"Response."
Belle gulped, trying to stifle her shivers from where she sat in a tiny chair across the office. "Uhm... Mino... Minotaurs..."
Professor Garnet calmly zapped the tablet floating above his desk with his horn. "Exhibit..." The monochromatic image morphed from that of a valve to an aqueduct. "Response?"
Bellesmith bit her lip. She looked up, and the painted blue eyes of Queen Ledo glared back at her in the gray light of the underground room. "Dr-dragons..."
"Exhibit." Garnet's tablet displayed a broad-rimmed hat. "Response?"
The mare stifled a whimper. "Apples..."
"Exhibit." A campfire. "Response?"
"Foxtaur..."
A gas mask.
"Enforcers."
A hoofball.
"Awesomeness."
A suit of armor.
"Searo."
A hoofprint enveloping a solar crest.
Belle froze. Her mouth hung open before finally stammering, "Austraeoh..."
Garnet raised an eyebrow beneath his blond mane. He turned to look at the glass panel. "Hmmm..." He turned back to smile at her. "It would seem as though we are making progress."
The mare gulped. "Pr-progress...?"
"Yes..." Garnet levitated the plate towards him as he scribbled with a mana-charged pen across the glossy surface. "None of the other lab technicians got nearly as much out of sequencing as you. I daresay, it would seem as though Dr. Felicity is quite envious, though her jealousy is hidden by her legitimate relief at your having survived that most recent ordeal."
"Professor, I... I don't understand..." Belle hissed in pain as she rubbed a hoof across her forehead. A fountain of brown mane hair cascaded over her twitching gaze. "I'm still reeling. It's like there are stars exploding right before my eyes..."
"You were under for quite a long, long time, Doctor. I promise you that you'll get your chance to rest. I just needed to get some feedback before you got too disconnected from the memories you've experienced."
"That's not it." Belle gulped, standing up from the chair. She wobbled dizzily, but nevertheless maintained her composure. "I... I experienced something that was real! It... it couldn't all have been the product of the test subject that I was sequencing with!"
"Oh, most certainly not." Garnet stopped writing long enough to stare at her. "From all of the data we've gathered previously, the subject's spheres tell a long and harrowing tale about a culture of winged pegasi that once ruled the landscape here, hundreds if not thousands of years ago, long before the Confederacy was ever founded under a matriarch." He pointed with his pen. "The moment you got caught in a repetitious energy loop, your consciousness was disconnected from the subject's spheres. You were tossed left and right across a nebulous dreamscape, and your mind did its damn best to make sense of the gaps of comprehension. Thankfully..." He chuckled as he said, "Your creative intellect and sheer intelligence allowed you to perservere, albeit colorfully. I truly cannot imagine the sheer volume of information you were undoubtedly dealing with each passing second."
"I..." Belle gritted her teeth, starting to pace in a limping fashion. "I couldn't have thought all of that up! It's just not possible!"
"Couldn't you?" Garnet leaned back and planted his hooves together. "Mr. Dalton informed me of some of the things you were rambling about as you were dragged out of the sequencing room. A machine world? A ring of interconnected planes? A Sun Goddess and a Moon Goddess having sent a rainbow colored avatar to ignite the spark of all reality?"
"Rainbow Dash is the subject!" Bellesmith exclaimed, her voice cracking. "She's the one I've been sequencing with!"
"Dr. Bellesmith, you've been sequencing with the remnants of a past long gone," the stallion said. "There has never been a record of the subject's name in any of the previous sphere-sequences." He raised an eyebrow again. "Are you telling me that you've discovered the identity of this pony? You were certainly under long enough to acquire such data."
"I'm not joking!" Belle growled. "Her name is Rainbow Dash! I met her! I saved her! I even ran the Running of the Leaves with Applejack... that is... I mean..." Belle shuddered, running a hoof over her face. "She ran the Running of the Leaves...in Equestria.... that is, I saw that... when I was her... before I met her..."
Garnet slowly, slowly nodded. "I see. 'Equestria...' as in 'equine?' As in a place indicative of ponydom?"
"Yes. Far across the world. Where... Where..." Belle sighed as she slumped to her haunches. "Where two alicorn deities control the movement of the sun and moon."
"I do presume you are hearing yourself, Doctor."
Bellesmith looked up to frown at him. "I am in control of my faculties."
"For the moment, perhaps. But it is not impossible to experience residual aftereffects of sequencing, especially when it's been as prolonged as what you just went through."
"I-I know what I saw and f-felt," Bellesmith grumbled.
"And you saw and felt what the sequencing machine made you experience," Garnet said. "And when you got disconnected from the spheres, the effects of sequencing fed off your unbridled imagination, causing you to experience what amounted to a very visceral dream. The only problem: it wasn't entirely lucid, up until the last moment, that is."
