The skull was cold and brittle in his grasp, and yet as firmly as Shell clutched it between two hooves, he made sure it did not break. He turned and pivoted the thing about in the manalight of the sequencing room, his one eye narrowing. At last, he found himself staring—more like being absorbed—into the dark hollow set within the center of the equine skull.
Several seconds passed, during which the Prime Enforcer breathed calmly.
He heard hoofsteps clanking over the debris-riddled floor. With a twitch of the eye, he sat up straight, placing the hoof down beside the rest of the mangled pegasus skeleton. He leaned against the table full of scattered notes, journals, and logs next to him.
Through the brightly-lit junction room, Evans and two other enforcers led the disheveled figure of a mare at taser-point. Nightshade's mane was a frazzled mess, and most of it hung like a mat over her bruised forehead. Her gown was in tatters, and she trotted with a limp barely afforded her by the metal binds on both her front and rear limbs.
Feeling a prod from Evans, Nightshade shuffled to a stop just two meters from Shell. "Tilt your face up," he said. "Look at the Prime Enforcer when he's speaks to you."
Nigthshade stood still in silence.
Evans fidgeted. He glanced at Shell, then back at Nightshade. With a growl, he lifted his taser to strike, "I said—"
"That'll be all, Evans," Shell said. He calmly waved a hoof. "Leave us."
Evans did a double-take. His lips pursed, but he said nothing. He took one glance at the ancient pegasus bones, shuddered, and motioned towards the other two guards. The three trotted firmly out of the circular room, leaving Shell and Nightshade alone with the seats that several tattooed foals once filled.
The silence that followed was horrendous. And yet, as much as Nightshade struggled to keep her composure, the only sound she could hear was her own labored breaths. No sound came from Shell whatsoever, as if he was one with the cold steel bulkheads of the place.
At last, Shell stood up from the table and shuffled a few steps over. His injured forelimb was in a wooden splint, but it did little to hide what had to have been a permanent limp at this point. "I just finished reading a fraction of the volumes that were found in the offices here. It's all rather fascinating: a machine world, an otherwordly flame, a race of flying ponies entrusted with a power outside this continent's domain. I'd be surprised... if only I didn't know about it all already. What differs between you and me is that I didn't sacrifice this Confederacy's security in the acquisition of such information. But you... a marketeer, a veritable accountant trying to bear the fangs of a wolf? You've certainly done your due diligence for coin and country. Tell me, how will you balance the payroll now that so many of your trusted employees have perished in their unswerving devotion to your insufferable name?"
"I refuse to answer any and all questions asked of me. And I will refuse to make any statements," Nightshade muttered, her face fixed to the floor. "Until I have been appointed a solicitor in these proceedings, as granted to me and every citizen by the Council of Ledo—"
With a clatter, a pegasus skeleton rolled to a stop beneath her gaze. Before she could blink, Shell's good hoof fell over it, smashing the thing to calcified bits with a sickening crack.
Nightshade's mouth hung open. She looked up, trembling with a vulnerable expression.
Shell leaned in, his good eye calm as a thundercloud. "A corpse's only right is to be buried with a stone, with I have yet to decide whether or not I shall gracefully provide." His gaze narrowed. "You sacrificed any and all rights of citizenship the very moment you betrayed the privileges granted you, by committing acts of treason beneath the nose of the Council of Ledo."
Nightshade merely frowned.
"You imprisoned innocent ponies against their will, ensnared non-equines for the purpose of torture and experimentation, and seized the property of countless pilots for the sake of transporting illicit materials towards an active battleground."
At last, Nightshade snarled," Name one of those things that you in all of your infinite grace hasn't already done."
"My grace has nothing to do with it," Shell coolly responded. "I function by the pardon of the Council of Ledo."
"I know for a fact that the Council would never condone the things that you have done," Nightshade grumbled. "They would not sanction the collateral damage that has been caused to Blue Nova... the unwarranted seizure you have committed against my Corporation and its members—"
"When the very security of the Confederacy is at stake?" Shell raised an eyebrow. "When the one hope we have of defeating our immortal enemy rears its golden head? You're right to believe that I have... sacrificed my personal code of ethics to get the task done, so long as it is a righteous task."
