Dash of Restraint
"The sequencing... snkkt..." Nightshade hissed, struggling in the golden forelimbs wrapped about her head and neck. "It's... it's polluted your consciousness, Doctor. You resisted the spheres so stubbornly and for so long; you are suffering from rapid disconnect."
"Quiet!" Bellesmith growled into the mare's ears. She shoved Nightshade up against a wall and growled into her ears, "The only suffering that's been inflicted has all been on account of you! You abducted me! You tortured my mind!"
"I... was willing... to facilitate... a seperate peace, f-for information!"
"You're a sadist!" Belle shrieked. "When did you do it, huh?! When did you kidnap me?! Was it after I fled the facility?! It was when I fell asleep in the alleys, wasn't it?!"
"You had to be found. I couldn't afford to let you leave Blue Nova," Nightshade grunted, still writhing in the frenzied mare's grasp. Her voice reverberated off the metal walls of the room. "The knowledge I seek is too precious. More than you. More than that mercenary—"
"Where is he?!" Belle bent Nightshade's back at a painful angle, causing the mare to wince. "Where do you have Phoenix?! Is he alive somewhere?! Or was that just another lie you fed me in the sequence?!"
"His role in all of this is done..." Nightshade sneered, her face covered in sweat. "All of our lives are forfeit if the experiment doesn't fall through!"
"Why?! What is so Spark-forsaken important that you would do such horrible things to innocent ponies?!"
"You broke into my lab, pilfered through company documents, infiltrated the server, disturbed my foals—"
"You stole children from their parents, persecuted non-pony citizens, built a built a death mill in the depths of Deep Ridge!"
"My purpose is to bring rebirth to this continent!" Nightshade sputtered. "Just as it is your will to bring wind back to the wings of Austraeoh!"
"And that sanctifies using your brother's tortured memory like butchered meat?!"
"Nnnngh—!" With a sudden show of force, Nightshade furiously bucked Belle off of her. The mare stumbled back, only to receive a swift kick to the chest. Grunting, she rolled to the floor.
By the time she looked up, Nightshade had flung a secret panel open beneath her sequencing bed and produced a mana-powered taser. She raised the thing threateningly to Belle's muzzle.
"How dare you..." Nightshade sneered down at her. Both ponies squared off, glaring, with the taser's electric blue dance reflecting off their identical horn-stubs. "Novus is no mere tool; he is a tragedy, the one sacred soul I cannot save. His memory is apart from his body, forever separated by a horrible schism that should never have been. When his military detachment blew open a piece of the earth, the glory of this hidden world was exposed to the battlefield, but Novus was in no position to grace such beauty. He was battered, broken, and thrown apart into a hundred pieces. What lies in the infirmary of my building is simply a vessel for the life I hope to return to him, to return to all of us. It is the very same life that has been denied for decades by this insufferable war!"
"The red flame... that's in your building..." Belle murmured aloud. Her anger drained as her face stretched in shock. "By the Spark, you f-found it! When the Ledomaritan army shelled a part of the battlefield, the machine world must have somehow opened up and exposed the flame to ponydom." She gulped and muttered, "You found it, and you brought it here... like just another laboratory experiment..."
"The experiment is a means to salvation," Nightshade said, pressing Belle back by aiming the taser to her throat. "By understanding more about it, by harnessing the power held within, I can return it back east to the exposed chamber of the machine world—completely renewed—and we can bring back a glory that predated time, that predated suffering, and that predated war."
"And Prime Enforcer Seclorum..." Belle's brow furrowed as she backed up against a door. Rhythmic knocking sounds rattled from the other side, but she kept her sight set on the pony pressing a taser to her throat. "What part does he play in this? He brought you the flame, didn't he?" She frowned hard. "Does he even know that you're using abducted children to tap into the secrets of the flame?"
"Up until now, it's all I've had to rely on," Nightshade said. "But then you came along, Doctor. You're more important in this search for truth than a hundred dead pegasi. You've met a living, breathing protector of the flame. Wherever she is, there's enough of her imprint—the spirit of Austraeoh—that exists inside of you. You're not just Eljunbyro. Don't you see? You're an emissary for the truth of the old world to make itself manifest in the new one!"
"You and I are just broken fragments of something far too powerful and important for us alone," Belle said. "Rainbow Dash is the mare that matters. She is the one who can bring the spark back to this world! Not us!"
