"It is broken but wants to become whole again!" a filly giggled as she cartwheeled past the pondwater, being chased by another foal.
"What?" I asked, spinning to address the children all around me. "Do you mean this... this ring?"
"The world," explained a meditative colt.
I turned to stare at him. "What about the world?"
"The ring is the world," he said.
I blinked. "Huh?"
"The world that is greater than the world," he clarified. With a grunt, he tossed a pebble into the pond water. Droplets raised, then took on the form of a pegasus skeleton. "They knew something about it. They reveled in it. She wants us to know what they knew... but is difficult, for the spark that you speak of has been missing..."
"Again, who is 'she?'" I asked. A breath of understanding wafted through my lungs. "Madame Nightshade?"
A chill ran through all twelve of the foal spirits. Those who were scampering around and playing games immediately skidded to a stop.
The colt kept levitating the globules of water in the form of pegasus bones. "Deep in the earth were they found. Telethusilien raazan mesul urohringr fensen nelrusalemmehm." As he chanted, he levitated several blades of grass and criss-crossed them to form a dozen symbols. These symbols then converged on the watery skeleton and covered it like a sheet of green skin. In a flash, the body took on the form of a naked pegasus with an emerald coat. "By the sovereignty of the ring were they given charge of the skies." He and the other foals watched as the equine effigy flew loops through the lavender starlight above them. "Jemmunen vabrakren halsuth vielunu austraeoh harracranten sedraystiul. But the breaking of the ring also shattered the heavens, and the spark lay dormant for eons..."
I flinched as the effigy suddenly exploded, falling in a curtain of splashing watr and fluttering grass. Turning, I looked into the center of the gathered foals. "But it's back," I said. "Austraeoh! The spark is back! She has a name! Rainbow Dash! She's on a mission to reach the Midnight Armory on the dark side of the world!"
The children gazed at me as a swarm possessed.
I narrowed my eyes. "Haven't you heard of the Midnight Amory? Wouldn't... w-wouldn't that be what Madame Nightshade is after?"
"She who would wish to know more than what is known is she who brought us their bodies," a filly said. "She seeks the spark and the spark alone... even though it is a false spark..."
"A false... spark..." I murmured. Leaning back, I thought about the room Phoenix, Kera, and I had discovered above the sequencing chamber. "The flame. She... Madame Nightshade is enlarging it." I gazed up at the nebulous world hovering around me. "Somehow, this place, this sequencing, drawn out from the six pegasi's remains... it is simulating the spark..." I gulped. "This is wrong..."
"Once we have finished finding the ring's outline, she will bring her spark back to the place where the bodies were found," another filly said. "Malassen virender hussun cul urohingr. She wishes to breathe life back into the sliver of the ring."
"She's... she's going to carry the flame away somewhere?!" I thought out loud, and I was already starting to feel myself hyperventilate. "Oh, good heavens... she found a piece of the machine world, but it isn't here in Blue Nova." I gulped. "East of here... Enforcer Seclorum..." I grimaced. "They're going to return the flame to where they found it... but why...?"
"All that exists is all that wishes to become whole," a colt said from the pond's side. "This is the purpose of the living and the dying."
I gawked at him. "Then... what purpose does the Midnight Armory have? That's austraeoh's—... I mean Rainbow Dash's goal! Harmony!" I gulped. "Is she... she misguided?"
"The spark lives and dies for the same purpose, whether or not she knows it," another child said. "She does not know that she knows the truth."
"She would not bring energy to this sliver of the ring otherwise," a colt added. "Austraeoh harathien niul senmar threen. The spark shimmers in a wind that is older than the stars."
I gazed towards the lavender starlight past the curved world above, before, and behind me. "The alicorns built the Midnight Armory. But they came later... much much later..." I bit my lip. "Could... could the pegasi be older than the alicorns?" I stared down at the natural earth clinging to the otherworldly ring. "Then... then that means the thing that empowers Rainbow Dash could be older than harmony itself..."
"The spark must traverse both darkness and light if she is to shine," one of the foals said. "This is what the spirit of the six bodies have told us."
I lifted my face up towards them. "Please. I need to know more about these six..." I stepped eagerly towards the group of childen. "I need to know what brought them here... what part this world has to play in the ring."
The children fidgeted for once, showing a sudden quiver of reluctance.
"What... what is it...?"
"We thought you were working with her at first," a colt said. "But now, we realize differently. You are loyal to the pursuit of truth; you have breathed of the spark's wind."
"I am not in league with Madame Nightshade," I said with a reassuring smile. "Please... I wish to know more. I... I-I want to help my friend..." I gulped. "And I want to help this world."
A filly sniffled, the image of her body phasing in and out of the sequence like a broken projection. A few more Xonan foals beside her fluctuated the same way. "She might get angry with us," she whimpered. "And send us to a place wh-where there are no stars..."
I placed a hoof on her and another child's shoulder as I said, "Let me be the one to worry about Nightshade." I swallowed. "Now... show me the six..."
