All of the shadows dwindled—save for one—in the size of a dainty equine mare standing before Rainbow. Verlax's slitted eyes opened, blue and piercing.
“That living torch... that spark of salvation is you, Austraeoh.” The shadow slowly shook its head. “But you will not get there on just harmony alone. Sooner than later you shall discover that chaos is as equally useful and necessary an ally.”
Rainbow frowned. “You can cut the crap right now, 'cuz no way in heck am I gonna let chaos take the reins.”
“And have you not already?” The Divine's voice resonated with amusement. The equine shadow cocked its head to the side from beyond the blizzard. “Did a single Element of Harmony make it all this long and dreadful distance? Dying more than once—only to be reborn? It wasn't just Eljunbyro that saved you, Rainbow Dash. Your body had learned to embrace the touch of death a long, long time ago. How else do you think you've been capable of returning?”
Rainbow Dash was shivering at this point. She hung her head, her eyes piercing the golden platform beneath her. In a blink, she envisioned the rusted, blood-stained laboratory floors situated deep beneath Blue Shelf. Clenching her eyes shut, she couldn't shake the look of fear on Roarke's face as she dragged a chaotic beast out from beneath a collapsed airship.
The shadow paced around her. “And your friends. Surely, they are parts of the harmonic flame, carried by loyalty itself. But what has been the vessel, Rainbow Dash? What has preserved them instead of losing their essences to limbo?”
“Everywhere I've gone...” Rainbow Dash droned, teeth clenched as she fought her shakes. “...I've done all I could to spread harmony.” She gulped hard. “The war in Ledomare is over. Darkstine avoided a civil conflict. Silvadel is at peace and Val Roa—”
“And just how much of that have you accomplished by being a good, angelic missionary of harmony, my little pony?”
Rainbow turned away from the shadow.
It formed together on the other side, occupying her vision yet again. “The Austraeoh's purpose is not defined solely through peace or discord,” Verlax said. “If you are to save this world, to undo the Sundering so that one day the universal cycle will let it happen again, you must transcend that which is black or white. You've already accomplished this, Rainbow Dash. You've done it more times than even I or the alicorns or the metamorphic queen can account for. However, you must accept this reality for what it is. You must embrace it, or else your journey will not even make it to the dark side of this plane, and all of my trials will have been orchestrated for nothing.”
Rainbow opened her eyes. Tilting her head up, she glared at the figure. “What do you mean... trials?”
“The moment I realized that this world was calling the spark east, I understood that these lands would act as the final hurdle for the Austraeoh's journey. For decades... centuries... millennia, I prepared for such an arrival, augmenting the beacons so that they would fuel the flame. Only through such trials would I know... would we all know... and would you know that the time for rebirth had arrived.”
“Are you trying to tell me that... you somehow fixed it so that my friends would appear to me when they did?”
“I would certainly like to think so,” Verlax said, suppressing a giggle.
“Pfft! Horse hockey.”
“The Element of Magic,” Verlax suddenly droned, her shadow standing tall and proper with a flick of the tail. “Representing a soundness of mind, a rational approach to problem solving, and confidence in the presence of friends. Mastery of this Element means understanding how to function with it... as well as without it. Tell me, Austraeoh, have you experienced a bout of madness lately?”
Rainbow Dash blinked. “I... I found Twilight right after... right after...” She blinked, shuddering slightly. The mare brought a hoof to her head as she teetered from the sheer magnitude of the thought. “I just... just felt so alone... so friendless.” She gulped. “All of the magic was gone. My wings couldn't even work! I was lost in such a huge friggin' desert full of nothing and... and...” Her jaw dropped. She gazed up at the shadow. “Holy cow... did... did you invent the Grand Choke...?!?”
Instead of answering, the shadow paced around the eye of the storm, murmuring: “The Element of Generosity, something embodied by its selflessness and altruism. However, to properly ascertain the poignancy of giving, you also have to take... and shamelessly too. Did you truly get to the Nealend Atoll by fruits of your own labor?”
“Well, n-no. Nick... Sinrar... the Nealenders...” Rainbow gulped. “They helped me—”
The shadow scuffled to a stop, its blue eyes peering down at her. “And did you ask for such help? Or did you hijack them?”
“Well... well I...” Rainbow grimaced, fumbling for words. “No! I mean... it all ended up alright in the end! Nick f-found true love and Sinrar... uhhhh...”
“Did the Nealenders ever ask for their whirlpool to be replaced with a tower?” Verlax asked. “Or for the source of their favorite hunt to be driven away? All just to help a wandering pegasus reunite with her phantom friend?”
