Princess Luna looked up from a scroll of parchment and raised an eyebrow. "Well, that is most certainly a curious question."
"Seriously, though," I remarked. I hovered across from the Princess of the Night in the throneroom of Canterlot Palace's Midnight Wing. "It can't go on forever. I mean, the Sun has got to come up somewhere. So where's the edge of the world?"
"Though shouldst know the answer to that, Rainbow Dash."
"Oh. Uhm..." I blinked, my ruby eyes squinting in thought. "The world is—like—a big flat chunk of earth floating in stars and chaos and stuff, right?"
Princess Luna paused. She placed her royal documents down and looked over at me squarely. "At thy age, we imagine that thou hast attended quite a few classes on the subject in thy schooling."
"Erm... eheheh..." I blushed and scratched my brow with a blue hoof. "I... n-never was all that good at staying in school."
"So we see..."
"Learning is all good and stuff, but there was just so much flying I wanted to do!" I shrugged. "Even at flight camp, they wouldn't let me fly enough. Was I there to get better or not?"
"And how wouldst thou say that things hath turned out?"
"Well, I have no intention of being a scientist anytime soon." I said, then sighed. "Or for very much longer," I muttered.
"Verily..." Luna stood up, flexed her wings, and paced across the throneroom in the midday light. "The earth is a long, flat plane. The latitudinal length far exceeds the longitudinal width."
"Eh?"
Luna sighed, then paused to look at me. "East and west hold greater distance than north and south."
"Oh, I see."
Luna resumed pacing. "The world floats in a piece of the cosmos dominated primarily by chaos energies. The Elements of Harmony have always served as a beacon of purpose through which life has thrived in spite of all the contradictory factors. As for the Sun and the Moon, they are bodies of luminous mana that the alicorns brought to this plane."
"So, wait..." I leaned my head to the side. "The Sun and Moon weren't always around?"
"Like so many things, Rainbow Dash, they were provided to this landscape when our own flesh and blood first arrived here. There are several ponies of alicorn descent spread throughout the world, but only our sister and we possess the powers of our forbears. With the magic at our hooves, we have kept the Sun and Moon in constant motion, illuminating the landscape from right here in the center of the bright half of the world, the kingdom of Equestria. For several thousands upon thousands of years, we have served as the sentries to this world, warding chaos and keeping dark energy at bay."
"That's... quite the commitment," I said.
"Indeed."
"So, like, where does the world end?"
"There are several edges to it. The north and south borders are feasible to reach, even by mortal standards. The east and west extremities, however, are thousands upon thousands of miles from here in either direction."
"Have... Have you seen the end of the world?"
"Affirmative," Luna said, nodding slowly. "We hath been to both the east and west edges."
"How many times?"
"A total of five," Luna said calmly.
I had to beat my wings faster to keep from dropping upon hearing that. "Wait. So you mean to tell me that in all of the crazy years upon years that you have been alive, you've only visited the ends of the world no more than five times?"
Luna nodded. "We do not believe we have emphasized the fact enough: the world is quite a vast place. Alicorns such as our sister and we cannot afford to make long and arduous journeys without sacrificing the task of protecting Equestria. The physical realm is too vast for us to do more than illuminate with light and harmony." She took a deep breath. "Now, far more than ever, it is an even greater challenge. With our sister putting all efforts into safeguarding the rift, we doubt very much that we can so much as leave the immediate borders surrounding us."
"Then how do you look after the rest of the world?"
"There was once a time when we could," Luna said. "That was when there were far more of us than there are today. The alicorns have since dwindled, and now the world belongs to the huge population of mortals who spread their kingdoms far and wide. In anticipation of this eventuality, the first alicorns introduced harmony to this land. It began with the Elements, but then the Elements would embody themselves in living ponydom."
"The Element Bearers..." I exhaled. "Twilight and the rest of us. We were the first to possess the Elements in spirit, weren't we?"
"Nay, Rainbow Dash," Luna said with a shake of her head. "Thou six were the strongest, but hardly the first. In truth, the Elements of Harmony have been blending with the living population of this realm for eons. When thou, Twilight, and the rest of thy ill-fated companions acquired the six Elements, thou completed the final stage of Harmonic Acclimation."
"Harmonic What-now?"
"It was the grand purpose of the Harmonic Prism since it was brought to this world at the beginning of all life here," Luna said. "Through Acclimation, the same spirit that gave alicorns vigor, energy, and peace of mind would be passed onto the sentient mortals of this world. Someday, Rainbow Dash, Celestia and we shall no longer be around, and it will be up to ponydom itself to maintain peace and harmony in the center of this pocket of the universe."
