Rainbow Dash, her friends, Bard, Ariel, Wildcard, Enix, and the sarosian troupe stared and stared and stared at the lines and shapes etched into the doorframe in front of them. The narrow niche they were perched in resonated with thunder and the roar of water. Moisture continually baptized them as they attempted to make sense of the random patterns.
"You... uh..." Bard scratched at his scruffy chin. "...you seein' this, Rainbow?"
"Yeah..." Rainbow nodded, squinting hard. "Barely." She gulped, leaning aside. "Twi? Help us out here..."
"I... I'm not sure if I can." Twilight fidgeted. "It's... uh... well, it's got six circles. That's rather interesting..."
"Yeah..." Rainbow chewed on her bottom lip.
"Looks like a bunch of apples underneath a spread of blankets!" Applejack said. The others stared at her, and she shrugged. "Well... so much for my two cents."
"Considering where we're at," Fluttershy spoke, "It almost looks like water cascading off the edge of the world."
"I'm with Fluttershy on that one," Twilight said.
"You certain?" Rarity squinted, thinking aloud: "To me it resembles the cross-section of a mechanical conveyor belt."
Pinkie Pie wheezed: "Looks to me like one thousand hours spent in Maresoft Paint!"
Rainbow growled. "Not. Helping."
"Maybe it's an extension of Ynanhluutr?" Ariel brushed her bangs back and shrugged. "Like... all of Austraeoh's eggs are now in one basket?"
"That is a rather oddly shaped basket," Enix droned.
Wildcard gestured something.
Bard sighed, then slapped him upside the feathery head. "Ain't three-dimensional enough to resemble a bunch of balls, blatherbeak!"
Wildcard merely shrugged.
"At the risk of sounding impatient, Rainbow Dash..." Luna's voice began.
Rainbow took a deep breath. "There's a new symbol in front of us. I... c-can barely see it. So... uhm..." She sighed. "Bard, would you mind?"
"My pleasure, darlin'." Bard tilted his muzzle towards the air. "Yer Highness, what we see before us is six small circles nestled inside a line that rolls in from the left all horizontal-like. The line wraps around the circles before droppin' down and curving back to the left. And... uhm... there are three more lines—all thinner than the first—stretchin' right and wrappin' around the curve... only to fall straight down."
Wildcard nodded.
"Sorry if that's a mite bit elementary a description," Bard said.
"It is quite alright, Sir Bard," Princess Luna spoke. "We have a clear picture painted in our minds, thanks to you."
He tipped his hat. "Much oblidged."
"There are only six circles?" Celestia asked.
"Righto..." Rainbow nodded. "The big circle that surrounded Ynanhluutr is gone. It's just the six tiny ones that Bard described."
"Is that an important detail?" Ariel asked.
Spike's voice spoke: "Perhaps it means that... some sort of mold has been broken?"
"How do you mean, Spike?" Celestia asked.
"Well... Rainbow Dash was 'within purpose' to resurrect the Elements of Harmony before making her way to the Midnight Armory beyond the Edge. All of the Five Seeds she's been to so far have been accomplishing this. So... maybe—uhh—the large circle that encased the other six in Ynanhluuter has been... sh-shattered... somehow?"
Applejack smiled at Twilight. "Good to know yer apprentice has gotten so well-spoken after all these years of study, huh?"
"Mrmmmm..." Twilight folded her forelimbs, mulling.
"Let us not forget, Spike," Celestia spoke. "Rainbow Dash learned of the existence of 'Six Seeds.' She's only been to five of them so far. This tower is now her sixth."
Luna joined in: "If she's yet to touch six flames, then what would have 'shattered' the seventh circle?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhm..." Spike was at a loss for words.
Enix cleared her throat. "I may not fully understand the nature of the Austraeoh's journey, but perhaps it would be better to discover than speculate," the Nightblooded warrior said.
"Rainbow Dash," Luna spoke. "Are you losing touch with your friends? Do you sense the presence of chaos metals or enchanted frost nearby?"
"No, Luna." Rainbow shook her head. "So far, we're cool. There's no sign of Verlax's interference anywhere." She pointed straight forward. "Unless, of course, there's something nasty on the other side of the door that—"
VROMMMMMM! The entire door shook.
Rainbow's friends gasped collectively.