Rainbow bit her lip, her eyes darting back and forth.
The shadow strolled closer to the wall of blizzard, but not so close as to pierce it. “Two cities. One above the ocean, and the other beneath it. There has been pain amongst the citizenry, yes. Even acts as merciless as arson. But, all in all, these remote colonies have existed in equilibrium with one another for decades. And then—with harmony as her goal—a wayward soul arrives to disrupt the balance through the most criminal means possible. It's an absurd act of heroism at best, with very little planning and very little chance of positive results. An impulsive exercise in organized calamity if ever there was one.”
“A joke...” Rainbow Dash muttered, her eyebrow twitching. “...a laughable plan... desperadoes and a desperate pegasus...” Rainbow felt a lump forming in her throat. With ears folded, she looked up at the shadow.
“Are you now learning, Austraeoh?” Verlax asked. “Are you now realizing the lines that you must cross to form a circle?”
Rainbow's expression hardened into a sneer. “If you for once think that I'm going to—”
“But you have. That much cannot be denied, Rainbow Dash. Nor is it the crux of the issue.” Verlax strolled around in a circle. “You are here only because you had to take major steps... major steps that you wouldn't have taken beforehand... in a time when the other Elements of Harmony were alive to judge you. Well, now, there is no way to avoid their scrutiny. To gain them, you must lose them. And to help you, they must embrace you... just as you must embrace yourself.”
“No...”
“The destiny of Austraeoh is absolute. It was spelled into being long before I too became a spoke in the great machine that wills it. The Sundering must be undone, and now that one flame has been called this far, I shall see to the completion of its journey—at least as far as I am able.”
Rainbow stomped a hoof. “Stop pretending like any of this crud is excusable! Tell me! Did you really make the Grand Choke?!” She snarled and shivered upon the brink of hyperventilating. “Did you really build an entire desert of magic, starving and isolating countless civilizations, just so you could put a hapless pegasus like me through some stupid test?!”
“I did what you and I both had to do, Austraeoh. You have your contributions, and I have mine. At this juncture, however, I only intend to enlighten you.” The shadow loomed closer, growing, enlarging. “Before you reach the edge, you are going to have to do very disharmonious... very dishonest... very unkind things.” Five horns protruded from the dragon's skull, and the eyeslits burned brighter. “And before you rapture this world from its frigid plight... a lot... and I do mean a lot of souls are going to die.” Icy vapors bled through the blizzard's wall. “Make peace with your chaotic side, Rainbow Dash, before it wages war with the whole of you. This world cannot survive without Austraeoh, and the healthy circle will not repeat.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Forget it! What you're expecting of me is stupid... laughable!”
“I would certainly hope so!” The shadow's head reared back as she chuckled. “It is all a big, grand joke!” A pause, and the draconian shape bowed. “And on that note, I give you your gift...”
Just like that, the swirling snow faded, the shadow melting along with it. In a blink, Rainbow spotted a dozen statues standing around her—all collapsing into rusted metal shingles. Then, right before her, a pedestal of flame loomed, completely devoid of ice. She tilted her head up, and the colored bands of Yaerfaerda leapt straight at her—
FLASH!!!
All cycles must come to an end, how they are ended decides whether or not it is a good or a bad end.
Oh hello! About to go to bed and BAM
Second update. Who needs sleep, ):(, amirite?
I'm calling it now, the sixth 'key' will be the return of Discard.
Not as RD growing horns, like she's done before, but as a standalone companion....
Wonder is Spirit Fluttershy will 'tame' Spirit Discard....
Welcome back Pinkie Pie!
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...Dang. That'd be epic.
And then the cryptic double speak starts...it's like the Velvet Room, they are there to help, not to guide.
...Dammit, now I can't help but hear The Poem for Everyone's Souls reincarnation playing over the past few chapters.
But is Verlax really helping? or is she guiding Dash down the path she wants.
If she had of just left well enough alone, Dash would have been quite happy doing what she needed to do to get to the flames, now she's going to be second guessing herself every time she has to make a plan to reach the machine world.
What's worse after all? Knowing from the outset you're somedragon's plaything? or Being told halfway through that you are playing your part magnificently without realizing it?
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
So... does this mean no icy golem army to stop the syndicate from RD and the Desperados? Woo-boy...
But... isn't a synthesis of harmony and chaos basically... harmony? Is chaos on a leash still chaos? Again, there's wisdom in what Verlax says, but I still say it sounds like a case of "Know-It-All character proclaims absolute truth, only to be proven wrong by protagonist".