"So... then..." My brow furrowed in thought. "This world is kind of like a garden?"
"And a most exceptional one at that, full of both beauty and terror, and yet ultimately favoring life, which hath been our goal from the start." Luna took a proud breath. "We stand upon the edge of a new beginning for this world. It is a shame, however, that the final stage in its foundation would prove to be such a dark chapter. If Twilight and thy other friends had lived, we may have witnessed something even better than Harmonic Acclimation."
"And what would that have been?"
"Unification," Luna said. "Thou six were more than just mere mortals. The Elements were meant for thee; together, thou could very well have spread peace and harmony across the land in greater intensity than my sister and we are capable. The kingdoms beyond Equestria would have been united under more than just light. Ponydom would become whole, and would form a utopia that would banish chaos forever."
I stared down at my pendant, feeling the cold, golden surface with a trembling hoof. "I guess fate didn't wanna work with us much, huh?"
"This world is a good garden, Rainbow Dash," Luna said. "One way or another, unification will happen. We simply suspect that it will take a great deal longer than we had desired."
I looked beyond the balcony, towards the misty mountains lingering beyond Canterlot in the platinum sunlight. "I wanna see it," I murmured.
Luna glanced my way. "Hmmm?"
"I wanna see it all," I added, wings flapping harder as I stuck my muzzle into the windy currents. "I wanna fly those thousands of miles, see the kingdoms that are there to be seen, find mountains I've never imagined flying over before."
Luna breathily remarked, "It's quite a daring thought, Rainbow Dash, but hardly something thou art capable of, wouldst thou think?"
"Take a look at yourself, your sister, and all the powerful alicorns who came before you..." I turned towards her and stared hard. "And tell me... who doesn't die?"
Luna said nothing.
"I'm sick of waiting around, sick of being mopey, and sick of being alone," I muttered, staring out into the horizon yet again. "If I got a few months left—or even less than that—what's it matter? I want to see this garden that you've grown, Luna. I wanna see if it's truly that beautiful..."
"Rainbow Dash..."
"I wanna see if it was worth my friends dying for it," I said.
Luna trotted over towards me. "No single mortal has ever scaled the far ends of the world and lived to tell about it."
"So what?" I turned and looked up at her. "I'll be the first one."
Her eyes narrowed. "Harmony is a great power in this world, but it is still contested. Until Acclimation or Unifications takes hold, the landscape thou so desireth to see will remain wrought with peril. Thou wouldst need an entire batallion of Equestria's finest pegasi guards to protect thee—"
"And what?" I frowned at her. "Spread Equestria's defenses even thinner? Face it, Princess, you're down one Alicorn. You and everything that serves you is needed here." I pointed at myself. "What good would I be to you?"
"Thy soul is precious, one of a kind—"
"Then do something special for something as rare as me," I said, my eyes imploring. "Let me go, your Highness."
Luna said nothing.
"Let me go, Luna. I am nothing here." I sighed and gazed off into the brightness. "I am nothing anywhere but moving."
The throneroom was silent. A cool, misty wind blew through, then returned the marble floor and walls to a muted hush.
"We cannot and shall not stop thee, if this is thy wish, Rainbow Dash," Luna said. "But we do ask that thou taketh time to think this over—"
"Your Majesty, the time I could spend pacing in circles and rethinking my life, I'll soon discover that I'll no longer have a life." I pivoted about in my hover with my forelimbs folded. "So let me go live it, huh?"
"If there was any pony who couldst make it to the world's end, we would suspect it'd be you."
"Now that's more like it," I said with a smirk, glancing wearily aside. "And, who knows. If I don't make it, I'm bound to see some pretty nifty sights along the way."
Luna looked distracted. The Princess fidgeted, her nostrils flaring. Eventually, she said, "But if thou didst make it, and went even further, then perhaps thou wouldst have even more sights to see... for thou wouldst have gained an even longer lease on life."
I blinked at that. With my heart beating faster, I turned and looked at her. "Excuse me?"
She looked blankly at me. "The Midnight Armory..."
"The Midnight Whatsit?"
"Hast thou ever heard of it?"
I made a face, slowly shaking my head.
She nodded, then motioned me to follow her as she trotted down a long hallway. "Come, Rainbow Dash. Walk with me..."