One by one, the circles lit up from left to right. Violet to White to Pink to Yellow to Orange. Ding!—Ding!—Ding!—Ding!—Ding! And finally... the sixth one lit up blue. Diiing!
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash blinked, hoof outstretched. "... ... ...fudge."
FLAASSSH! The door flung open, exposing Rainbow to the naked flame of Yaerfaerda. Golden bolts flickered in the air, and—to Rainbow's surprise—she found herself being yanked straight forward with ten times the force of gravity.
"Rainbow—!" Ariel hollered. She and Enix reached forward—
—but it was too late. The doors slammed shut behind Rainbow.
THUDDD!
And all was dark.
I figured the last one had to be Loyalty. Six elements, six circles...
*Vwooop*.
...
his is mostly what I was thinking. It's possible that this is just a reference to the edge of the world. Perhaps the purpose of this tower is a gateway to the other side.
One thing I have to wonder about the edge theory, though: how would the tower know that it's at the edge? I mean, all of this destiny/predestination stuff aside, did the machine world or the creators know that the world would fracture along this area in particular? It seems...highly coincidental.
Again, perhaps a mode of transportation to the other side.
goddamnitPinkieOh, so Ynanhluutr doesn't mean "purpose within" or "inner purpose" but "within purpose"? That... Changes quite a bit. I just assumed Utaan referred to Beyond as in the edge of the world, but now it could very well mean going beyond Purpose...
Last chapter of Ynanhluutr's title is Beyond Purpose, There Is Only Want. ):(, you troll.
Sixth one is blue. That'd be the girl herself. Fuck.
No Discord then?
Ok so most likely not Discord, kind of a shame but I guess it would be pretty bad if it was him.
Such a rude door!
hmm, wonder if my theory way back when was right...
What you did there, I see it. So it looks like The elements of harmony are on there own, just like old times.
And we finally see the symbol for Utaan?
Oh boy, what now...?
Finally got the Utaan symbol and... I can't put my finger on it, but I have a bad feeling about what it means.
I'm starting to fear that what Rainbow is going to have to go beyond is loyalty itself. As in letting go of it.
That derpibooru tag joke
248, actually.
Blue circle is Rainbow Dash I'm assuming . . . except she's right there. She's already "free" so to speak. We probably won't be releasing another spirit here.
This must be another test. Or a trap. Probably a trap.
This is clearly a conveyor belt symbolizing the shift to factory labor as a result of the industrial revolution. The lines going over the edge represent labor costs adjusted to inflation (yes I know inflation wasn't actually measured until after the Great Depression.)
Kind of looks like your pokemon belt slots when in a battle. Only there empty...
Don't black out RD, the last Pokemon Center is really far away.
It's an elevator through the plane! And the elements of harmony are the key.
No? Darn.
So, my theory: the circles represent the Six Seeds. As Flutters said, the three lines that "drop off" represent the water falling off the Urohringr's edge. Finally, the thickest line — the one that wraps around and turns back — represents Rainbow's journey, and her going beyond the edge, and onto the Dark Side.
Yay, new symbol!
Elevator coming up?
That's what i said
Hopefully they were dragged in for safety's sake.
Note the order.
In Ynanhluutr, Rainbow's color came first. Now she's last?
Whether or not this tower is hiding Discord, I suspect that she's about to get that "transformation" that was prophesied. Maybe a cure for the chaos?
Are we gonna have two dashes now? What. I guess it might make sense if thats the route he goew. That said why do even speculate? I'm at least 200 chapters behind so i'll just keep reading
XD. First the chapter name, now this?
Poor thing. I can't believe it took that long to make some simply lines and shapes.
Well...this is unusual.
Looks like Utaan got impatient
I'm so curious!
Utaan, frigging finally!
(Even though I have come, like, two years late and can see the symbol on the cover)
Finally!
Microsoft paint XD
Looks like this image is still intact, that is good.
11/10/2019
03:05 UTC
Utaan used Door! It was super effective!
Well, the last few seeds she had to do something that went against the found Bearer's element. If this is hers, and she has to go against loyalty, her being yanked away from the friends she hoped to protect from peril (who now dove into the thick of it only to be separated from her) sounds about right.
...uh...well that wasn't what I was expecting.
And we got a new vocabulary word.
Don't know exactly why, but for some reason the Utaan symbol feels more haunting than all of the rest so far. Perhaps because it's the clearest image; the edge of the world, and the machine inside the plane.