Oh, you wanted to read that Innavedr update? Here's twenty 502's in a row.
Yay! More Xonan child exposition!
Perseverance gets the update.
Older than alicorns?
I knew pegasi were the master race, but whoa.
She must travel both the light and dark sides of the world, and contend with the harmony and chaos within her.
Two names for the same thing, Belle.
Oh boy, now I'm confused. Is RD tagging along for the ride, or is Austraeoh? Are they intertwined in some way which will see all their objectives will be achieved? More importantly, I sense foal of the xonan variety murder soon.
And before she can learn the truth, security rips her out of the sequence. Convenient.
Yay, more....whatever the hell this is!
Screw it, I've stopped trying to dig deeper into this. I'll just wait for Pilate to come along and preach to us unenlightened types.
...
Older than harmony. A false spark. Pegasi inherent to the world. The world just being a part of the ring. So it is, after all. Well, what can I say?
Another wonderfully rich sentence. At least the language is a beautiful as ever.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse. We could turn it into an aphorism.
And then she wakes up.
2712844
RD technically IS Austreaoh.
2713085
Now this is where I disagree. Austraeoh is the spark, and RD is merely RD. Her one and only main objective is to bring back the elements at the armory, whereas for the spark, it hopes to make the world whole again somehow. They may both be a spark, and both need to travel east to accomplish their goals, but they are not entirely 100% the same in my opinion. Two names, one journey east.
*Note, I used "names" because Austraeoh can't really be classified as anything other than a name even though it is separate from RD in my opinion. I simply either don't know the word yet or it doesn't exist.
2713317
So, in your logic, Aang and the avatar is two different being.
Ooooooooh, so the world as we know it is only one part of a wider cosmology, a ring that has been fractured? Is that to say, then, that there are other fragments, and that those, too, are worlds of their own? And what the heck would it mean if pegasi were on the world before the alicorns?
I won't try to theorize anymore. It would be like trying to hit a deer with a boomerang through a thick fog. Needless to say, though, I'm loving all this world-building/secret-history/mysteries-out-the-sphincter stuff. Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
Poor little guys.. :(
They keep referring to "the six", which I assume is the Elements.
Not their embodiments, but the Elements themselves. The embodied Elements were all killed.
One just refused to lie still and be quiet about it.
A place where no stars shine. Oh dear God those sorry saps
I got lazy and was behind like 20 or 30 chapters. I have finally caught up... again. Anyway, the plot thickens! I'm really excited to see who the "six bodies" are (hopefully relating to the Mane 6).
Also, I could be wrong on this, but I'm calling it right now: I think Madame Nightshade is an alicorn.
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2713008
Dammit. This is what happens when Colon reads the scrollback of the Skype chat . I still reckon that the spark is tied to both chaos energy and harmony energy, although the existence of the flames does suggest a third concept/energy unless pure harmony/chaos take the form of fire :shrug:.
I think I'll hedge my bets for now
2713957
I think "the six" are the original alicorns to find Equestria, two of whom we know and love. Since they were around for the beginning of it all (or close enough to it), we'll finally get some answers from the horse's mouth. Pun so very intended.
2715027 2713957
The six are the six dead pegasi, I think.
And ooh.. This is getting really good... Again... :p
I'm thinking there's the Harmony/Chaos energy and there's also the Spark that powers the Ring. Harmony allows both sides of the world to exist, one in harmony and one in chaos. However, this keeps the world from fixing itself and becoming a ringworld again.
The obelisks grow out of the ground and link with the obelisk on the opposite side of the ring, holding it together with beams of soft scifi artificial gravity.. At the point where the energies of the Obelisks all intersect (the exact center of the ring), they create an artificial sun.
Harmony cannot exist when the world is a ring because there is no chaos side to balance it. The Alicorns, not knowing what they were doing, stalled the ring from joining itself together.
Or ya know, I'm completely off base.
Scolon, whatever you are smoking, I want some. Sounds like one hell of a trip.
Room A Thousand Years Wide - Soundgarden
2713886 It has been stated in the past (by Whitemane, I think?) that Rainbow is the Austraeoh, but they are not the same. Just like she is the Element of Loyalty - but the Element of Loyalty is not Rainbow Dash, not just Rainbow Dash at least.
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3.bp.blogspot.com/-lz4FzTR48Dk/UJALlqG_VsI/AAAAAAAAB7w/X04CftsRM4A/s1600/mlfw5161-rbd-wat.png
2714795 You think he got this idea from the Skype chat? That would be strange - after all, just yesterday you had finally convinced me that the Spark actually could have been a harmonious force after all. A few hours later, this comes up:
Isn't that the opposite direction of where we were going?
We haven't heard from Luna for a while.
2715757
It sits more closely to your original argument: that the spark is not a fundamentally harmonious force. It could be a subtle way of saying that the spark is not synonymous with harmony/derived from it, or it could be that Belle has it wrong (see Pilate's last comment) and Colon is just screwing with us :shrug:.