Belle looked up at him with a grimacing expression. "What do you mean?"
Garnet blinked in surprise. "Why..." He gestured. "When you 'terminated' the program from the inside. Dr. Felicity explained it to me."
"'Terminated...'" Belle gulped, gazing into the gray haze of the room. "I was on board the zeppelin. Shell had captured me. I... I jumped off..." Belle exhaled shudderingly as she pulled at her mane. "Blessed spark, I jumped. I... k-killed myself. How c-could I ever have let things come to that...?"
"Your mind was confused. It was only natural to feel despair. However..." Garnet leaned forward again. "I do not think the explanation is quite that simple, nor as somber. Hence, my lucidity hypothesis."
Belle looked tiredly at him.
Garnet smiled. "Even if you were lost to the whim of your imagination, the mind of a scientist was still there. You knew deep down that the dream wouldn't finish itself, so you chose a way out purposefully. You broke the narrative, and Felicity was able to cast you a line back to dry shore, as t'were. And now you're here, Dr. Bellesmith." He gestured towards the lengths of the room. "Back to reality."
"Back... to reality..." Belle gulped, gazing around the concrete chamber. "Back to where it all began... twists and turns... are his master plan..."
Garnet raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"
She spun him a frowning look. "You're a spy! You're in league with an outside party! You're sharing top secret information about Blue Shelf so that others can build an identical facility in a place called Deep Ridge!"
Garnet tongued the edge of his mouth as he tapped his pen against the desktop. "Uh huh... uh yeah." He placed the pen down and leaned back with a soft smirk. "Mr. Dalton mentioned you saying some... less than favorable things about me."
Belle's brow furrowed. "You mean, after I-I was pulled out of sequencing? I don't remember—"
"No, I mean before, Doctor," Garnet said, his face taking on a deadpan expression. "Before you even attached yourself to the apparatus, you had confided in Dalton some misgivings about my position here at Blue Shelf."
Belle hung her head, her lips pursed in thought.
"Now, don't worry. I perfectly understand why. Also, I hope you don't get angry at Mr. Dalton for sharing. He only told me because he cares a lot about you, and he felt that I was being a bit too demanding. And you know what? He was right." Garnet picked his panel up and started writing across it again with the manapen while talking. "The Council of Ledo requests a lot from me, and as a result I require much from my associates. It's been very stressful working here as of late. Undoubtedly, when your mind was cast off from the subject's sphere, your beleaguered consciousness manifested some... mmm... unpleasant scenario in which I took part. I doubt I was the only one."
"Huh...?"
"I took psychiatry in my day, Doctor." Garnet looked up with knowing eyes. "I'm certainly not oblivious to every jolt and cringe your body has displayed when I so much as mention the Council of Ledo or its military defense force. Tell me..." He leaned over his pad to say, "Who exactly is this 'Prime Enforcer Shell?'"
Belle immediately gritted her teeth, holding back a seething breath.
Garnet nodded. "See? That's exactly what I'm talking about." He slashed and dotted across the pad some more. "I did a thorough search for 'Enforcer Shell' before we conducted this examination. I'm sorry to say that I haven't come up with a single matching reference."
"He's... he's a veteran soldier," Belle stammered. "He's fought along the Southeast Xonan front! He's—"
"I'm sorry. Did you say 'Southeast Xonan' front?"
Belle blinked at him. "Yes. Of course. Why?" She narrowed her eyes. "Has the front moved since I went under sequencing?"
Garnet smiled awkwardly. "I can't say that it's gone anywhere, Doctor Bellesmith, seeing as the Confederacy has been on non-agressive terms with them since the peace treaty thirty years ago."
Belle gawked. She cringed, cringed harder, and stomped her hooves. "This makes no sense!"
"No, it simply doesn't make sense... yet."
"Unacceptable!" Belle shouted, her voice reverberating across the room's concrete foundation. "The war never ended! It's been consuming hundreds upon thousands of lives, and it's made the Council of Ledo so desperate and so heartless that they've resorted to gross experimentation and genocide!"
"Since when was this some terrible military state, Doctor?" Garnet gestured all around. "Do you see any guards around here?"
"No, but—!" Belle froze, panting. She gulped then slowly turned around, gazing at the emptiness between her and the door, dwelling upon the emptiness in the halls outside. "No, but, that doesn't mean... doesn't mean..."
"You've been stressed, frustrated, and exhausted, Doctor," Garnet said. "The undeniable proof of a good albeit overworked researcher. I think it's rather obvious that you carried your feelings of ennui and aggravation over with you into the dreamscape. If you had remained anchored to the subject's spheres, then we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. All things considered, we should be counting our blessings. You're pretty lucky."
