Waves crashed and receded.
A gentle roar filled the room, dwindled, and filled the room again.
Slowly, Bellesmith's eyes fluttered open.
A dull gray ceiling stretched above her.
Wincing, the young unicorn mare began to stir. She gritted her teeth and tried sitting up in bed. The effort took far longer than she wanted it to. She ran a hoof through her long brown mane and touched the tip of her stubby horn. The material was still hot to the touch. She hissed, then sighed. The gentle roar of waves filled her golden ears.
It was then that a gentle, elderly voice spoke from across the claustrophobic compartment. "For a moment there, you had me worried."
She gasped, clutching a bedsheet to herself. Glancing across the tiny compartment, she saw Dalton rising up from a lone stool. He stood in his white uniform beneath a glowing rod of pale manalight. His wrinkled features curved into a smile from behind a thick black mustache. Gently, he raised a hoof over a glowing orb atop a thin pedestal. With one tap, the orb dimmed and the sound of crashing waves was silenced. His next breath echoed intimately against the walls of the singular room.
"But I should have known you'd be resilient enough to pull through, Bellesmith."
With a deep breath, she relaxed. Brushing a few brown bangs from her yellow forehead, she smiled the elder's way. "Please, Dalton. You should know better by now. Call me Belle."
"I'm just glad to call you alive." He trotted over and stood by her bed. "You gave us all quite a fright."
She raised an eyebrow. "All of you?"
"Well..." He chuckled dryly. "I was worried beyond compare, of course. The others?" He sighed and gazed into the corner with a cold expression. "If I had a bit for every time I had to whip those incompetent grunts into shape, I'd buy my way out of this dungeon. It's inexcusable, Belle, darling. It's like they expected you to collapse like the rest of the sequencers. I swear, I think I'm the only one who sees your potential and—" He stopped in mid-speech, his eyes wide.
She was hugging him. "And I thank you for that, Dalton." She sniffled and tried to keep her composure as she nuzzled his neck. "That's another chance I have to see my beloved..."
He blinked, then reached a hoof up to pat her shoulder. "I just hate to see good talent go to waste. You were a lot more before they dragged you here. You should be teaching in front a classroom, not being a lab rat."
"Hey..." She parted the hug and stared at him with her hooves on his shoulders. "We all have to do our part. You have your own beloved to answer to."
Dalton nodded, gazing limply towards the floor. "I'm quite aware of that, Belle. Mildred thinks I've become one with the trotting dead sometimes, I swear..."
She chuckled and shook her head. "Don't be so hard on yourself. We all do best to abide by the Spark."
He gazed dully at her. "And what of the sequencers before you? How do they abide?" He gulped. "And just how have I helped any one of them?"
Belle bit her lip. She was about to reply when—
The metal door to the compartment slid open. Both the elder and the young mare looked over.
A unicorn stallion in a stone gray uniform and a black beret marched into the doorframe. With cold eyes, he glanced at the mare. "She awakes?"
Dalton swallowed. "She's still suffering from near-collapse. Her disconnect from the spheres was far too jarring. We're lucky she's in one piece to engage in sequencing again—"
"But she is awake?" the guard repeated, his brow furrowed. "She can stand?"
Dalton raised a hoof. "Now would not be a very good time to process her—"
"I have commands from Shell himself to bring her to Garnet," the guard insisted.
"Shell has little to no authority here!" Dalton sneered. "For Spark's sake, this is a Big Shelf matter—"
With a flick of his head, a light glowed from beneath the guard's beret. An electrified rod levitated threateningly before him. "All that is under the reach of Ledo is Enforcer business!" he sneered. "If you refuse to answer with fealty, you can answer with your flesh!"
"Now just one dang second—" Dalton growled.
"No..." Bellesmith reached a hoof over to Dalton's shoulder, softly holding him in place. "It's alright. I'm..." She winced and slid out from the bed, one aching limb after another. "I'm good to report to Garnet."
"But darling, you can't just—"
"I must, Dalton." She stood on wobbly hooves. He tried to help her, but she insisted on trotting forward on her own. With a flick of her brown tail, she regained balance. "You and I both know it's not wise to resist the Enforcers. Besides, this... this is our duty."
Dalton stood in place, shivering slightly.
She smiled at him. "I will see you later. When you get a chance, say 'hello' to Mildred for me."
"I shall, darling. Try not to let Garnet stress you unnecessarily..."
"I've been through worse," she remarked, waving her half-horn. With a subservient bow, she followed the gray uniformed guard out and into the concrete hallway outside the cramped room.
Dalton stayed behind, sighing. He pressed his hoof against the sphere and the sound of crashing waves once more echoed across the room. It brought him little solace.
i.imgur.com/Yo91J.gif
PMC's:
th02.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/183/d/5/the_trotting_dead___rarity_by_macchinacs-d55q4i9.png
I have a feeling this is the slave society hinted at some time ago.
These ponies will probably use some sort of advanced arcane machine to relive Rainbow's experiences. I guessing that is what these "spheres" are, some sort of essence that exists even after a pony does not. And "sequencers" are those trained to hop into those essences and relive those experiences.
