Hours later, into the foggy gold haze of early morning, Rainbow Dash's head still hung in the same lethargic slump. Bard and Wildcard flew ahead of her, carefully surveying the rippling seas beneath them. The mare didn't look up much; she simply kept the Desperadoes residually in her peripheral vision.
To Rainbow's right, Twilight Sparkle hovered at an even pace. The unicorn kept a solid gaze on Rainbow Dash, her ears folded back as her eyes glistened with curious sympathy. Rainbow said nothing, so neither did Twilight.
All around them, low-hanging clouds parted ways, revealing a listless fog that hung over the slate gray waters. The group threaded the needle between two layers of mist, progressing eastward at a lazy glide.
At one point, a pale and a pink shape darted up towards Rainbow, antsy and breathless.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie pumped a hoof. “We found the bouncy-bouncy!”
“As best as I can judge, the barrier stopped us at one hundred feet to Rainbow's left,” Rarity said. “Same as to her right.”
“So that means one hundred round feet of flip-flopples for us ghostie besties!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Actually, no, Pinkie.” Rarity showed her head. “One hundred feet appears to be the radius, so to find the volume you must multiply one hundred by four and pi and then divide by three—”
“Come on! Let's round up more radii!” Pinkie dove straight down. “Weeeee!”
Rarity rolled her eyes, then smiled at Twilight. “Whatever the case, it would appear as though the three of us now have greater mobility since finding Pinkie Pie. Considering how much more distance you had to move before and after I showed up, it would seem to indicate a pattern.”
“As I suspected.” Twilight nodded, then glanced at Rainbow. Fidgeting, she looked back at Rarity and said, “Thanks for investigating, Rarity. Best to double-check, though.”
“You mean best to keep a leash on Pinkie Pie.” Rarity saluted and dropped down after the pink shape. “Read you loud and clear, Captain, my Captain!”
Rarity descended, leaving the other two mares alone.
Rainbow exhaled out her nostrils.
Twilight flew in a bit closer, clearing her throat. “So... uh... you're rather quiet today.”
“Hmmmm...” Rainbow's eyes searched the rippling waters below.
Twilight bit her lip. “Are... are you feeling dizzy at all?”
Rainbow said nothing.
“Because, if you are, then maybe you should be flying ahead of Bard and Wildcard so that they could spot and grab you in case you collapse again—”
“I'm fine,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Twilight folded her forelimbs. “I'm just concerned for you, Rainbow. That's all.” She gazed ahead. “It's only been... what? Two days since we found Pinkie Pie? And already you're having dizzy spells?”
Rainbow's brow furrowed.
“I don't know about you, but that alarms me,” Twilight said. “It... it just doesn't seem to fit the pattern of things. I mean, from what you've related to us before, it should be a good long while until you suffer more collapses. But for them to be happening already?”
“I'm not the expert.”
“You're the closest thing there'll ever be to one, though!” Twilight exclaimed. “Who besides you has ever experienced what it means to be 'the Austraeoh?'”
“Commander Hurricane, supposedly.”
“And just how far did she make it?”
“That...” Rainbow blurted—but didn't quite know how to continue. So she cleared her throat, avoiding Twilight's gaze with a grimacing expression. “That was different. She ran into undead pegasi in Stratopolis.”
“So is that what killed her?”
“Uhhh... pretty sure.”
Twilight sighed. “I suppose you are fortunate—at least—to have had such a strong mare share some of the same flight paths as you.” She gazed east through the mists. “You have something to learn from.”
“I dunno if Hurricane ever had the same dizzy spells as I did, though,” Rainbow muttered.
“Because she never found the beacons like you did?”
''Cuz she never got filled to the brim with chaos after watching her friends die.”
“Erm... right...” Twilight shuddered. “That.”
“She never had to... to...” Rainbow's brow furrowed. She swallowed a lump down her throat. Her eyes lifted, finally looking at Twilight. “Say, Twilight?”
The unicorn jolted in mid-air, glancing back with bright eyes. “Yes?” she responded, a bit too enthusiastic for her own good. “What is it, Rainbow?”
Rainbow squirmed slightly, but kept flapping her wings. “Do you ever wonder... what would have happened if Discord was never defeated?”
Twilight blinked. “Uhhhh...”
“Lemme rephrase that,” Rainbow said. She cleared her throat and said, “What would have happened if I hadn't... y'know... killed Discord?”
“Oh. Uhm...” Twilight blinked into the gray mists. “Well... even though I've never been quite that fond of... how Discord was d-dispensed with...”
Rainbow clenched her teeth.
“I must admit that if he was allowed to continue existing, he surely would just keep running amok.” Twilight gulped. “And with the rest of us Elements gone, that would definitely not be a good thing. His powers of chaos would have continued, unchecked. He'd be in control of Ponyville... Equestria...” The spectral unicorn shrugged. “For all we know, his reach may have stretched as far as the rest of the world! Even here!”
“Because only the Elements of Harmony would be able to stop him.”