"Lucky?!" Belle snarled again. "The only reason you ever chose me to be sequenced to that damned machine is because of my shattered horn!"
Garnet sighed long and hard. "And thus we fall back to my statement earlier about residual after-effects." That said, he flung the glass tablet at her viciously
Belle stifled a shriek, flinching. After a few seconds, she squinted her eyes back open. She marveled at the sight of the tablet... floating in front of her. The aura sparkled with golden beams of light, as familiar as the sound of her own breaths.
"How can I expect you to be rational about anything when you can't even remember what you trotted in through my very door with?"
Belle nervously reached a hoof up, this time bringing it past her mane. She felt the sharp, shimmering tip of her own horn. With remarkable ease, she thought, and the tablet rotated and levitated at her command. "By the spark. It's as if... as if it never came off..."
"That's because it never did." Garnet glanced at her crookedly. "And, if I may ask, how would it being broken somehow affect your ability to sequence?"
"Because... it..." Belle exhaled slowly, gripping the tablet in two natural hooves. "I can't explain it anymore..."
"That's because you don't have the need to, Doctor," Garnet said. "You only ever did once, and that was in a phantom past, something you delusionally conjured up within sequencing." He smiled. "Please, don't be ashamed of yourself. It's not everyday that somepony lives the thoughts of several lifetimes in the span of twelve hours."
"Several... lifetimes...?" Belle glanced up.
"Why, just like any dream, Doctor, you only remember that which lingered beneath the surface of consciousness as you were brought to the realm of waking." He shook his head. "No, I daresay you experienced a great deal more. Thankfully, your mind has only chosen to remember bits and pieces, creating a most fantastical mosaic. If it tried to encompass the entire scenario you underwent, I fear there'd not be enough room in your mind, no matter how much of a genius you are."
Belle trotted forward and placed the tablet down on Garnet's desk. She took several heavy breaths, then looked at him. "You're right. I am a scientist." Her nostrils flared. "And as a scientist, I require facts."
"How can I help you analyze them fully, Doctor?"
"Show me Rainbow Dash."
"I beg your pardon?"
She growled, her anger returning. "Show me the subject I was sequenced to!"
Garnet blinked at her. After a simple shrug, he stood up. "Very well." A smile. "Department Blue it is." He reached a hoof out to her, like a gentlecolt. "This way, Doctor..."
The dreamer keeps on dreaming. Shall we follower her and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes?
We need to go deeper.
2877294>>2877298
There needs to be a spoon line somewhere in here. And blaring trumpets.
oh, hey look! I am most certainly lost and no longer understanding what is going on!
I'm going derp! =p
It's become...
INCEPTION!
this song sums it up rather well
(I wish I could animate)
2877465
You know, Inception didn't invent the concept of a dream sequence.
2877507
I know, but I can use it.
2877507
That's true, but the idea of covering reality with multiple layers of dream worlds in order to steal information was definitely put into the public consciousness by Inception.
?ksed gnitirw a ekil nevar a si woH
I just watched inception today. This is verry similar.
2877587
a Raven is nevaR backwards.
On the one hand, peace with Xona sounds like something Nightshade would dream up.
On the other hand, if anyone could have a dream within a dream that tries to convince them that the real world was a dream, it's Belle.
2877684
Which raises the question: is the purpose of this dream solely interrogation? Or is there a propagandistic undertone to it, in how it's attempting to portray the world Nightshade wants to create?
2877719 I'm going with answer number 3, this is not Nightshade, it's the real world.
In seriousness, likely both at the same time.
Is this the real life?
Or is this just fantasy?
Stuck in a landslide,
no escape from reality.
Since I haven't seen someone post this yet, or understood what they said, I suggest the sequencing caused Bellesmith to jump into an alternate reality rather than all the spheres being a dream...
Last chapter was Inception. This one's The Matrix.
Belle... Take the red pill...
They get to "the subject". Discord is sitting in a chaos metal armchair.
He has a monocle and offers her tea.
They hop another level deeper.
2877801
I think it's about time to open your eyes now.
The unfortunate part of this story is that everything in this false 'reality' is too... happy to be real. Too ideal.
So, if Nightshade is doing this, what is her strategy? Apparently, she first tried to get information through Kera and failed. I wonder if the subsequent events with Shell were an intentional attempt to drive Belle to suicide, so the alternate reality could be presented as believable.
On an unrelated note, "Garnet"'s incredulity about the sun and moon goddesses makes me wonder what the civilisations far from Equestria thought about Discord's recent messing with the sun and moon, and Nightmare Moon's extended night a year earlier.
I wish this would update faster. Maybe I need to just read once a week rather than every day.
It is neityer, and it is both.
It is existent, yet not.