I dunno.
Pinkie~
And to be honest, yes. Verlax is helping. Think about it for a bit.
This vaguely reminds me of Spike in "The Jewelry Box" in which Spike had to do some rather painful things in order to, surprise surprise, bring his friends back.
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I would like to think of this as a pre-view of what is to come. The dark side does not sound like an easy trip.
6403505 Shoot. I meant 5/6th. Fractions derped in my head again
Thing is though, while Rainbow Dash is capable of selfishness, and anti-intellectualism, and even the utter seriousness that is a lack of laughter. While she can be dishonest, she is not cruel. Fluttershy will be hard for Dash to get if it is set up that way.
Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie Pinkie!!!!!!
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Neither is held back by the other; they exist in equilibrium. It's Yin and Yang, and their coalescence makes up all that is.
Also, have a little faith in based IC. You already know that we'll either get A) a plot chock full of delicious suffering, or B) a generic type of plot played out so awesomely you won't even give a shit how generic it is.
6403580 Be happy with what you're getting; there's a guy who's been awake since the second World War.
6403635 I think Dash can be cruel in her own way, or at least unkind. I keep remembering the way she dumped the real Pinkie into the crowd of Pinkies in Too Many Pinkie Pies. Or how she defended the Crystal Heart in The Crystal Empire from those innocent civilians. Or even in Dragonshy...
Anyway, I'm finding the pattern here fascinating, but I'm too excited to think too hard. Because Pinkie! Whoop!
After reading the second update of today, heh hehehe HA. I see a violent future going through the sarosian colonies near the edge (Echo's gonna hate that). And the culmination of the dishonesty RD has to face is the deceptions given to her spectral Five friends about how she dealt with Shell.
*claps* I like Verlax. I look forward to her next monologue at the next (presumably yellow) Yaefaerda beacon.
The Grand Choke... is it that magic and things stop working, or that her illusory grip on things convinces everyone that mejik don't work... She's fun.
Well, that was... intriguing. On one hand, I'm glad for the double update just because we got this exposition now, but on the other hand, now we have to wait two days for Pinkie...
Verlax created the Grand Choke. Called it. squee.
Here's to hoping Rainbow continues to find the third, as-yet-unforeseen option. Verlax is very much a end-justifies-the-means type character, and at this point she's totally capitulated to Destiny. That's a bad combo.
In reference to today's blog, if Pilate isn't crossing the Grand Choke--now rendered passable thanks to Dashie reaching Twilight's Seed--I'm going to be disappointed.
Ah well. The pink one and onwards.
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The thing is for all we know Verlax is just lying about the whole thing to make Dash think she needs to embrace her Chaos side. Did Verlax actually do anything at all or is she just pretending she did to mess with Dash and get what she wants/make herself feel important to this story? She herself said she realized she had no part to actually play here.
I don't think we can take what she says at face value, she is very deceptive.
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I think it is called Discord
Pinkieeeee!
NOW we'll see chaos
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Ah, but the Yin-Yang is, itself, a representation of harmony and balance.
In a dialectic where harmony/balance lies on one end and disharmony/disorder on the other, where are we? One might argue that both order and chaos, alone and unchecked, are detrimental for life, and that both are necessary to keep things working smoothly, and in this sense they do seem to keep each other in check. Order is prevented from being too orderly and chaos is prevented from being too chaotic. And therein, a kind of harmony is found, even if it's of a strictly transient nature.
I dunno. It's late, and I'm rambling.
Also, I didn't mean my comment as a criticism. I have oodles of faith in IC. My comments are mostly just me trying to figure things out.
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Actuallly, if I recall (I could be wrong) but Rainbow back at K.M.C.A told Twi about Shell and how he was deal with. The biggest dishonesty she's been perpetuating is her chaos disease/problem.
It looks like Phantom Pie is leaping at Rainbow for a hug! And now I'm reminded why being Austraeoh sucks.
Verlax seems to have planned everything rather wonderfully. Unfortunately, Dash doesn't like to plan too far ahead and just wing it.
Also, yay ghost Pinkie
So that's Verlax's play. She wants Dash to embrace her chaotic side more, or at least to start second-guessing herself in regards to how she feels about the chaos inside her. Granted Verlax probably isn't lying that there's going to be rough times coming, putting Dash in situations where she may have to do things from being dishonest to being unkind, and I also don't doubt that there's going to be a body count by the time this whole shebang ends... But Dash, I got some advice for you girl, in regards to the notion that these kind of things can't be avoided and that you've got to give in to the inner chaos:
Buck. That. Noise!
