Bellesmith trotted nervously through the thick gray corridors, flanked by guards in colorless uniforms. No matter how many times she graced these hallways, she couldn't shake the pensiveness that overcame her limbs. Directly above, pale blue beams of mana swarmed down lines etched into the ceiling. The muffled sounds of a magically broadcasted voice echoed in the distant passageways. Occasionally, there would be a distant burst of noiseโlike a shrieking breath. Bellesmith's brown eyes darted left.
She caught sight of a line of military guards several junctions down, marching in formation.
Gulping, Bellesmith glanced right.
Two unicorns in white uniforms were pushing a hovering slab covered with an alabaster sheet.
One of the guards nudged Bellesmith in the shoulder, forcing her to the left.
She stumbled, trotting directly into an elevator compartment. The three guards stood in a ring around her and shut the door with a metallic clang. One stallion removed his beret and tipped his horn towards a nest of metal coils. With a single jolt of energy, the filaments lit up. A cold hiss filled the air as the elevator lifted up along a massive shaft. Pale bands of manalight swam across the compartment, forcing Bellesmith to squint. In a matter of seconds, the car came to a stop, its doors opening to a long hallway flanked by guards. A series of offices rested at the very end, and the young mare was being ushered towards them.
She marched evenly, keeping up with the silent stallions' cold gait. The air danced with static as a magic field scanned Bellesmith from head to hooves. She sighed, weathering the familiar sensation as she approached a door marked with the inscription: "Professor Garnet, Chief of Big Shelf Operations."
The guards muttered a few words to each other, saluted, and opened the door for Bellesmith. They didn't gesture for her to enter, but she didn't need them to. Slowly, she shuffled into the room, her golden hairs standing on end. The door closed behind her, and she was overwhelmed by an incessant ticking sound.
The office was luxuriously furnished with wooden tables, plush seats, and rows upon rows of bookshelves. Pictures showed majest buildings of granite design. At the far end of the office, above an oak desk, was a broad portrait displaying an aged mare with a gray mane and a stern expression. She wore a simple tiara, and her weathered blue eyes were as hard as stone. Beneath this painting, a stallion sat at a table. His blond mane glistened in the manalight of a nearby lamp. His horn glowed, and he was busy scribbling an essay onto a glass tablet with a burning pen. Smoke rose from his task as he sat back, squinted at the work, and looked beyond it to see Bellesmith.
"Hmm.." He muttered. "Your horn looks shorter this time, Belle."
She gulped. "Please, Professor Garnet, sir..." She shuddered. "Call me Bellesmith."
"Formal..." He nodded with an emotionless gaze. "I can do formal." With a wave of his hoof, the words on the tablet vanished, coalescing into an orb of mana light hovering above his head. Using expert telekinesis, he shot the pulse of energy into a crystal situated on the edge of his desk. Afterwards, he pivoted in his chair and motioned for her to march forward. "Come. Take a seat."
She did not protest. Slowly, she trotted forward and situated herself in a plush stool, sliding up ritualistically before the desk. She'd been through these motions before.
"Now, then..." Garnet squinted his blue eyes at another crystal. A beam of light jumped out of the shard and shot into his tablet. Telekinetically, he lifted the glass panel between the two as it lit up with magical incandescence. "Let's see if this goes any better than last time. Ahem."
He flicked his horn, and the swirling bands of manalight coalesced across the tablet to form a shape.
"Exhibit..." He droned.
The tablet broadcasted an image of a metal valve.
He looked with bored eyes her way. "Response?"
Bellesmith looked at the pale shape of a valve. Gulping, she said, "'Minotaurs.'"
Garnet merely nodded. He zapped another beam of light into the tablet. "Exhibit..." The image changed to the outline of an aqueduct. "Response?"
Bellesmith thought for a while, then quietly uttered, "'Dragons.'"
"Exhibit." Garnet switched the tablet to an image of a broad-rimmed hat. "Response?"
"'Constable,'" Bellesmith said.
The image of a campfire.
"'Caravan.'"
A gas mask.
"'Obelisk.'"