"But you're wrong, doctor!" Nightshade insisted, her face awash with sweat and sincerity. "It's up to us to make a difference! We can't keep sitting on our flanks, waiting uselessly for epic heroes to come and save this world! Our fate is in our own hooves! If we want to save the world, we must do it on our own! With the tools that are given us! With the crimes of war stacking up so high that soon we may never be able to redeem ourselves!"
Belle replied, "You cannot perform crimes without becoming a criminal. You're worse than any bloodlusting Enforcer I've ever met. You do horrible things and excuse it as righteousness, constantly blaming a supposedly worse evil as if it can pardon your atrocities. Your ignorance has blinded you, Nightshade, and it will damn you in the end."
A tear rolled down Nightshade's cheek. "I've lost my family, Doctor; I am already damned." She sniffled, but then bore a resolute frown. "But if I must soak in that curse, then I shall, and see to it that the world and its future is blessed."
"But how?!" Belle slowly stood up, wary of the taser matching her body. Her eyes darted between the sparkling weapon and the wielder's vulnerable face. "How can what you're doing to the flame possibly do any good?"
"That's where I need your help, Doctor," Nightshade said. "Please, do not resist me anymore. Do not fight me, nor what I have to do. Allow me to show you what I have learned about the old world, and the other machine worlds that were once joined with it. With so much war and wasteland ripping Ledomare asunder, it's up to ponies like us to find paradise, and that all starts with the flame."
Belle glanced at the table where the ancient tome lay. She looked back at Nightshade. "What makes you think, after all that has happened, that I would actually be foolish enough to assist you?"
Nightshade's tone was cold as she said, "I am not the only pony who has lost family, Doctor. I suspect that you are damned too."
The hairs on the back of Belle's neck stood on end. Her eyes instantly moistened as she thought of his wailing cry, falling into the distance.
"There is no peace for us," Nightshade said. "No paradise. We can only give what we can to the world, even if it means giving up ourselves."
Belle gasped to let loose the lump in her throat. She ran a hoof over her face and stared down into the shadows of the room.
"The Spark has always been missing, and it is up to us to do something about it." Nightshade leaned her head to the side as she started lowering the taser. "Tell me, Doctor, would you be willing to finally bring glory back to this world?"
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Y'know...
I don't know whether I like this or not. I will keep reading.
And once again we find that a character is not as 'evil' as we imagined. Like Shell, Nightshade is merely choosing different means to the same end. Get these strong wills united and working together, and they'll be a formidable force...
Somehow, I believe Nightshade understands only a fraction of what she's actually saying. Emissaries, protectors, guardians, all missing the greater point that is harmony. It's not the flame, it is what the flame represents. It is not simply the joining of worlds, but the energy used to do so. Chaos and strife are the antitheses of harmony, they can not be used to bring harmony forth, they are the result of harmony breaking down, and metaphorically apart.
Look at every instance of Rainbow Dash over the past year. Each scenario brought with it something missing that needed returning, be it captive slaves, missing foals/obelisks, missing cites and missing compassion, missing beloveds and so on and so on. At the end of each battle it was not Dash's chaotic, physical prowess and awesomeness that saved the day, it was her imparted lessons on loyalty and her dedication to solving something far more intangible. It was her position as Austraeoh, as the harmonic spark, that overcame each disharmonious group of ponies.
The last lesson here is that Nightshade is a facetious, selfish actor, the literal antithesis of generosity. She is a liar and a betrayer, using magic to combat a cruel action with more cruelty, trying to fix tears with more tears. She may cling to something outwardly altruistic, but her selfish actions speak far louder than her charitable words.
No Belle don't do it!
If only Nightshade had somehow managed to save Kera... Belle would not be able to say no to her offer.
Hmm, so it is quite possible that Nightshade isn't some mustache-twirling villain...
Twenty-five wide-arm push-ups ):(. Knock 'em out!
Nightshade -- you must be cleansed in the rainbow.
Don't do it Belle...well, OK, do it, but as a fake-out so she lets her guard down and then go see if Phoenix and Kera are still alive then get out of there if you can.
Google Docs duplication is annoying, isn't it?
I knew that Novus was important somehow...
Of course, Belle won't stand with Nightshade. If she does, she'll be turning on Rainbow Dash and Kera, and will essentially bow to the beliefs that Nightshade holds. Belle still doesn't know that Pilate is alive, and if she chooses to join Nightshade, she never will.
But she IS here, you stupid hag! You're just too delusional and wrapped up in your personal quest to stand aside and let her complete it, nay, to even help her along!
