances with some pony factions and not others. In particular...of members who fall victim to PER attacks...important differences between conv...d our allies in the Steeds. The most obviou... We will not make the same mistake twice. Firebrand continued through the halls. They were dark and stuffy, as the lights and ventilation systems had no doubt failed years ago. He dared not test any closed doors, for fear they would cause the whole building to crumble. There were, however, open doorways that did not pose this problem. Stepping through one doorway, he found that half of the room had crumbled away, creating a sort of crude balcony overlooking the rest of the city. He stepped over to the edge, looking out at the sad, ruined city on the water. “They never really decided on a name,” said a voice. “Some called it Atlantis, others called it New Venice, after the original Venice was finally sunk by the Purification.” Firebrand could never quite say what the other pony looked like. For some reason any details as to the pony’s colors or mane style quickly faded from his memory, as though he had written them off as unimportant. It was an earth pony stallion, tall, and wearing a suit. Either the suit was covering his flank or Firebrand was as unable to remember his cutie mark as he was able to remember anything else about him. “They were quite proud of it,” the stallion continued. “You might’ve noticed the fans around outside. Those were to blow the Purified air away from the city. They used hydroponics to grow their food and drew energy from the ocean currents. It was built to be a sustainable refuge for the humans that the ponies couldn’t get to. “What happened?” Firebrand asked. “Oh, nothing really,” said the stallion, walking over to the edge. “They made some mistakes, oversights, the sorts of things that happen. This city was a prototype of sorts. Sadly, it was a prototype that the Human Liberation Front put a lot of time and resources into. And it all turned out to be, well...” He didn’t need to finish that sentence for Firebrand to understand what he meant. “But,” said the stallion, “sometimes, when the sunlight hits just right, I think it still shines.” Firebrand shifted his eyes, scanning the nondescript stallion. “What are you, a tour guide?” “It’s a pretty miserable occupation when there aren’t any tourists.” “Yeah, well, I’m doing a tour,” said Firebrand. “Me and my crew, in my ship.” He grinned. “Touring Equestria. Maybe more, depending on what direction we’re headed.” “Mm-hmm,” said the stallion. Slowly, he turned to walk away, back into the halls. Firebrand returned to his stewing, about how the machinations of Princess Celestia and her Six had destroyed this city. Then a thought occurred to him. “Wait!” he called. The stallion stopped, patiently. “You said the HLF built this?” “Yes,” the stallion replied. “Towards the end of the... well, the ponies called it the Purification. The HLF called it the war. Anyway, towards the end they constructed a number of strongholds, such as this. The later ones didn’t have quite the same sort of foibles. For example, they started using some pony construction to keep it from corroding.” “I’d go with the war,” said Firebrand. “Hmm,” said the stallion. “Doesn’t really matter what you call it. That was nearly a hundred years ago.” Firebrand snorted, looking at the desks. “Nearly a hundred years...” he repeated. “Sure didn’t take everypony long to forget.” “You haven’t forgotten.” Firebrand turned to look at him. He couldn’t tell what that statement was supposed to mean. Was it supposed to be encouraging? Condescending? A simple statement of fact? “I’ll never forget,” Firebrand said. “And I’ll make sure they never will, either.” The stallion smiled. “I look forward to seeing how you plan to do that.” Firebrand laughed. “I have a ship and a crew. Like I said, we’re going on tour.” “Sounds like a lot of fun.” “We have a printing press and a ham radio set. We can print out hundreds of leaflets and broadcast our messages everywhere there’s a radio. We’ve got a fine writer, a fine speaker, and a fine radio operator. And my engineers keep the ship flying. And...” Firebrand grinned. “We got our hooves on a Purifier.” The stallion smiled. “It gets better.” “Oh, it will,” said Firebrand. “It will. And when we tell everypony in Equestria and they know, when they understand, well,” he laughed, “let’s see Princess Celestia wave her horn and poof that away.” “You should probably step away from that ledge.” “Huh?” There was a cracking sound and the floor gave way beneath Firebrand’s feet. He spread his wings, catching himself in the air as the concrete and rebar tumbled below. “Such is the melancholy of a dead city,” said the stallion. “A ghost town, crumbling back into the sea.” Firebrand looked back at him as he landed back onto the floor (though with a fair bit more caution). “I should go,” said Firebrand. “My crew will start wondering where I went. Need to get back to Equestria and do our work.” He spread his wings again, about to fly off, when another thought occurred to him. It didn’t quite make a whole lot of sense with this strange stallion, but still... “How would you like to come on my airship?” he asked. “There’s enough room.” The stallion smiled. “That would be delightful. I do like airships. I think most do. They have a lot of appeal.” “We’ll fly the ship around here so you can get on.” Firebrand started to go again, and yet again he stopped. “My name is Firebrand,” he said after a pause. The stallion nodded his head politely. “Bill.”