A hoofball.
"'Dance Hall.'"
A suit of armor.
"'Prince.'"
A hoofprint enveloping a solar crest.
Bellesmith's mouth hung open. Her eyes twitched; her features paled. Her tongue rested against the surface of her teeth, but no sound came out, not even a breath. Gulping, she bit her lip and looked helplessly from the tablet to the professor.
Garnet raised an eyebrow. He glanced calmly at the tablet, regarding the omega symbol and the solar bands darting from the circle to the right as if they were just any blemishes. He gave the mare one last, prolonged look.
She exhaled sharply and shook her head. "I... I-I'm sorry..." Her shoulders shrugged. "I... I don't have anything..."
"I see..." He nodded. With a wave of his hoof, the tablet darkened. He shot the beam of energy into the corresponding crystal and stood up with a sigh. "Looks like we still have some work to do."
Bellesmith hung her head.
"You've been working here rather extensively as of late, Bellesmith... or should I say Doctor Bellesmith?" He paced around her in the dimly-lit office, his hooves stepping in time to the cold clock ticks. "When was the last time you had a day off? Seven days ago? Eight?"
"Twelve," she muttered.
"Hmmm... Quite resilient, aren't you?" He stood by her side and rested a hoof on her shoulder. "You're as tenacious as the files proclaimed, of which I had no doubtโof course. I would not have procured you if I felt there wasn't a chance of you excelling where so many sequencers had failed. You've exceed in areas that took them months to get to. And, from what I hear of our ever-loyal Dalton, you've been faring quite a bit better than them."
"I'm alive," she said in a blunt tone.
"Yes, indeed, and so is your beloved." Garnet nodded and trotted towards the far end of the office. "We all do well to abide by the regulations of Ledo, for the glory of the Spark." He stopped before a painting of war zeppelins and straightened the picture frame. "We work best in pairs, as custom mandates, so that we can ascend with our soulmates into the stars beyond the Heights. But you need not hear me recite what you know by heart."
"Then why are you reinforcing it, professor?" she managed in a bitter tone.
He gazed at her calmly. "Because as exceptional as your performance in the sequencing has been, it still isn't achieving results. Dalton says that you succumb to distress far too often. Granted, that is understandable. The process is hardly a walk in the park." He paced back towards her. "Might I suggest you endeavor to do that which the previous sequencers managed so well? Find your focus. Think of your beloved. You may find that meditating on something so dear to heart will help you keep a firmer grasp of the mind as you engage the throes of the Spark."
"And what of the sequencers before me?" Bellesmith lifted her golden face. "When the Spark consumed them, did meditating on their beloveds helped them?"
"Of course it did, Doctor," Garnet said. "It helped them achieve union beyond the Heights." His eyes narrowed. "You would not want your beloved's spirit to wither into ash in the stars without you?"
Bellesmith trembled.
"Well?"
She hung her head. "No, Professor..."
He gazed silently at her. With a shuffle of his hooves, he trotted back to the other end of his desk. "There is more at stake here than the spiritual, my good doctor. What happens here at Big Shelf goes beyond both the material and the immaterial. We are at the crest of discovering the hidden heart of the spark, and the arrival of the subject is just the key we need to enter into a new domain of knowing."
He reached his seat, sat down, and gazed solidly at her from across the oaken furniture.
"You and I are the kind of Ledomaritans to appreciate such brilliant and unprecedented knowledge. However..." He folded his hooves atop the desk and leaned forward. "Our project of sequencing answers to a higher soul between Big Shelf and Queen Ledo herself. Shell is constantly watching, constantly observing. He wants results, and he wants them now."
Bellesmith closed her eyes. When she did so, she envisioned a dim room, reeling, and with a glass sheet of windows looming above. She saw several dark shapes from beyond the translucent material, and one taller and more rigid than the rest.
"Can I rely on you to appease Shell and his Enforcers?" Garnet asked with an inquisitive glare. "Can your beloved rely on you? Time is of the essence, my dear."