2913890Quite possible indeed... *twirls moustace*
The worst villains are the ones that think they're the heroes.
2913985 You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villian.
Keep working on your speeches, Belle.
Well, I suppose we have known for a while that Nightshade, although acting rather evil to get to her goals, had rather noble intentions. I have no doubt that she could be easily reformed, but...
I understand where Nightshade is coming from, and that's the real tragedy.
She must have been a truly good soul once. But now all that's left is bullshit and sheer fucking meanness. She's too blinded by her own ambition to be saved now.
I'm really liking Nightshade as a character. She has depth.
I like Nightshade. I'm of the belief she's in the right. Now dislike this comment because I'm for the antagonist, right? All I'm saying is, she believes what she's doing is right. From what it sounds like, what makes it even worse is that if society never resisted her actions, she would've brought good. She wants to use that flame to re-kindle the spark in that area. Is she fully aware of how, or what that means? No, but she's doing her damn best to find out. And that's what counts.
Most people don't realize this, but that's perhaps the most important quote you should keep with you in your life. The real world doesn't always poop out superheroes at convenient times to save the world. There was no Captain America, only the Allied forces. And yes, technically in her world though, there now is some epic hero to save the world. But if you dedicated what she has to a project as grand as this, put so damn much on the line, would you honestly just give up, all because they've arrived? I wouldn't. They're here? Great. We don't need them. If she wants to help, that's great, but why destroy everything the common ponies have done? Just so she can shine in glory by herself? Who's the real villain then?
The shade lives in darkness.
Belle is her light.
Eljunbyro's purpose:
To restore Ledomare's bright
Innavedr born,
Austraeoh can fly
As Eljunbyro and Innavedr rise
Part Four begins new light.
Nightshade.
Shell.
Belle.
And Rainbow Dash.
Let us continue this game of four-way chess.
I finally figured out who Nightshade reminds me of... She reminds me strongly of Stryker from X-Men 2, the one who tried to destroy all mutants though his wheelchair-bound mutant son.
2913882
Well, we don't know what Kera is doing at the moment. Who knows? Since we haven't seen their cold, dead body, we can (rather) safely assume they're still alive.
Well, this may explain why she never noticed Pilate and co. blowing shit up. She got Inception-ed.
Delicious, delicious exposition. Great to finally get some answers (the flame, Nightshade's motives, the purpose of the ship Props & Co. have been building, etc.) It's also nice to see some development for Nightshade, though the fingers of selfish, sanctimonious villains fall for naught on my heartstrings. Also, I'd really like some update on Kera's condition.
2913877
I think you hit the nail on the head. Though the question becomes: what's missing in this continent that Dash can return? You mentioned missing beloveds. There's certainly been plenty of that in Innavedr. Or perhaps something more abstract. Peace? Dash's scattered party pretty neatly contains representatives of pretty much every nation and race involved in the place. So perhaps, Dash doing her thing by facilitating cooperation between the different groups under the united cause of stopping Nightshade / the enforcers, sowing the seeds for understanding along the way?
Just a little error I found:
Just delete that second 'built a'. This is a point where you paused and tried to come up with something for her to say, right? I do it all the time.
2915489
Dayum, you're right! Dash does have every single representativ from every nation...
Bar one. A Xonan. Now who do we know to be a xonan at this point, hmm? She may only be a foal but she's still of paramount importance if this united nations dream is to be realised...
PalpatineNightshade is prepared for taser emergencies.I can't remember how Belle (Dash?) learned enough details about Deep Ridge to call it a "death mill".
Bah. I read the chapters, revel in the exposition, see the links, the connections, the themes, and look down into the comments and see Pilate has already beat me to it. Every. Single. Chapter.
Nevertheless, I do hope that Belle does tell Nightshade what she knows about the flame. I hope she tells Nightshade that she doesn't have a chance in hell at using it.
2913877 Charitable? She doesn't even know what Charity is.
2916254
Complaining that Pilate beat you to the analysis is like complaining that the sun beat you to the dawn. His comments are basically a part of each chapter at this point.
2916044
I believe that was when she, Phoenix, and Kera were looking through a bunch of paperwork and results of previous experiments, shortly before Belle sequenced herself with the foals.
2914938
Very well said, you brought up a side of the argument I hadn't really considered. Nightshade really does seem like a hero to the public of Blue Nova, it's just a pity that all of her passion and willpower is so misapplied with regard to her end goal. Hopefully Belle can turn the tables here and get her thinking straight.
