As the Noble Jury zoomed away, Shell wasn't looking at it. Instead, he shuffled limply across the deck of the Steel Wing, his labored breaths growing more and more frequent with each battered corpse and patch of blood he found. His eye moistened, as if seeing all of the carnage for the first time. At last, his pupil jerked towards the sight of a pale rod rattling.
Gritting his teeth, he slid over on bruised knees and scooped up Imre's horn. He held it gently in the crook of two hooves as his muscles went limp.
The tiny piece of alicornia rocked back and forth in his grip. A spark or two randomly darted against his limbs, and then the horn was dormant yet again.
Shell's brow furrowed, and his limp lips stammered, "Beloved daughter...?"
A voice wheezed to his side.
Shell looked over, and his expression hardened. He slid the loose horn into a pocket of his uniform and crawled over to the source of the pained breath. Leaning down, he slid both forelimbs and cradled the body of Enforcer Evans.
A sharp shard of wood had impaled the young stallion's chest, and he gurgled blood as he lay in Shell's strong embrace. Weakly, his thin eyes traced the burning overcast sky until they fell on the Prime Enforcer's scarred face.
Shell took a deep breath. "At ease, soldier."
Evans winced. He reached a hoof blindly forward.
Shell gripped it.
"Have... h-have I been..." Evans gulped, then sputtered, "B-been a loyal officer, Prime Enforcer...?"
With a deep breath, Shell nodded. "The loyalest, Evans." He clenched his jaw proudly. "The Spark will reward you in the darkness beyond."
Evans exhaled, and a tear ran down his bloodied cheek. "I hope... the Spark rewards you t-too, sir..."
Shell said nothing.
Evans quivered once, twice, then lay still, his muzzle locked in some indiscernible grimace of horror.
The resulting silence pulled Shell's face forward. He buried his face in Evans' soft neck. Something pronounced erupted between them, like whale song at the bottom of a deep well. The Steel Wing shook, and when Shell looked up, his eye sliced a venomous swath through the atmosphere.
The Lightning Bearer loomed within view, its smoldering figure devouring the east horizon.
With a grunt, Shell dropped Evans' body, galloped over it, and rushed to the ship's controls. The instruments were smashed, but that didn't stop him from channeling a burst of mana through his horn, forcibly operating the manaconduits of the panel from the inside out.
"I'm not even bleeding." He spat out the side of his muzzle, wiped his face dry, and hollered out loud. "All enforcers! Grab ahold of something sturdy!" He shouted to everypony and yet nopony. Limp limbs and broken bones echoed his commands. "We bring the end directly into their faces!"
The Steel Wing groaned as its surviving propellers rattled to life, accelerating the ship so that the Lightning Bearer loomed closer and closer into view.
Shell tossed his mane back and heralded the coming cataclysm with an eye brighter than a lighthouse. "Ramming speed!"
Throttling from bow to stern and falling apart at the seams, the Steel Wing roared its way toward the metal target.
Arcshod was in the middle of hollering a command at the cannons when his whole body went limp. A broad shadow swam over his knees, chest, and tattoos. At last, the Steel Wing blotted out all firelight, piercing through the columns of smoke as it bore menacingly down on the Ledomaritan flagship.
Xonans fled from their posts, shouting pleas of mercy to Nagu'n as they galloped in vain towards the stern of the broken vessel. Arcshod stood his ground, his body paler than a sheet.
At last, the two ships met, their bows converging like fragile icebergs. Thunder flew in a cascade of metal strips and burning machinery as the Steel Wing burrowed its way into the hull of the larger vessel. The avalanche of debris rolled halfway across the deck, mangling Xonan bodies and causing several explosions to erupt inside and outside of the beleaguered target.
Then the two dirigibles imploded, leaking gas and flames high into the air. The Steel Wing lodged halfway into the Lightning Bearer's metal corpse. Their support beams and cables entangled like mutated vines. With their combined weight, they fell in a crooked spiral, rotating wildly towards the sundered battlements below.
The crew of the Noble Jury heard the noise.
Eagle Eye sat up, craning his neck to see. The startled gasps of Ebon and Props tickled his ears as he trotted past Pilate and Bellesmith.
He squinted towards the horizon, his lips pursing as he saw the two massively conjoined vessels drift towards sea level.
"Hnnngh!" Josho slammed the shattered piece of a tent pole against the upper frame of Seclorum's metal brace. As he prepared for another swing, the shockwave from the two colliding ships reached the plateau. He gasped, glancing towards the northwest.