I am gonna bet that this machine will have a hoof in reviving RD.
hmmmm....
Lolwut
1469584 intresting idea
Please don't wait till chapter 194 to give the exp- oh who am I kidding.
-Sits back down to prepare for the journey-
Trotting dead ?
The Spark ? (Twilight ?)
Also note that every chapter title is two words, whereas every Austraeoh chapter was one singular word...
Characters! Yay!
Also does this remind anyone of one of SS&E's scrapped story ideas? Let me go take a quick look...
Edit: Ah, yes! "Tartarus Zero" it was called!
1473234
That is an interesting connection you have there.
Ledo, Leto?
What a tweest.
1469570
My thoughts exactly.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we get some different names here that I assume pertain to the different social classes of Belle's society and that I vmhonestly can't be bothered to explain. Also, we get our first sighting of what I believe is a sphere. This sphere seems to contain the memory of ocean waves, allowing such a sound to resonate forth from it. Also, it seems as though this civilization lives underground. If so, and since they keep referencing the Spark, perhaps they live within the Machine. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Waves, ceiling, bedsheet, orb,
JohnDalton, black beret, electrified rod, solace.Memory Orbs, eh?
i am thinking insane asylum or a prison of some kind.
What is this? Where are they? What are they doing? How did it begins?
Ok seriously, if they follow the exciting adventure of Rainbow Dash like a Saturday Morning cartoon show. How the heck do they know about this one single pegasus? How did they come up with an idea like: "Hey you know what would be fun? Watching memories of random ponies!". Then what? They switch channels until they find something awesome?
oh god name overload
Also, Spark as a deified ideology reminds me a lot of Darkstinian industry, though I think it's safe to say this is not Darkstine as Rainbow Dash saw it. A past or future version, perhaps.
Belle is your avatar, Bellesmith looks like Belle...
Is Bellesmith ponified Belle?
1473234
No, Twilight's dead. Rainbow Dash is the Spark: Austraeoh.
1469570 now i have to wonder if her husband is a beast of some sort later on. why wouldn't i be suprised?
2178115
Beast. He's been called that before, but probably not best to repeat the circumstance in polite company.
Awww, good to have you talking heads to follow again. It's interesting that I am the first commentator in over half of a year!
3440465 Second commenter in over half a year. fimfiction-static.net/images/emoticons/moustache.png
Le sigh - where's RD where's my heroine?
So what could this new civilisation be all about? What are sequencers?
4076790 Well, it looks like I caught up to you.
4082663 Welcome to Eljunbyro, my friend.
I wonder how they got there hooves on Dash or her memories.
And time to get back to this story. I'm prepared. Anyway, Belle is definitely an interesting character so far. Let's see where this goes.
So, i just checked, and yes, there is still a rainbow dash tag on the story.
While i'll admit it's somewhat refreshing to be on a different perspective, i'd prefer it if i knew who these people were.
Has no one else thought of Assassins Creed when it mentions 'sequencers'?
I almost take back what I said in my last comment at the end of Austraeoh. I'm five chapters in, and I'm still confused as hell.
5809483 Oh wow, this is a brilliant thought. Why haven't I thought of that, I played AC.
Oh, Belle must be from the society that Axan mentioned.
So this 'Spark' thing is some sort of code, or deity, or something. Perhaps it's Dash's legacy? she is the Spark, after all... Maybe they live in the machine, or...
Oh, so many ideas!
Clearly, though, the 'spheres' are some sort of memory storage apparatus, which gives this entire thing a huge biggest Assassin's Creed vibe. Sequencers seem to be the Desmond Miles-es of this story, using the spheres to do... something, and they're forced to do so because hostages.
If this is what Axan meant, RD is gonna have a heck of a time here when she gets back.
Also, inquisitors working under a Ledo who's clearly not good news? Sounds like you need a State Alchemist...
"I have commands from Shell himself to bring her to Garnet," the guard insisted.
and so it begins...
Ah, it's that kind of civilization.
A few sentences from those who carry the weapons, and I have all the information I need to say I would not want to live there.
04/07/2017 21:42 UTC
This must be the slave civilization to the east Axon mentioned.
If her beloved is called anything about a beast/something that translates to "beast", then I'm fucking done
8175878
I don't recall Axon, Queen of Flame saying that, but I'm definitely getting a "Utopia space" vibe from this.
A poor, submissive but yet innocent mare, suitable for a test.
Who was pulled from her calling and her believed, but yet remains optimistic.
Man, I can almost feel the river of tears flowing down her path in life.
『Rainbow Dash』 has left the party.
『Bellesmith』 has joined the party.
『Bellesmith』 is now the party leader.
Rereading this: one thing is giving me war flashbacks. If you to are rereading this then you know what.
yyyooooo holy shit bruh, just what is going on?
the opening to austreoh was already gripping but this is just ESCALATION
And Just 5 chapters in, I can already see how much the character writing improved since the first installment. I'm already very gripped by these new characters, their dialogue feels very natural and less first-draft-script which I can't say for everyone in Austreoh. This is going to be very, very interesting.
reactiongifs.com/r/2013/10/tim-and-eric-mind-blown.gif