"Only a narrow-minded machine would think in such linear fashion."
"And only a self-destructive psychopath would think in many." He reached a hoof up, pulling her violet bangs to the side. His eye reflected the stub of her horn. "Hmmm. Just as I thought. Tell me, if you're so quick to mutilate yourself, is there any flesh and blood—personal or otherwise—that you would not exploit to accomplish what you think to be the final solution?"
Nightshade bit her lip. She gazed towards the seats in the center of the room.
Shell gazed at her. He let go of her hair and began pacing over the shattered pegasus skeletons across the room. "For far too long have I walked over the dust and charred flesh of my fallen comrades, powerless to do anything about it. And then I was given a chance to make something good of the tools and talents I still have available to me. With one experiment, in one fell swoop, I could turn this war over on its head. I could bring an end to the misery, and Ledomare could enjoy a glory it hasn't experienced in nearly five hundred years."
"This war will never end," Nightshade muttered. "Not so long as there are bloodlusting wretches like you at the helm."
Shell turned and gestured towards the wrecked room around them. "And yet, you could somehow bring an end to the conflict?"
"A change, yes."
"By wielding ruby flame in such a way that you could cancel out all mana and reinvent the technology of our culture with steam?" Upon Nightshade's surprised glance, Shell waved and trotted over. "Oh, I've read your schematics... your awe-inspiring plan for a 'new tomorrow.' You wouldn't live to see it, of course, but the 'future generations' of Blue Nova beloveds would be the ones to pioneer your utopian dream. It's rather idyllic, don't you think? There's only one problem..." He stopped a cold inch or two before her and slurred, "You cannot build dreams without bloodshed, and right now you're wide awake and drowning in it." He slowly shook his head. "Did you not once think about this? Did it never ever once cross your feeble, sheltered mind?"
"I had every eventuality planned for," Nightshade grunted. "I had prepared for every situation! For Xonan incursion! For interference from the Council!"
"But..." Shell leaned back against the table across from her. "...what of the unthinkable? The winged or golden or sequencing unthinkable?"
Nightshade shivered, avoiding his gaze.
Shell's eye narrowed. "I've met her before, you know. Doctor Bellesmith, I mean. She's in league with this nation's most dangerous enemy. And yet, after what she's evidently taken from you, after how she outright crippled your entire empire, I'm starting to believe that she is the true nemesis after all. You met her. You thought you could control her. And, in the end, despite all of your efforts, she's left you lame and powerless. What's more..." His jawlines grew harder. "...by robbing you, she's robbed me of what I need most right now."
"If you think I'm going to help you at all..." Nightshade growled. "If you think I'm going to tell you anything about the flame or Old World—"
"In time, Ms. Nightshade, you will tell me what I need to know. That will be a time when you'll find yourself having to decide what you like preserving more: your knowledge... or your skin."
The mare was dead silent, her pupils shrinking.
"However..." Shell paced towards her again. "That is not this time." He shuffled until he stood behind her. His voice touched her ears like snake's breath. "This time... right now... I want to know where she took the ruby flame. If I have that—and if I have her—then I can bring my search to a halt, and maybe we won't quite have so many conversations in the future like we are having now."
"I don't know where she went..."
"Don't you?" Shell pivoted to face her. "You know, in all of my career, with all of the sacrifices that I have had to make for this country..." He paused, then punctuated the air with a scrape of his hooves across the metal floor. "Never once did I stoop so low as to touch the bodies of children... much less mutilating them."
Nightshade's shivers intensified. She gulped and said, "They were lost vagabonds. I saved them. I helped them—"
"And they have the rest of their lives stripped of magic, thanks to your 'loving embrace.'" Shell trotted firmly around so that he frowned at her again. "Xonan or not, I cannot and shall not stand for the utter descecration of foalhood. It takes a great deal of guile to be a torturer, but even more courage to be a parent, and I'm afraid, Ms. Nightshade, that you do not have the stomach for either, so you should be eternally grateful for the fact that I have not gutted your abdomen upon the very first second you graced me with your putrid sight." He pointed viciously at her. "Now in all of my searches, I have found descriptions of a nefariously secret place named Deep Ridge. It is where the parents of these foals are located. I have all the information I could desire about it, except for one thing: the location, which is suspiciously missing."