Funny how these violent last chapters are giving me the desire of doing some fanart.
PUNCH TO DA FACE B*TCH!!!!!!!!
Never lower your weapon
[Insert almost exact copy of Pilate's opinion here.]
I think that's the first time I've heard the bad guy giving that monologue. Refreshing.
Woohoo! I consider my earlier psychological profile... a huge success!
2914251 People die when they are killed!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Again, I see where Nightshade's coming from, but Belle is still right. Nothing justifies those crimes, and what Nightshade is tampering with won't be able to help her - the machine world is too complicated and intricate for her to control it and "fix the world" with it. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Nightshade, Nightshade. You overlook the fact that harmony has always been the key, and thus even if your causes are just, your actions work against the supposed benefit that you wish for.
...But she makes a compelling case none-the-less.
So Belle's just going along with Nightshade to lull her into a false sense of security, right? She wouldn't fall for Nightshade's homicidal hullaballoo just because she lost Pilate (not to demean what she thinks is her loss, just that so far she's managed to keep everything together in spite of his "death"). Although it stands to reason that everyone has their breaking point - Belle just isn't at hers quite yet, I don't think, if she could still bust out of the sequence.
Also, a Kera cameo would be nice right about now. Particularly if she somehow had Phoenix in tow (shut up, I know Nighty said he was dead-ish, but we all know she's a self-absorbed dink, so what does she know, really?)
So yeah, the drama llama is in the house, and he doesn't seem to be showing signs of leaving any time soon. Onward!
2913985
And IC knows how to make them come alive.
Don't do it, Belle!
-Spirit
2914938
Nightshade is staying blissfully ignorant of the larger picture because she has deluded herself with the idea of using harmony as a weapon. She's using children, children she stole from their parents, as a means to learn more of the machine world and it's plan. She uses the memories of her damned brother as a means of psychological torture. She does everything in the name of peace, but she never does things peacefully.
Many argue that if the end is righteous, the means are acceptable. But not only is she stepping over the rule book, she is trying her hardest to stop the only being that could, indeed , bring all the chaos to an end. Only she wants to do it her way. She wants to spit on the flame and use it as a weapon.
So, no, Nightshade is a villain. She has delusions of grandeur, of being the one so righteous as to bring peace to the continent, to the world, but not only is she doing so immorally, she is perverting the flame's intention.
Not everyone can be a hero, and knowing when to let things play their course or take the initiative is an important skill to learn.
I mean, as they say, is it worth it in the end if you lose all semblance of mortality to get there?
Nightshade, you're no hero.
uh, no @all, nightshade is right. please don't make this another "ends don't justify the means, you have to do it the clean way" story/moral. We have enough of those. I can't see it anymore. please just let belle go along with nightshade. This will make the difference between a truly great, and a pretty stereotypical/predictable/boring/wrong progression.
Nightshade's manipulation is strong... but I believe Belle is stronger.
slasherpastor.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/artworks-000047570484-rmbvj3-crop.jpg
Ms. Nightshade is quite gifted in the art of ~Talking with something in her mouth~ style.
Because she cant levitate the gun now can she?
Quite the promising words and what-not coming from Nightshade. Hope Belle doesn't go along with it, because it sounds like a bit of a trap. On the bright side though, we're getting to learn some stuff about Austraeoh and Eljunbyro and everything else that's really big and important in this crazy epic.
~SolidFire
"You know what Nightshade? You make a good point."
...
*buck* *lethal horse noises*
"Just kidding."
And Nightshade once again misses the point. Her world would not know peace because it is as soulless and empty of love as the one she is trying to replace.
05/15/2017 23:46 UTC
I am seeing an irony in the fact that Belle and Nightshade both know they are incredibly important in the grand scheme, but that Nightshade, alluding to Belle's improtance, still isn't seeing that RD is the main objective.
Man...when you can sympathize with your enemy.
She wants to be special, to make a difference, but she's not seeing the chromatic picture.
Yet.
I have read a reference here and there on Belle and Pilate being Eljunbyro together, that Belle couldn't be it on her own. I have been wondering sometime if, instead Pilate, Nightshade was the other half.
Edit: of course, these are just random, baseless musings. A conjecture rather than actual theory.
8909798
That'd be an interesting twist!
8665069
I like her reasoning and would normally hate a story like this where only one person is ultimately the only thing that matters, but she has done too much and this story is very good to overlook that part of it.
2913877
chaos and strife are the antithesis of order not harmony. harmony is the balance between the two concepts