Bellesmith took a deep breath. Her eyes opened, and they were moist. Nevertheless, her voice was dry as a stone as she said, "I will give you results, Professor. I will engage the Spark with utmost vigor."
Garnet nodded. "See that you do." He aimed his horn at the door on the other end of the room. It slid open with a metallic hiss, and immediately two guards stepped in.
In a weary fashion, Bellesmith stood up from the stool and turned towards the hallway beyond.
"And Belle?"
Wincing, she turned and looked back at him, glaring slightly.
He was wearing a tranquil smile. "The subject is merely a tool. The only soul that shall be attached to it is yours." He pointed. "Remember that."
She nodded and quietly murmured, "I shall try."
I have a lot of bad feelings about this...
Hmm...
Yep no predictions yet. Still see too many hints at austreaoh so I like that.
Forget what I said about Quantum Leap, the act of sequencing and data gathering puts me in an Assassin's Creed mindset.
I hope I'm not offending you by relating your story to others, but I've found ideas like these to be fascinating.
My theory is that this is in the future, and the story of Rainbow Dash has been known to every nation she's visited and spread to more. And more ponies know about the end of the world, so they are now desparately trying to use these 'spheres' to descipher what Rainbow Dash knew so they could somehow prevent it.
Or I'm totally wrong. Can't blame me for taking a shot after reading only the sixth chapter.
As I'm under the impression that the 'subject' is RD, I feel worried when somepony says "The subject is only a tool".
Belle reminds me of Chell...
I'm gonna guess this whole facility is researching kind of Gateways into other ponies minds or something like that
Hearing him say "Shell and his Enforcers" is giving me strong "Son of a Witch" deja vu.
RD aint gonna be happy when she rises from the dead and learns ponies have been using her as a research "tool".
The image of guards having berets amuses me more than it should.
This is a rather disturbing piece of information. What are they doing with RD's memories?
Huh.
So I'm a queen, and a country now? This has been a good day.
ALL GLORY TO LEDO!
This just gets progressively better.
I'm suspicious of Sir Professor.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So in this chapter, I'm pretty sure it's confirmed that Dash isn't the Spark these ponies are talking about. It mentions ponies being consumed by the Spark. Also, their society seems to hold a firm belief in soulmates, so that may be important later on. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
1) Goddamn Blackmail.
2) Goddamn this place
3) Goddamn being used as a lab rat.
4) Goddamn implied end of world.
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I know this a bit late, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of Portal from this chapter. The thing that got me was
Which reminded me of the turret inspection area in Portal 2.
so this is the end of it all? a war is looming. there are no peacekeepers. there is only the spark to think about. this world is not one that dash had envisioned.
is this perhaps a world ruled by chaos? is Ledo a region on the other side of the plane? are belle and dash one in the same?
all shall be reviled i am sure, but these are just my thoughts so far.
So I guess they want to discover what made Rainbow Dash so awesome?
I still ask myself how in the world can they scout in Rainbow's memories.
"We are at the crest of discovering the hidden heart of the spark"
Whoa.
Whoa whoa whoa.
They're looking for the World-Machine. To finish Rainbow's job, thereby activating all of these iron factories. Possibly.
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Or to take control of it. These don't strike me as a particularly harmonious group of ponies.
206 Chapters down, 172 to catch up...
Oh dear god what have I gotten myself into.
2206476 Much and more. That's all I can say.
Predictions, so if you don't like having someone else's thoughts affect yours, don't read.
Axan spoke of a land to the east where ponies enslaved others for some reason, the details are fuzzy to me now, and they were barely mentioned much there. Coincidence anypony?
Pictures showed majest buildings of granite design
Typo
did meditating on their beloveds helped them?"
Typo
I liked the word association game. A great example of show, don't tell.
Ledomaritans...another civilization that Dash will encounter, perhaps?
A dead pony. Maybe another sequencer? Also, looks like this civilisation is called Ledo (unless I missed it in another chapter ). I wonder why she responded so oddly to the solar crest? So many questions, so little answers. Typical Imploding Colon
Animus vibes. I'm interested in how they procured Rainbow Dash much less how hey even know she's the Spark. I'm also curious if they were stupid enough to remove her Element at one point.