Could this mean that chaos energies would have next to no affect on the dark side of the world due to there being as much chaos energy on the outside of Rainbow as in... or something
So the journey east was originally just Rainbow's bucket list, but then it turned into something more.
So that's the reason behind getting to the Midnight Armory. Austraeoh suddenly makes a ton more sense.
Also, first!
And it seems that the original plan to fly east was actually RD's idea; Luna just added a destination.
Now to see if we will actually get more of an understanding of the Midnight armory, or whether we get to visit Bellesmith again.
More Explainations!
The Musics! They connect with this chapter for some reason.
Also, RD's past will come to a close soon and it will be up to Belle to bring thw winds back.
Until next.
- John.
1722554 Eeeenope
Rainbowhuh kind of sums this chapter up.
1722620 Crap. Well, when I finished the chapter noone else had commented. Dammit why you all gotta be such fast readers?!
And so it begins.....
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/20366038.jpg
Luna... How long have you known about the Midnight Armory without telling anypony?
Also, it's been hinted at before, but now we know there are more pseudo-alicorns out there vis a vis Whitemane. Will they end up factoring in to this story (or its inevitable conclusion)? Do they know about the impending end of the world? Questions, questions, even during such exposition...
1722745
Saw this post and thought, "Huh? When did I get to the first comment page of Austraeoh?"
1722869 that's exactly where I got it from. These stories contain a deadly dose of suspense.
Beware!
Beware!!
So wait... the midnight armory could actually save her?
All this time since finding out she was dying, I've thought that she was just going there to do something for the good of Equestria before she died.
Ah, so that's whats in that Midnight Armory. Her friends and Heart of Lorkhan. Makes sense.
Dying For An Angel - Avantasia
We're getting close to the beginning of Austraeoh. I can feel it.
1723094
I had thought so for a bit as well, but Dash took an awful lot of risks along the way and was never shy about taking those risks, nor defending them. It still is really sort of interesting that she's upfront about a lack of altruistic motive, despite having one assigned to her later. Trading one destiny for another.
That said, Luna and Celestia both knew about the proverbial end of the world that Axan so feared. I'm curious if that will get addressed as an impetus for Dash going east or if it will turn out to be something they withheld.
Grargh! Cliff hanger! Again, really loving all this back-story. And why didn't ya say so sooner, Luna? Geeze, even you said if anyone could reach it Dash could. I don't think the Armory will totally save Dash, seeing as Luna just said it would give her more time. That could be a couple extra months or a full lifetime, but I'm leaning more towards the former, for some reason. Still holding out hope that the other Elements might be saved, but its looking pretty slim. Someone would've mentioned it by now if they could be healed, and Dash would've likely been less risky with her own body and more determined to reach the end if she'd had a chance at saving them. Unless the whole not there when they needed her thing evolved into a desire to help everypony she met on the way to the best of her ability so she wouldn't have any more regrets by the time she actually reached the Armory to save/resurrect her friends.... Well, until tomorrow!
Ooooh, that's nice
1722896>>1722869 Well, we are closing in on the beginning of Austreoh so it makes sense.
Maybe Now we can finally learn the purpose of her flight.
1723887
Did they actually know about it? Their discussion with Axan seemed to suggest otherwise. I thought that Axan said that they should have known about it and she was disappointed/unsurprised that they didn't.
1726886
Ok, sorry, block text. I think what we have here is a failure to communicate. Axan is interpreting events differently than Celestia and Luna. Luna speaks of an eventual end to her and Celestia, meanwhile there's a lot in there about sparks and the Machine. The alicorn sisters believe harmony can continue (Luna's speech to Rainbow about plans taking longer, but the result being the same) where as Axan, perhaps with different senses, sees the lack of the Spark as an end to purpose and all things. Axan doesn't see or believe the continuance of life. That is, at least, until she see's Austraeoh in Dash.
1727047
Rereading that passage makes me wonder what Axan is saying. She accuses the Princesses of being unable to sense the decline of Purpose because they are "blinded by [their] own ambitions," yet later in that very paragraph, she says that they can't sense it because they are not native to the world/Machine. I guess the future depends on who is more correct - Axan and her Purpose or Luna and her Harmony. Seeing as Harmony recently took a heavy blow with the loss of the Elements and the sequestration of one of the Princesses to the chaos rift, it looks like the decline of Purpose is in the lead.
Come on, Belle, we need you back!