“Precisely. The sheer power of Harmony—so capably harnessed—was all that could put that beast to rest!”
“So how come I was able to defeat him, huh?” Rainbow blinked. “I only had one Element.”
“Err...”
“The rest were destroyed, remember?”
“Yes, but you said it yourself, Rainbow.” Twilight smiled awkwardly. “When you came upon the scene of our... well... deaths... you put the Element on and used it to harness the residual energies of the other Elements.”
“All by myself.”
“Apparently.”
“Do you realize just how... cruddy that theory sounds?” Rainbow gestured at the unicorn. “I mean, you're a scientist, right? Would you feel right putting something like that down on paper and using it to officially explain what's happened?”
“I... would need the proper research materials and time to—”
“Well?!”
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “No, Rainbow. I suppose it... doesn't sound very concrete. Truth is, there's just so much that I don't understand about what happened.”
“Harmony functions by certain rules, right?”
“Well... yes! It's the key central point to Alicorn magic! And Alicorns are the most structured, harmonious creatures in the known universe!”
“So... like...” Rainbow waved in the air. “How many rules were broken to let what happened... happen?” She winced. “Why is it that all but one Element vanished... but the big bad monster of chaos was still eliminated anyways? Because—no matter how we shake it, Twilight—it all came down to me. Me and one Element. Loyalty.” She brushed her hoof past the pendant in question. “Would it have worked with Nightmare Moon?”
“Princess Celestia banished Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago,” Twilight said. “And she was on her own.”
“Yeah, but she had all six Elements though.”
Twilight sighed. “You're right, Rainbow. You're right.”
“So... like... when was there ever another moment in history when the Elements of Harmony... and the Rules of Harmony made an exception?” Rainbow gulped. “Like they apparently did with me.”
“Rainbow, what...?” Twilight took a deep breath, then murmured: “What precisely are you trying to convey with all of this?”
“Was there ever really another way that Discord was going to be defeated?” Rainbow Dash remarked. “Something alternative to what actually happened?” She bit her lip. “Some way that involved all six elements and all six of us?”
“What are you talking about, Rainbow?” Twilight arched an eyebrow. “Are you making an implication about fate?”
“Just think about it, Twilight,” Rainbow said. “Imagine we had defeated Discord. All six of us. Imagine that nopony died... got blown up along with their Element... whatever.” She shuddered. “Imagine we just... got done what needed to get done, hung up the Elements of Harmony, and lived on with our happy horse lives doing happy horse things. What then?”
Twilight stared at Rainbow. Her eyes glanced off to one side, then the other. “I... suppose...” She swallowed. “...we would have been at peace in Ponyville.” A pause. “And you would never have started your journey.”
“Right.” Rainbow nodded. “And if I had never started flying east—”
“—then all this business with the beacons and Urohringr would have stayed buried as they have been for thousands upon thousands of years.”
“And what about fate then, huh?” Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “The fate of both sides of the plane, that is? Would everything just... die out as they are destined to without the Spark?”
“Are you saying that it was actually a good thing that all five of us died and left you on your own to make a dangerous journey?”
“No, Twilight, what I'm saying is... maybe it was the only thing that could have happened.”
“Huh?”
“Just how exactly did you and the other girls get blown up?”
Twilight blinked. “Well, Rainbow, we... I-I mean I made us use the Elements without you—”
“Dang it, girl, I'm not trying to play the blame game. We've been over this.”
Twilight winced. “I'm s-sorry...”
“I'm asking how it happened,” Rainbow said. “How is it that five ponies and one baby dragon attempting to use the Elements of Harmony would cause something so terrible and violent to happen?”
“I... I-I don't know...”
“Does it... even make sense?” Rainbow grimaced. “Harmony is all about structure, order, and integrity. It's chaos that likes crud getting all blown up. So—like—did harmony become chaos for a second there? Why would something built out of Alicorn magic backfire like a poorly maintained shotgun or something?”
“Right...” Twilight nodded, thinking out loud: “If anything, the spell should have just canceled itself without all of the key components present. Nothing would have happened... nothing good or bad.”
“Then how would Discord be defeated?”
“I... don't know...” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe the way it ended up happening?”
“One thing we know, Twilight, is that this whole stinkin' world is old. Super old. Older than you and me. Older than the Divines. Older than the Alicorns—”
“Uhhhhhhhhhh...”
“Okay, maybe not older than the Alicorns, but it was here long... long before Celestia and Luna's relatives touched down here.”
“Right...”
“And the ponies who built Urohringr... all of Urohringr must have had some pretty super magic to make it all work, y'know. I mean, to construct something so friggin' huge... something that could sustain so many different walks of life—all of which were also super old civilizations... stuff you and I can't even begin to imagine.”
Twilight merely nodded.
At this point, Rainbow winced. “Twilight, what if...?” She hugged herself in mid-flight, staring at the waters below. “What if... there is something at work here that is so old... so important... so strong that it sorta... trumps anything else that enters the playing field? The Alicorns bring their magic, but that magic ends up being controlled, dominated. And then—like—when you think the magic is playing by the Alicorns' rules, it's actually playing by Urohringr's.”