Interesting. This spark intrigues me. I hope it isn't something from Transformers, though.
vague mind link, huh?
interesting.
Hmm, so they're trying to use Rainbow Dash's memories to find out how she's activating the separate parts of the Machine? They seem to have picture-to-word-associations down for relating her memories to certain events, and they're really into this Spark talk.
I wonder if they're the cause for Rainbow's bursts of chaos? All the other subjects are gone, so maybe they succumbed to it?
So, im assuming RD is the Spark and they're accessing her memories. RD is in some sort of suspension from reality as it says that ' The Subject' is just a tool with no soul attached. Also assuming that RD is 'The Subject'
something smells fishy. I am guessing the subject is our favorite prismatic pegasus. But to what end.
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I was having the same thought, each time she blacks out a sequencer is trying to prob her mind. Or discord shuts them out and she blacks out until a connection can be reestablished.
Okay, so the 'subject' is most likely our ever-lovable polychromatic Pegasus. But holy cow what a look into Ledomarian culture!
So apparently, this 'Shell' stallion captures a pony's 'beloved', and then kills them. That line about the spirit of Belle's beloved "Withering into ash in the stars" without her is telling...
At any rate, Big Shelf is searching RD's memories for anything pertaining to the symbol that allows Dash to interact with the big Machine under Equestria. Again, hee-YUGE Assassin's Creed vibe; not that I'm complaining, mind you.
Ooh! Random idea!
Perhaps Belle's beloved isn't even real. I mean, she never mentions him(her? I don't judge) by name. Maybe she was just born and raised with the belief that she has a 'beloved' waiting for her, but only if she does as Queen Ledo decrees, by order of the Spark.
Which brings me to Queen Ledo. Maybe she's an alicorn, searching for a way to get the Harmonic Prism, and Dash's memories have got clues? At any rate, this place definitely needs an Elric to clear things up. Maybe even two.
All this new stuff is really, really concerning. What's the correlation between this sequence stuff and Dash's memories, and just... how long has passed between all of this, if any? I'm going to lose my mind while waiting for these answers.
~SolidFire
I'm picking up that RD is the subject, but how the hell did she "arrive" here? And what did they do to her?
for some reason i am reminded me "the sample" from Half-Life...when pushed into the analyzer, it started a "resonance cascade", that tore a hole between dimensions, leading to an invasion by other-dimensional monsters...
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Dude I was literally just going to type the same thing! Seriously these people are messing with the freaking internal machinery of the world aren't they? Something resonance cascady is going to happen.
Dude, the reminescent is real.
Blue eyes. A tiara? Her name is fucking Belle!?
THE WHOLE OFFICE LOOKS LIKE A SLAVE BENEFACTORS LUXURIOUS FRUITS!
this entire office just screams to me "I'm fucking rich. Worship me"
So we can already assume they're not on freinds terms...
I highly doubt that.
Your "tool" happens to be the Element of loyalty, who's soul is also being occuoied by that of a molevolent spirit of chaos.
Also, I'm already getting the jist. Tuat symbol obviously means something to them. They need the key, and they are looking for Dash.
What the actual hell.....
The last story had only one word chapter titles, now the sequel has only two word chapter titles. Can't wait to see the chapter titles in the later books.
Austreoh's Plot: โกโกโก๐ณโก๐กโกโก๐โก๐โก๐ฒ
Eljunbyro's Plot (So Far): โโซโโ๐โโโช๐ฅโฌ ๐โโ๐โถ
Uhhh. Did my mind got BSOD? 'Cause I don't friggin understand nothin right now...
i am considerably confused as to what is going on. I imagine it begins to become clearer as the story continues. i've actually had to pause my music to come up with theories. are these guys from another dimension and are using the other dimensions (potentially what the first book was) as tests to i think bring back the elements or is this some simulation using RD as a basis to complete whatever goal they have.
also i imagine a chance that given how active the following of this series is someone who know more than me is going to read my comment and laugh at how unbelievably incorrect i am.