It is true and false.
It is all illusion, and yet not.
Shell.
Garnet.
Kera.
Nightshade.
Council.
...What?
Just when I thought I had this making sense.
How do you write yourself out of this web?
...Belle is being played by Nightshade.
BADLY.
This is some deep inception shit here.
It's sad though. If this WAS real, it'd be preferable to everything Belle has gone through.
Okay, I believe we've gone deep enough. Can we leave now?
stream1.gifsoup.com/view/1002813/i-m-confused-o.gif
But seriously, I'm loving this. This kind of mind-fuckery is delicious. I'm with the consensus that this is still part of the dream/sequencing (though I'll refrain from any references to a certain movie, for fear that another instance of said reference will cause the Universe to implode from the sheer memetic density of it). Keratin raises a good point that the the villain here (Nightshade, we are to assume) seems to have something more than simple interrogation in mind. There's something almost utopian about the construct here that rustles my jimmies something awful. I'm curious to see where this is going and what'll be waiting for Belle when she awakes (hopefully Kera's relieved face).
2878123 He should also look up at the sky and see what's up there.
2877587
Poe wrote on both OR they're both covered with inky black feathers.
Poor Belle. It's confusing enough reading this, imagine living it
The Kaizo continues. Whew! Still not sure what to believe.
Well, I don't think it is possible to rationalise known events to Belle's new reality, as it does not follow much of what it was before. If her horn isn't even broken, and Xona and Ledo have been at peace for thirty years, there is no reason to believe that anything we know about the Austraeoh universe or Equestria can be applied. We're completely in the dark here, as is Belle.
How odd that she should wake up in a perfect world without strife, which is exactly what Nightshade was attempting to create.
I have no idea what is happening and I love it. It reminds me of when I first read Austreaoh and I was completely ignorant of the plot for majority of it.
This is torture now, these short chapters...I MUST KNOW MORE.
Sequencing is some powerful stuff
2878841
No hole is deep enough when Imploding Colon is around.
2880483
Hole? What hole? Dude, we're halfway to Limbo and the producers of Inception are fucking pissed.
ALL UNFIT CITIZENS OF LEDOMARE MUST BE RRRRECONDITIONED!!
2878397 I for one am starting to wonder, just as an alternative idea, if it isn't Nightshade but Discord who is actually pulling the strings here. After all, twists and turns always lead back where you began. Nightshade is still the more plausible option, of course, but still...
2880698IT'S ALL HER MOM!
Ah, Belle. Didn't the stones of the road give you the answer? Death doesn't end it all. Two different things, dreams and the final destiny.
2877587
Neither is ever shaped like a florn.
This is all getting delightfully confusing.
If this is some kind of interrogation technique on Shell's part... wow.
Probably not
Belle's actually handling all of this pretty well, considering. I'm not going to pretend to know what's going on, and any predictions I make will likely be proven wrong in the coming chapters anyway, so...Avanti! More mind-messery awaits!
IIIIIt's Dashie's 12th Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, it's got to be some sort of dream. No war? No guards? No Shell? This is far too perfect a reality for it to be Imploding's writing. Anyways, now we get to see who she was sequencing with. Hey, here's a thought - How crazy would it be if it was someone like Pilate? Or even Shell himself? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Alright, two left. Almost there!
2934896
i think bell is still in nightshade facilities and that madam nightshade is controlling all of her thoughts.
grasping at straws here
We need to go dee- damn it!
Well, this is all certainly rather confusing. Remind of that one Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode where Buffy 'wakes up' from her supposed coma to her parents and a doctor, using rational argument to place doubt in her life as a slayer of uglies. Hopefully this arc ends with a more definitive answer.
The dream's ability to be convincing is hampered by the amount of rationality Garnet is spouting, it being a world of technicolor ponies and all. In the end, Nightshade has probably got Belle in a self-feeding loopy thingy in which all her wishes have been fulfilled (Shell doesn't exist, her horn is back there is no war, no militaristic dictatorship etc.) If that's the case, her own rational, scientific subconscious could very well prove her biggest enemy here, in creating a believable explanation for prior events (convincing her rationally) and in creating a world in which her wishes have been fulfilled (satisfying her emotionally).
Bloody hell, why do I even bother. I'll just keep reading and stop making a fool of myself.
BRRRRRRRAAAAAWWWWRWRRRMRMRMMRMRMMMMM
~Alice, Alice in Wonderland
Anyone remember what color Queen Ledo's eyes really are?
2879365
Carroll's own answer, if memory serves, is "they can produce a few notes, though very flat, and they are nevar put with the front end in back".
This is absurd.
-Spirit
I hate that I know what's going to happen thanks to the TVTropes page.
TOTAL
RECALL!!!!!!!