Dash, you're an agent of Harmony, even when you got to kick some flanks to get it done. More than that you own every single action you chose to do, so don't let an over-sized, glorified ice gecko plant any doubt in your skull that your purpose here is to save lives and make the world a better place through your actions. No matter how much destiny might be sticking its nose in your business you've always got the free will to decide what you do, and how you face the consequences of those choices.
If you got to make use of that chaos inyou, make sure its only on your terms, not anyone else's.
Lies and deciet work the best when there is a core of truth to them, even when the truth isnt the actual one thats being implied.
There is no ball, there is just the coin in the hand.
There is no queen, just hidden dice.
Now we have Ghost Pinkie.
And we all know what Ghosts are supposed to be good at.
Posession.
Isnt there a song about that, by Topol?
We were warned she was a master manipulator. It is a good thing Rainbow will have the chance to be with Pinkie now - her soul will need mending.
I'm like 60% sure Verlax is sowing seeds of doubt into Dash. I still don't trust her.
After all, she is the dragon of lies and manipulation. It's easier to sell a lie built on truths than a complete fabrication.
it's possible that there's such place where her element wouldn't find any application. With ponies though, unlikely, unless they're pony-shaped demons.
Hooray! It looks like she's unlocked Pinkie Sprite!
I'm not sure about this "balance between harmony and discord" business. The definition of discord isn't so much chaos as... lack of harmony. Harmony is when two signals are aligned so that one is an even multiple of another.
An electron can't exist in discord - it must have an even number of wavelengths in its orbit around a nucleus. Or it won't exist, because it is a wave. But any particle must also be composed of discordious waves, or it would simultaneously exist in all places at once - the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, but with a single particle having a discrete set of momenta at multiples of a fundamental? That wouldn't be possible.
Dammit. You and quantum physics.
That foreshadowing
Next beacon, Dash will kick a puppy.
bessmarie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/lie-cheat-steal.jpg
Again, I agree. Perfect harmony results only in stagnation. Change drives harmony to new levels. It knocks new senses of perspective into people. Things change, and harmony changes, but in the end, everybody is better for it.
But, anyway... Pinkie Pie!
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
Well, I agree with Verlax on one thing at the very least — Rainbow needs to tell her friends the truth, no matter how bad it hurts. She's sugarcoating the nasty stuff and omitting anything that would make her look bad. But even that isn't the biggest problem. I'm sure her friends can live another day without hearing the horrors of Shell or how she ended up having hot lesbian loving with a murder-driven matriarchal metal mare. (Seriously, can you imagine how awkward it would be talking about her relationship with Roarke having talked about Searo and Roarke's initial attitude not long before?)
It's one thing to hide Shell, her sexuality or the gruesome things that she's had to do, but she hasn't even told them about her chaos problem at all. She's had dizzy spells, she's had an awful reaction to chaos metal, the only step farther now would be for her pendant to come off. How long is she going to keep them in the dark about that? This is going to seriously bite her in the arse later on.
Rainbow seriously needs to have some faith in her friends. But, well, knowing that this is written by the same writer as Appledashery, I can only weep pitifully at the futility of it all. Onwards and Eastwards, I suppose.
We really need to start replacing Harmony with Order. Harmony is the balance between Chaos and Order and one cannot exist without the other.
Anyway. TIME FOR PINKIE PHANTOM!
Well, Verlax is so crazy she almost seems sane. Good to know.
I think I understand why Verlax didn't want Rainbow's friends present during the conversation now...
I both love and hate Verlax's character already. She's interesting, enigmatic, and thought provoking, but she also reminds me of an experienced politician by the way she can distort the truth without ever outright lying.
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If Verlax is manipulating Rainbow Dash—and that was foreshadowed—the question is why. Verlax doesn't do it for the sake of it; she must have a reason, a goal to achieve. Yes, one of those goals is to undo the Sundering, and she will help the Austraeoh accomplish that, but what else?
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An intriguing thought, but I'm not sure it fits. Dash needs to embrace the chaos within her. For that chaos to become another incorporeal spirit defeats that, for the chaos would then be outside her, being an unbearable pain in the ass 24x7 to her and the other Elements. Doesn't mean the sixth key doesn't somehow lead to that embracing.
Verlax's morality is still wrong.
Chaos in the way that Verlax is speaking of it equals doing actions that are evil.
Evil begets more evil, just as good begets more good.
Only God can bring forth good out of evil.