The Steel Wing and the Lightning Bearer had struck the foot of the mountains and were sliding down, leaving a path of broken earth and scattered flames.
"Bitchin' bridles a-burning..." He muttered breathily.
"Haaugh!" Josho's opponent slammed into the obese stallion with a metal shoulder-brace.
"Gaah!" Josho slid away from the blow, telekinetically twirled his weapon, and met Seclorum's next attack. The two struggled and parried their way across the muddied streets of the crater-riddled encampment.
Towards the south end of the valley, barely within earshot of the bloody fight engulfing the eastern trenches, a group of ponies—both Ledomaritan and Xonan—gathered anxiously in the shadow of a muddy hillside. They looked skyward and gasped as a managlider coasted gently towards them.
"Easy! Easy!" Rainbow Dash flew alongside the craft, guiding it gently towards the open spot of wet earth. The group of ponies shuffled backwards as the pegasus assisted the vehicle in landing. "There! Okay, everypony! You can get out now!"
A cluster of weak, emaciated equines stumbled out of the craft. A few of them actually squatted low and kissed the earth, weeping for joy.
"That's all of us, right?" Rainbow looked at the Xonan warrior at the managlider's controls. "There shouldn't be anymore ponies down in that ravine... uhm..." She twisted her muzzle. "Dreit?"
The Xonan nodded. "Dreit. It is empty of all that lives."
"Well, that's super."
"Look!" a Ledomaritan soldier shouted, pointing northward.
"By the Spark!" a nurse shrieked.
Rainbow Dash spun about, and her ruby eyes lit up, reflecting flames. After a few seconds of seeing it, the shockwave from the two colliding battleships finally struck her, flouncing her prismatic mane. "Whoah..."
"Unnngh... gugghh..."
Arcshod pulled himself over a stack of smoldering debris. All around him, ponies moaned and whimpered in agony. He squinted his eyes, seeing a crumpled deck of a ship lodged in pale brown earth. Ashes littered his tattooed hide as he stood up, glancing left and right, his breaths growing shallower and more panicked.
"Nagu'n!" He positively yelped, his smile replaced by a perpetual grimace. "Lasairfion!" He spun and hollered to any Xonan still capable of moving. "Trenna tenuul sakkar Lasairfion Xon-Nagu'n! Bleen! Bleen!"
"Looking for something you pretend to love?"
Arcshod gasped. Trembling, he stared up towards the blunt, shattered keel of the Steel Wing.
A dark shadow stood against the smoke and wind. Pale teeth formed a grin as Shell shrugged into the ashes. "Death is happy to meet you." Snarling, he twirled two sparkling tasers and galloped towards Arcshod's flailing figure, slicing the throats of two soldiers along the way without breaking his stride. "Haaaaaaaaaaugh!"
;_;
What a bastard. But what else is new?
That was everything I could have asked for between the Steel Wing and Lightning Bearer's epic fight. Bravo.
24
3747786
When it's the last for some, it's never "just another."
What on Equestria does it take to stop that Stallion? Seriously! Shell seems uninjured.
Is... is it over? Is it finally over? Is Shell actually dead—
*reads the last scene*
Oh, bloody hell.
It ain't over for 67 chapters...Shell's gonna be around for a while yet, dammit!
Shell is a badass. A tested demented one with absurd amounts of plot armour, but a badass nonetheless.
This is Australia...
Well,if TVtropes ever thought me anything,it's that the hero can only defeat the villain. So it will be Rainbow Dash and Shell in a final,epic battle.
Shell has become the living embodiment of war. Calling it now, he'll be the one to kill Nevlamas when the time comes.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/6/27/22463__safe_animated_scootaloo_sweetie+belle_hearts+and+hooves+day_oh+come+on.gif
You're telling me that he can kamikaze his own goddamn ship and still have fight left in him? What's it gonna take to kill the bastard? A black hole? Thermonuclear warfare? Celestia swooping in and carrying him into the pits of hell?
Oh well. Epic chapter, cockroachian douchecannons notwithstanding.
Also, RIP Evans. You were a tool right till the end.
And farewell, namesake vessel.
At this point, Shell is gonna turn into a zombie.
He's gonna live out his long days beating the crap out of everything on that ship.
Don't think this point can be stated enough, She'll is insanely awesome in the most horrible of ways.
3747982
Celestia sending him to the moon should do the trick. :D
We still got 67 chapters of this! LESDODIS!!
Glad to see Shell came back to reality.
Shell is practically immortal.
Shell vs Basso... That fight would never end.