1727195
Recall that Axan is pretty deluded and angry, she's not exactly what I would call a reliable narrator in that she may be telling the truth, but what she thinks is the truth isn't the whole picture. The conversation was brief, I'm not convinced the end of the world was the entire reason behind continuing to hoard and torture ponies, more that some other drive or instinct took over and blinded her.
Something beautiful...
And there's the Midnight Armory. I think we all know what it is by now, and now we get to find out a little more. I wonder if Belle is just passed out on the street right now. That would be awkward. Of course, we also aren't sure if the dream time to real time ratio is stable.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we get some new terms here - Acclimation and Unification. I get the feeling that, if this series ever has a good ending, it would be with something like Unification. However, I've just thought of something - if it was so shorter of a distance from north to south, then why did Dash go east? Did she want to see as much land as possible? Or is there another reason? Also, it looks like we're about to get a concrete definition for the Midnight Armory, so that's nice. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
AWW YEAH, HERE WE GO.
1727195
1727222
This chapter and the comments were what I needed for some questions I had in mind.
That being: We're the Alicorns really aware of the whole prophecy.
From what I gather here, it doesn't seem so.
2011843
As far as the specific apocalyptic prophecy told by Axan, their attitudes in Austraeoh seem to show they were not aware. When it comes to the world desperately needing a plotted course for improvement, it is clear from this chapter and Chapter 62 - Last Piece (where I posted this: >>Not-so-secret Brony) that the Sisters have a plan in motion. Axan sees no hope, Celestia and Luna find Harmonic Unification inevitable, whomever is right we'll see at the end. That's all I think we can safely say for now.
Oh, if only you knew
Well, with Atom Heart Mother and Piper at the Gates of Dawn under my belt, I'm gonna call it a night. For anyone who will ever see this... until tomorrow!
2711554 bwahahaha then I'm catching up to you!
SQUEEEEE!!!! WORLD BUILDING!!!!!!!!!!!
So now we see how this quest begins.
More Midnight Armory! I am curious for more details on the place. It has an aura of epic and mystery surrounding the name.
And so NOW does Austraeoh begin? Hell, what happened to Eljunbyro?
4739330 i guess Belle is pretty much comatosed in this -whats turned into a- pre-austraeoh chapter series.
a duhno lol
Huh, interesting, so the general shape of the world is something that is very well known in Equestria if you bother to attend school and pay a little bit of attention.
World-building, ho!
Maaan, I kind of want to see that happen. Hey, if my theories on the girls are correct, maybe just maybe it still might.
There we go, the Quest at last.
And so Dash is told about the Midnight Armory, and begins her quest.
Right?
There's not gonna be another flashback chapter?
We can get on with Austraeoh now?
And by that I mean get on with Eljunbryo?
We can get on with that now, right?
Wow, book two and we learn about the true origins of Dash's insane flight east. I wonder what's gonna end up happening when we get to current-ish times with stuff.
~SolidFire
Cannot believe I did not notice this one before, but Luna seems here to think that Harmony will come naturally. Instead it needs to be given the opportunity to take root, to do that it needs to have someone plant the seeds first.
No, it was just that Destiny had much bigger plans in mind.
And here book two takes a long pause to explain everything that book one is about. It's not exactly great pacing, as all the momentum with Belle has stopped. But the mammoth scale of what's occurring can't be overstated.
The only problem I have with this chapter, and a previous one though I can't remember which, is that it makes no sense for rainbow to say "twilight and her friends."
Sure from our point of view it does because twilight is the leader of the group therefore we refer to the mane 6 as twilights group.
But rainbow would just say "my friends" because she is part of the group. That's like if the leader of your group of friends is called Dave it's like saying "Dave and his friends" instead of "my friends".
Of course if you speak in third person then that would be fine, like "trixie and her friends"
8193237
I'm assuming Belle is seeing all of this. Of course that's nothing but assumption right now.
Well, forget what I just said a few chapter ago. Sheesh, it's sounds more complex than I thought.
If she only had so much time to get to the midnight armory, then I wouldn’t have wasted time helping other ponies like she did. I know that sounds bad but she needs to just go go go. She slowed down too much.
this made me think of the famous book, "Ringworld": it was an amazingly huge rotating ring with a star in the middle!
the "Halos" from the Halo games are much smaller. judging by an image on a screen in the first game, Halos are about 2/3 the size of Jupiter.
imploding colon is a flat earther confirmed 2018
10/10 ign would flat earth again