So why, precisely, are you spouting this flawed morality, Verlax???
Your mind games don't phase me, Verlax.\
Aim for Harmony, Rainbow. And non-evil Chaos, too.
See, here, this is one of those places where I don't like Harmony and Chaos juxtaposed as opposites. If we go with Chaos = Discord, then chaos is rambled, jumbled, crazy stuff that is constantly doing with no order; two plus two equals fish and sometimes nine and chocolate rain. The opposite of that isn't Harmony - it's Entropy. Harmony would be the middle point - things still happen, but in a cause-effect sort of way.
Of course, that's just a nitpick on terminology I have. With how Verlax posits it, I'd organize the terms like this:
Constant Disorder - Order - Nothingness
Chaos - Harmony - Chaos
Evil - Good - Evil
Where Harmony is the balance, and Chaos is the extreme points on either end. Harmony is Gray, while Chaos is both the Black and White ends of the spectrum. Verlax presents the notion that existence is defined by differences - specifically that between Chaos and Harmony - and that Rainbow Dash needs to embrace that. A song is not a single chord, nor is a painting a single hue - it is the contrast which defines them.
Ice-queen isn't saying Dash needs to surrender to Chaos - she's saying she needs to acknowledge that it has it's place alongside Harmony. Which, we've seen when she was dealing with Twilight, she's already a few steps in that direction - she just needs to accept openly what she already knows.
-----
Betcha ten bucks the last Circle is Discord.
Holy shit, that got really intense, really fast. I hadn't even realized that Rainbow had been breaking the elements to restore her friends thus far. But now that we know that's how it's happening, I think we all---the audience and Rainbow---are going to be more wary of how Rainbow goes about getting Fluttershy and Applejack back.
To restore kindness, she has to be cruel
To restore honesty, she has to lie and manipulate
And you can bet it's going to be tearing her up inside, even as she struggles to find another way of doing it, only to realize that there is no other way.
If what Verlax says about lots of violence is true, then RD will be thanking her when she gets to the dark side.
Can I call again upon the Austraeoh Fact Checker to find where in Ynanhluutr there is a new symbol? Because I'm 100% sure there was one, with circles.
So, normally don't comment this late after a chapter, but nobody seems to have pointed out 2 things I saw, so I'll do it. 1. Verlax said she flew higher than the 2 sentinels. If we assume Zadubadabu/Stratopolis was one, then I'm guessing Dash will find the other on the dark side of the world. That'll be interesting. 2. Verlax said Dash would be disharmonious, dishonest, and cruel. For this I have 2 things to say, first this is the opposite order we've basically agreed she'll do things which I find interesting, and is likely the closest to order confirmation we'll get till we reach the next seeds. Also, confirmation that Dash is no longer just the element of Loyalty, she's the Element of Harmony, the opposite of what Verlax is testing for at the last seed. Thought I'd point that out. All hail Zadubadabu.
Every single time a villain has pointed out that what Dash has been doing has been 'evil' she managed to turn things around and leave every place she touched better than it had been when she got there, with the exception of Laris... and the villain usually winds up battered and broken as Rainbow explains exactly why she did what she had done.
Also 'I planed it all from the start' bullshit is one of my greatest story killing plot twists, so I REALLY hope that Rainbow proves this dragon wrong the same way she had those before her so that it doesn't turn yet another great story I have read for hundreds of thousands (or in this case, millions) of words to shit by pulling someone with a literally impossible level of foresight out of nowhere to the point where it becomes clear that there was never any way that said individual could ever have lost in the first place.
Please don't be going down that direction.
So it might not have been just a damaged/broken area of the ring segment? That's something else.
Still not entirely taking Verlax's word at face value, though.
Anyways, incoming pinkness.
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The Ynanhluutr symbol first appeared in ch. 79 "Take a Picture; It'll Last Longer"
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*verlax pulls off her mask*
*it's Luna underneath*
i.imgur.com/jnUZgdl.jpg
IT"S ME RAINBOW
TWAS ME ALL ALONG
I'm reminded of a very similar conversation between a cunning architect of destinies and a destined hero...
Internet cookie goes to anyone who can spot the reference.
It's important to remember that chaos isn't inherently evil. It can be used for great things, as Rainbow has already done--and it can be used for the betterment of the self, as well. It's not hard to see why Rainbow shuns it--what with her vision of chaos being Discord and the own beast she becomes when her pendant is removed--but I have faith that by the end of all this, she'll be over it.
...I hope this exact comment wasn't already stated before, but it probably was.