"Why would you care to know about such a place?"
"Because I have every reason to believe that Dr. Bellesmith is headed there with the red flame. The one thing she and I have in common over you is that we actually think about the consequences of our actions." He hissed, "And you're going to tell me where this 'Deep Ridge' place, Ms. Nightshade, or I promise you... there will be consequences."
Nightshade looked at Shell.
Shell gazed back at her, silent, waiting.
She swallowed. She took a deep breath. "The red flame will not be yours." She turned her nose up. "I know a thing or two about Dr. Bellesmith too, Prime Enforcer, more than you know, as a matter of fact. I've shared my mind with hers, and I know—though she has robbed me blind and ruined all my dreams—I know... that you can be trusted only as far as you can toss the corpses made by your blind crusade. And I refuse to make any more of them."
He answered far more swiftly than she had expected. "Do you, now?"
She gawked at him.
His horn glowed. A taser slid out of his satchel.
Her eyes flew towards it. She gritted her teeth.
With a whistle of air, he swung the bludgeon.
She flinched... but did not feel the sting of electrocution. Instead, Nightshade's ears twitched from the sound of ringing metal.
Shell was rhythmically knocking the bulkhead beside him. After a few seconds, the sound was anwered. Hoofsteps arose from the Junctioning room adjacent to the sequencing chamber. After a clamor of limbs, two stallions in binds were tossed down onto the ground between Shell and Nightshade.
"Ooof!" Sir Ordo winced, his clothes reduced to tattered rags.
"Unngh!" Overseer hissed in pain, his body covered from head to hoof in deep whelts and bruises. He looked up at Nightshade, his face awash with tears. He instantly gasped. "Milady!"
"Madame Nightshade! Th-they got you too!" Ordo stammered. "I'm so sorry! I don't know who talked! I promise that—"
Shell kicked the stallion hard in the kidneys. Ordo doubled over, wheezing in pain, while Shell paced around them.
"Stop it!" Nightshade shrieked. The two guards who had marched in held her telekinetically in place. "Don't hurt them anymore—"
"You are sadly mistaken, Ms. Nightshade," Shell coolly said, turning towards her. "I am not the one bringing them pain. You brought this upon them, just as you brought this upon every stallion and mare in your employ. The moment you decided to construct this conspiratorial plot to subvert the war effort, you signed your fates. The question I have is... did you prepare for it? Did you prepare for the consequences of your actions?"
"I... I—I—"
"It takes more than intelligence and charisma to lead an army to victory, Nightshade. And call it what you want, but that's what you have here: an army, as shadowed as it is duplicitous. A true leader knows when to get her hooves dirty, much like a parent. Raise your children right, and they'll be prosperous. Raise them irresponsibly, and they fall to ruin. Well, you're about to witness how much an instrument you are of your own ruination, Madame. You're about to answer for the fate of your corporation... for your children..."
"I don't understand!" she stammered. "What—" She flinched with a stifled shriek.
Shell was aiming the barrel of a pistol straight into her face. He droned, "I have it within my power execute all ponies deamed traitorous by the Council of Ledo. But, as I do believe we have just illustrated, the responsibility now falls to you. So, in this... learning exercise, I am going to hoof the choice over to you."
"The... ch-choice...?" Nightshade blinked. A weight fell from her forelimbs as Shell telekinetically undid the bonds. She gasped as the gun was twirled around and levitated into her hooves.
Shell was suddenly standing behind her, forcing her to stand, bracing her weight up against him as she pivoted her towards the two stallions.
"A choice... much like a bullet..." He spoke as he held her from behind. "...is something that only comes once. And I have given you a choice to make here, Ms. Nightshade, much like I have given you one bullet. On the count of three, you're going to end one of these stallions' lives."
Ordo and Fatch twitched with frightful spasms, their eyes wide and horrified.
Nightshade choked, "You monster... you c-can't possibly expect me to—"
Shell gripped her tighter. "I may have given you one bullet, but I have given each of my soldiers throughout this building a hundred. Now, tell me, how many employees are still being held here?"
Nightshade's mouth hung open as her heart beat through her chest.