~Basso
The Lightning Bearer is about to be a ghost ship...
(salutes Enforcer Evans) You did your country proud, Evans. Ledo could not have asked for a more loyal soldier. Rest In Peace, Evans, Rest In Peace.
With everyone's namesake's dying off maybe it's finally time for me to move in on dat.
inb4xonanmassacre
oh wait they basically just ended the xonan civil war and probably started the process to peace on the continent with this battle.
Hopefully this means we'll be Eastward bound soon enough
Dammit! *Jumps up and down*
What's Shelle's HP at, anyway?
I call hax! He's like freakin' Nuke.
I'm not sure if I'm dead or not. No body yet though; so we'll follow the golden rule.
3748715
My namesake was never killed.
I simply moved on.
Thank you, Rainbow.
Son of a bitch...WHY DOESN'T HE DIE!? WHY. DOESN'T. HE. DIIIEE?!?!?
Considering he manages to escape all of these certain doom situations, I hope there's a really epic death lined up for Shell ... it'd be a shame for him to die because of a stubbed hoof or something.
I'm now imagining Shell as Colonel Volgin from MGS3
Whelp, Shell is this guy.
static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/7/75209/1389301-nemesis.jpg
Everyone realizes that Evans is still alive, right? You know the rule: if the head doesn't explode, then the character isn't dead. Evans is just faking it.
Rainbow Dashie said dreit
3750325 I concur with your line of reasoning
I'm starting to get the feeling that Shell won't die even if his head does explode.
I'm still centairn that these are final moments of Prime Enforcer Shell of Ledo. Despite that, I will not call Gloria Victis just yet. He is still absurdly tough and I will not be suprised if he will outlive both Lasaifarion and Seclorum.
Arcshod Xon'Nagun and Prime Enforcer Shell in a duel. I like it, a lot! Like one of my old teachers used to say: put 'em in a bag and start punching, you'll always hit the right one.
3750325 He's with me and Dalen and Aeterna and all the others now, waiting just behind the edge of the plot to jump back into action. Just you wait.
Holy crap. Is Shell a force of nature? Is that why he won't die?
Also, something interesting. As of Chapter 133, there are more comments here (4,580) than there are currently in Austraeoh (4,419). Wow.
3750821 Wait. Who's Aeterna again?
3751832 A metal mare. First seen as a bounty hunter in the Sapphire Ravine. Captured by crystal ponies.
Given Shells mastery of telekinetics and shields, Id expect him to have just held himself near invioble as he carried out his ships last action.
Now its down to which on either side can hande the greater loss. The loss of their god, or the loss of themself.
Cos when you have nothing left to lose, you can Black Knight.
Shell won't go anywhere.
Not even Death wants him.
I love fights in which the only outcome is one or two dead bad guys.
3751888
GAH! How the heck could I have forgot that?
I'm pretty sure Shell is either a secret Alicorn or the Terminator.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
God damn it Shell. I get that he's a good character, but before Dash leaves this continent, I want to see that guy die. He's taken way too many lives. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
I so called that
a few chapters ago
I think...
SEE! SEE!
This is what happens when we jinx things! what kind of idiot would declare Shell dead when he's..
Wait. That was me, wasn't it?
...I dont know what went wrong?
OH JEEZUZ CRIST SHELL! JUST DIE ALREADY!
Things really didn't pan out for Evans, did they? Also, he seemed to like Shell, and I have no idea why he would. The name of this chapter made me worry for RD, but thank god only Evans is dead, right? Thought it was someone important... I actually did like Evans though...
I'm a bit late to the parade... but HELL YES! I actually don't want Shell to die. It's inevitable but I really don't want him to die at this point.. Although, it might not be all that inevitable. He's damn unstoppable - if he has to go, I hope he gets to send Arcshod to hell in the process.
-SPirit
Yep, it's official. This stallion is incapable of dying.
It is official, Shell is immortal. Only Dash has survived more ridiculous shit than he has, and her plot armor is that of the Main Character. My hatred and general dislike of Shell as a character remains unchanged, but all the same I cannot help but feel a certain awe in this moment.
I know when I'm wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it when that happens. Shell's story was not over, all those chapters ago. I think maybe his tale needed a punctuation such as this... assuming this is the final note of the ballad, of course.
Damnit, you finally got me to have more feels for Shell rather than just "awesome villain"... and now you're gonna kill him. I just feel it.
Dat scene with Evans.
Much as i hate shell, ive been DROOLING at the prospect of him and Arcshod duking it out...FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!