2715822 I couldn't possibly be right because that would imply that Pilate was wrong and thus violate a fundamental law of the universe. Ergo: Scolon is screwing with us. Another case solved, great work.
Hurrah! Some answers, now that the foals are more cooperative...
2712879
^ Unless this.
Pegasi older than Alicorns? That would fly in the face of what Celestia and Luna said, wouldn't it? I thought the Alicorns found this world empty and lifeless? (I don't bloody remember anymore.)
Well, that's our answer, I guess. Twelve symbols, twelve stories. Do we have twelve ponies to represent them all?
Dang it, I started wondering that in the middle of the chapter.
'The world that is greater than the world' Ah. So the Alicorns only discovered a fragment, a 'sliver' of the ring. Pegasi came before the Alicorns, and so all this nonsense is probably largely unknown to them. My bad.
Nightshades trying to reignite the fragment with her bastardized Spark? That can only end poorly.
The plot is now as thick and tasty as well-made rice pudding.
Poor little kid ponies. I think we need another prison/arena break. There's still more room at the crystal pony farm for a few more, right?
8:27 to 8:36 of this video is basically my reaction to this chapter. But still, progress! The whole pegasi older than the alicorns thing is interesting, and I'm really wondering what you're going to do with it.
IIIIIt's Dashie's Eleventh Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh God...my head hurts...um, I'll try to make sense of this. First off, the six are the six dead pegasi. Second, WHAT IS UP WITH THIS RING. I specifically remember reading that the world was a disk. But now...I just don't get it! It doesn't make sense that there would be another world for Rainbow to travel on...Did Imploding's headcanon change? That's not like him. I...guess that the world is a ring now. But that still makes no sense...I suppose that I could be wrong. Also, this jibber jabber is hard to understand. I like this side of you, Imploding! It reminds me of the good old days in Austraeoh. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
P.S. Okay, seven to go. LET'S DO IT!!!!
2788117 there was never any implication that the world was a disk. It was always heavily implied to be a rectangular slab, narrower from top to bottom and wider from west to east.
IC'S canon (WTH do you mean by "headcanon"? This is HIS story) isn't faulty here. Do you read anyone else's comments before posting your evaluations? They usually have a lot of insight to offer.
12 symbols, 12 stories, 12 representatives. Besides that, I'm completely confused, but all this information is great.
-Spirit
Hmm . . . so Dash must go through the light and the dark before she can shine. This is also some kind of very divine, very old plan that is being set in motion. But to what end? What is the point to all of this? Bringing harmony to the land? It seems almost kind of, I don't know, odd that it didn't simply start off that way.
Forget my treacle comment about the plot thickening, this is now tarpit levels
This begs some questions about the Xonan-Ledomartian war. The Xonans seems to have an increased exposure to the spark and this other world, and the flame. They know more about this world than the Ledomartians do. The Ledomartians are more technologically advanced, and they wish to use the spark/flame/machine world for their own technological uses. Are the ledomartians attacking the "savages" because they want to get at the machine world more easily?
This got immensly deeper extremely quick.
Just one fragment of the ring, and this fragment easily has more surface area than our world, just how big is this place?
This mystery will take just as long for the characters to truly digest as the readers.
This stuff is getting incredibly crazy now. More sequencing, but now we're getting to learn things instead of being shown what we've already seen. Also, gotta say I'm thankful for the sudden marathon of shorter chapters.
~SolidFire
A fun bit of math from what we've learned so far. Very back of the napkin.
If we take the length of the equestrian 'plane' to be equal to 2X our earths circumference (or ~25000mi for Dash's trip) and take into account that the ponies cannot see the inverse horizon of their landscape (~2.9mi to Earths horizon @ 5.7ft) then we can roughly assume some numbers. Math, math, math, and we come to a number around 215.5 million miles for the rings circumference, or 68,595,780mi diameter. For comparison, our sun's circumference is merely 2.7 million miles. So this ring is 80X the size.... that's big...
7128685
Well, hey, an archetypical Niven ring is one AU (98.9 million miles) in radius, so this ring megastructure is an order of magnitude less mega than the original ringworld idea. Still, your calculated radius is most of the distance from Mercury to the Sun, so still insanely massive.
I like how IC foreshadows the name of the fifth book in the gibberish here. Knowing what it means and with the benefit of re-reading, these chapters almost make sense!
Holy fing sh the weird-ass physics of this flat world suddenly make sense! I now understand how the world can be flat, the sun and moon rotate around it, yet there's still somehow a "dark" side! The world is a friggin onion ring! And the Midnight armory is the one spot lit up because there's a gap in the ring!
Sweet Mother of Luna, I'm still incapable of wrapping my head around all this geometry. I need help.
8803180
It not intelligent that lets you comprehend this, it insanity.
Elden ring. Ohhh. Elden ring. Shattered by someone, or something.