Shell leaned in, his voice cold and steely in her ear. "Do you feel it now? The weight of consequences? Your dreams have crumbled. Only now are you about to smell the blood that you have sown. However..." He swallowed and spoke even more quietly, "I can lift all of that weight from you... that weight that you never prepared yourself for... if you just tell me what I need to know. If you just tell me where Deep Ridge is. The rest we can work out later."
Nightshade's eyes glossed over. She stood still and pale, and yet even still... she shook her head, stifling back a whimper.
The stallions looked at her in disbelif.
Shell took a deep breath. He stood back, standing behind Nightshade, holding her shoulders in place with an aura of telekinesis. "One..." He counted.
"Milady," Ordo whimpered. "Please... pl-please tell him!"
"It's not worth th-this!" Fatch stammered. "My family... I-I still have to provide for my beloved and our children!"
"After all I-I've done for you!"
"Two..." Shell's voice hissed.
Nightshade bit her lip. Tears flowed down her once-majestic face. With a squeaking sound, she raised the gun, tilted it, and pivoted it towards Overseer Fatch.
Ordo exhaled in cold relief.
Fatch was full of shivers and gasps. "M-Madame...!"
"...Three."
Nightshade sniffled, then whispered, "I-I'm so sorry, Overseer..." She shook. She shuddered. She pulled the trigger.
Fatch flinched.
The gun clicked.
Ordo did a double-take.
Slowly, Fatch's sobbing body slouched down against the metal.
Nightshade's wide eyes reflected the gun. She tilted it towards the ground and pulled the trigger a few more times. Once more, a rhythmic clicking filled the air. With a ghostly silent shuffle, Shell walked over. He brushed his muzzle against her earlobe as he whispered, "You... are not ready for the weight."
The Prime Enforcer pulled out another pistol. He cocked it, spun, and fired two shots ahead of them.
The room thundered once... twice. The noise was followed by a pair of wet thumps.
Nightshade fell back on her haunches, breathless. A warm spray of blood dribbled down her wide-eyed face. The empty gun fell from her spasming hooves as she rocked back and forth with dry heaves.
Slowly, Shell's face swiveled back to face her. A drop or two of blood leaked off his horn as he looked the mare in the eyes, deadpan. "Don't you have a brother?"
Nightshade's face jerked towards him. A tear ran down the only dry part left on her cheek.
Wowzers...not just a large chapter, but a double post!
And...my mood just took a dip once again by bearing witness to Shell being the evil fuck he is. Again.
Wow... I feel like shell had a soul.... but he took it hostage a long time ago and is now holding it at knife point, broken, bruised, and bleeding
Well... her brother is her one true weakness. I foresee grim things in the future.
As irony would have it, the only truly, if not misguided, loyal souls in the room are splattered against the bulkheads. Not a shred of loyalty or dignity to be seen in either of the two living madponies, just selfishness.
Jeez. Shell's as comfortable with stretching his morals as some people are with stretching their assholes.
Hey.
Hey Shell.
You a bitch.
I'm getting an Agent Smith vibe from Shell in this chapter, only... less sympathetic.
I mean, Smith just wanted out...
i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad225/Colin_in_Mexico/Keanu%20Reeves/The%20Matrix/agent-smith-i-must-get-o.gif
Ok so Shell is pissed and is taking it out on Nightshade, and shell is going for her brother now. Did I get that all?
Onward and umm westward?
.....fuck you Shell.
Wow, if Nightshade didn't crack from that, she's going to now.
Very dark.
Suicide might have been an acceptable alternative.
the question is now whether Shell can talk himself into taking a truly innocent life.
Sometimes I wish a goddamn meteor would just fall from the sky and land right on Shell's forehead.
3097205 Succinct and to the point,I agree.
Fuck you Shell.
Nightshade needs to realize -- they are already dead. The only ponies that are alive are the ones in Pale Shelf which will NOT be alive if Shell gets his hooves on them. Shell said it himself, "a corpse's only right is to be buried with a stone, with I have yet to decide whether or not I shall gracefully provide."
If Nightshade's got any resources left, she's gonna use them when Shell goes after her brother. This could get explosive again before we leave Blue Nova.
Oh, Shell. The classic 'I'm not doing this, you're doing this' line. I thought Nightshade was too savvy to fall for it, but I guess the power of the cliche was too strong. I kept expecting her to respond to one of his vague threats with: "You won't do that, and if you do, you're just digging your own grave. Shoot every one of my employees? You don't have that authority, and even if you do order it most of your own soldiers are going to balk at it. Then what are you going to do, huh? Threaten to kill their families? You have no idea where it's going to end. No concept of a future. All you can see is your one little goal. My people know me, and my people know the future I'm making for them, and you can't touch that. Not with all the fear your stupid little beret provides you. Now, are you going to continue this idiocy, or are you going to get me my lawyer?"
Really, I thought she was smart. Shell was still going to get her by using her brother against her, because that's her character, but I didn't expect the preliminary mustache-twirling to be this effective.
I love Nightshade so much. She's the right kind of evil, the interesting one. There is no dignity quite like the strength of an old woman...
"Even their children have those tattoos, did you know?"
3098002 Bear in mind what she just went through. Aside from having her every dream shred to pieces, swiftly followed by her sanity and her mind, she - an old lady - just got badly bruised, beaten up, then crashed with her entire zeppelin, was arrested, interrogated by some stone-cold military guy and repeatedly threatened with death, either her own or her loved ones'. You can't really blame her for appearing a little unnerved after that.
3098308
I realize that - I was referring solely to the Khajiit from the Elder Scrolls. Hence the "is it only a cat thing?" referring to the fact that the foxes were in fact not cats, and thus would not be carrying Moon Sugar.
What a bastard...
3097479
Looking back on it, I think Shell was anticipating that. The gun was unloaded, after all. And he wants what Nightshade knows.
What he would have done had she tried to kill herself is a different guess altogether.
Oh, hey, I'm alive.
And Shell's still a bitch.
We all know what kind of a person Shell is. Tortured his wife to death, killed his own men because he thought they were against him, refused to contact the Council of Ledo because he already knows that they'll punish him for what he's done, but still acts as if he has the power to act for the country...
But perhaps we'll get a glimpse of how Nightshade operates. She's yet to kill anybody, really -- This chapter has her almost killing Fatch, but not quite. She seems to be cruel, and rather heartless at that, but she's not a cold killer like Shell. Hopefully.
Even evil has standards, I guess.
But the willingness with which Shell commits these atrocities makes those standards meaningless. He's almost sympathetic, and then he's right back to complete monster. I hope his demise is ugly.
Nightshade earned no sympathy here, I gotta say.
3097873
Nine more 200 chapter stories?!
Don't mind that high pitch keening in the background, that's just the underlying perpetual squee emanating from the back of my throat.
this shit is getting intense as we are heading toward the end of this story. i just hope the gang escapes Ledomare before the 200 chapter limit
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
He's the Joker! Shell! Is! The! Joker! Choose between one life or the other! Your friend the district attorney or his blushing bride to be! NIGHTSHADE HAS NOTHING TO THREATEN HIM WITH! NOTHING TO DO, WITH ALL HER STRENGTH!! DON'T WORRY, I'LL TELL YOU WHERE DEEP RIDGE IS! AND THAT'S THE POINT - YOU'LL HAVE TO CHOOSE! BUT THEY BOTH ENDED UP DYING ANYWAYS!! HE IS THE JOKER!!!!
...
<cough>
As I was saying, even though Shell seems to make sense in this chapter, he only truly makes sense to himself. Hasn't killed any foals, huh? How about the hundreds of lives at that town that Axan dropped Dash in, huh? There wasn't a single foal in that town, huh? He talks to different people in different ways. He admitted that to Dash, to an extent. And I think that that is who Shell is as a character - he's at heart a very manipulative guy. He's a schemer, trying to control his little world. He doesn't like answering to a higher authority, in this case the Council of Ledo. He's a scemer. He has plans. And...uh...where will that get him? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
3101279 good to know I'm not the only one to think of joker while reading that part.
3101279
Shell can't be the Joker. Dude cares way too much, for one.
And come on, do you think Mr. Kaizo himself would write such a humorless tribute to such a wacky, depraved character?
Hoo boy. Shell you dun fucked up.
Nightshade sure knows a thing or two about keeping her mouth shut.
3101783Good to know!
3102110Well, he isn't exactly like the Joker. In a few ways, he resembles him, is all. Also, Mr. Kaizo?
It appears Nightshade's empire has crumbled upon her, and has become her own rubble-strewn grave.
This is what happens when you play a dangerous game, and forsake your values in pursuit of goals you are willing to achieve through any means at any cost, rationalizing away the horrors you cause to get there.
And then one day, you learn that despite the monster you have become... there are worse ones out there, for in your fall, they have swarmed down upon you like a vulture to a fresh body.
Then you see reflections of you in them, and know you are not dissimilar. Then you understand you became lost to yourself long, long ago. Then, you are ready to die.
So I finished reading this whole saga today. Right here.
And I would be okay if this was the ending. This? This story, right here? This arc is better than books I've spent money for, books I've borrowed and loaned, books cut out of trees and dreamed up by poets.
And it's a fanfiction of a show about pastel-colored talking horses preaching the magic of friendship.
I fucking love this fandom. Thank you for writing this, Mr. Colon: this is a magical work.
3104599
Welcome to the party, bro
Shell IS the Council of Ledo.
Well that's ONE point in Shell's favor...
3098565
3097479
Surprised no one talked about the forth choice, try and shoot Shell. It probably won't work, but points for trying.
Nightshade even mentions that she thinks Shell is evil, so it'd definitely make sense for her to try and stop shell, no matter the cost, but I guess Nightshade just isn't that strong. I guess that's the old vibe. Nightshade wasn't determined or dedicated enough. She's too rational and sensible, and she's making mistakes because of it.
3103352
Mr. Kiazo = shortskirts&explosions = implodingcolon = (\? =)+ ?
Go watch SS&E if you like the story and wished ImplodingColon actually posted blog posts. (of course, if you actually looked at his blog posts, you should probably be able to figure that out). SS&E has its own version of English that is beyond my very simple lemur brain. Well, at least I'm pretty sure. My brain tends to implode if I read too many of SS&E's blog posts. There's been more than one where I gave up, because I think it was the equivalent of a 50k+ word fic.
This chapter, right here. It's stuff like this that's the reason why I love/hate Shell. He's such an evil bastard... but the way he goes about it is just so right
Well. That was rather powerful.
I don't know what Nightshade thinks she's holding on to by resisting Shell. She's absolutely powerless, and he's only going to continue to force "choices" upon her until she gives up. If she was smarter/braver, she could have just shot herself to keep the information from him (if said information was known only to her, that would scupper his plan pretty quick) but I suppose he didn't really give her that option, anyway. Still, it says something about her conviction - she's willing to kill others for it, but not herself.
3096824
I´m not sure I would call them selfish to be honest.
Misguided, yes. Utterly amoral, yes. Sickening as well.
But the sad part is that they truly seem to believe that everything they are doing is the right thing FOR OTHERS.
The country in Shell´s case, and her brother (and possibly the entire population) in the case of Nightshade.
Oh no... Wat is Shell gonna do?
>Look at the Prime Enforcer when he's speaks to you
>Nigthshade stood still in silence
>At last, Nightshade snarled," Name one of those
Do you make this on a phone?
>execute all ponies deamed traitorous
Maybe not
Just so goddamn good!
Two of the big bad's squaring. Nightshade didn't stand a chance. Still, she kept to her principles - gotta give her that.
Did... Shell just basically tell Nightshade she is lucky he didn't rape her? Still, it's nice to know that he at least has standards when it comes to children, though I suspect the moment it is convenient to abandon the standards, he will.
Also, when Josh0 talked about holding his farts in last chapter, my laughing caused me to myself fart.
Is Shell good or bad?
-Spirit
3096824
I wouldn't be too quick to make that presumption. She nearly killed herself because she couldn't bear to kill either of them. In a way, it's a perverted loyalty to her friends. Though I suppose it would be more of a kindness.
Either way, it's very interesting how you truly never know someone until you dangle them off a proverbial cliff. In this case, it's the choice of who to kill. Now, I could do a deeper examination of this scene, but I'd rather not. XP
Damn, Shell . . .