“Just what are you trying to say, Rainbow?”
“What I'm trying to say is... what if Harmony meant for all five of you to 'die?'” Rainbow looked aside at the mare. “What if it broke its own rules and gave you and the other girls the zap... so that I could give Discord the zap. And then this whole eastward slog could get started?”
“And you would go the way of Hurricane and other candidates of Austraeoh ahead of you...?”
“Right. Only, I'd go further. Cuz I'm awesome.” Rainbow took a breath. “And I have an Element on my side.”
“And—after two more Seeds—all of the Elements by your side.”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah...”
Silence.
“I just... c-can't imagine pure Harmony being reduced to such a lowly mechanism,” Twilight rambled. “I'm not capable of fathoming anything that can be that powerful.”
“But it would make some sense, right?” Rainbow said. “If there's something controlling Harmony, then it could control chaos as well. Then all of the weird, nonsensical things that would happen wouldn't be so strange anymore... cuz it just goes to show that all of the magic above ground is acting just as fluidly as all the weird contraptions that make Urohringr tick. There's not just one Machine World. There are two. One below and one above.”
“I... I...” Twilight ran a jittery hoof through her mane. “My head hurts.”
“I wonder if this is the sort of stuff that Verlax has figured out,” Rainbow muttered to herself. “Also... kind of makes you wonder if... y'know...” She fidgeted. “...if the rules of harmony had to be broken for Austraeoh to begin her journey... then j-just how many other rules also had to be broken?” She exhaled. “...and would all of those broken rules be okay, all things considered?”
“What kind of broken rules are we talking about?”
Rainbow paled instantly. She flew forward in nervous silence.
“Rainbow...?”
The mare breathed faster and faster. As sweat started to form along her brow, she forced her jaw muscles to move, opening her muzzle as if to reply—
“Hey girls!” Pinkie flew up, buzzing in their face. “Look what we found!” She pointed straight at the foamy waters below. “Things are getting super choppy! Like a Jacuzzi!”
“Huh?” Twilight snapped out of it, squinting down at the waters. “What on earth...?”
“For once, Pinkie isn't rambling nonsense,” Rarity said, floating back up. “There's a reason for all of this turbulent water. Things are starting to get dramatically shallow.”
“Wait... do you mean...?” Twilight blinked.
Rarity nodded with a smile.
Squinting, Rainbow looked up at Bard and Wildcard. “Hey guys!”
“She speaks!” Bard glanced back at her. “What is it, darlin'?”
“Look below!” Rainbow pointed, her voice cracking, “Sea seems different! What's up with that?”
Bard stared and stared. He shared amused grins with Wildcard, then looked back at the mare. “More like 'what's down with that!'” He and the other Desperado descended. “This is it!”
“This is what?”
“What else?” Bard pointed forward. “The Quade!”
Rainbow and Twilight stared. Pinkie Pie and Rarity leaned forward for a better look.
Below them, the mists parted ways. It was just enough to reveal several gray shapes looming immediately beneath the ocean's watery surface. Very narrow, dome-topped spires of chalk-colored earth rose from the depths. At first, they scarcely grazed the surface, with water lapping up and around their barnacle-encrusted summits. Then—one by one, in sporadic formation—the narrow stalks broke the water. They grew thicker and more erratic, forming a veritable forest of jagged stone structures forking towards the sky.
Curiously, the water was very calm around these spires. Rainbow imagined that there was a lot more happening underwater than there was above. There was virtually no current, and aside from a gentle ripple here or there, the Quade was mostly devoid of crashing waves.
Rainbow was so involved in observing this that she didn't notice the first wooden structure until its crooked mast nearly grazed her body. She lifted up with a gasp, looking back behind her.
The forward half of a crumbled, dilapidated sailing ship loomed below—impaled by at least two of the jutting spires.
“Oh my goodness!” Rarity squeaked, clasping a pair of hooves to her muzzle. “That's so terrible! Head back, Rainbow! There could be survivors in there!”
“Uhhh...” Rainbow looked up and pointed back at the wreck. “Guys?”
Wildcard gestured.
“Relaxed,” Bard said. “That thing's supremely outdated. It very likely ran aground several hundred years ago.”
“But...”
“Even if the survivors had grandfoals, they'd all be dead by now—or else likely rescued by denizens of the Luminards.” Bard smirked. “Besides... that's just the first one.”
“The... first... one?” Rainbow stared ahead. The ghost mares at her side had their breaths taken away.
As the fog finally dissipated, the immensity of the Quade opened up to the fliers. Rocky formations jutted up out of the ocean like a sea of granite needles. Every so often, the crumpled remnants of a seaship could be seen, its wooden flesh peeling off the hooked rocks one decade at a time. Rainbow counted one... two... four... eight... sixteen seaship corpses until there were too many for her to count—or at least at the speed with which she was flying over them. Soon—if she squinted—the blue waters, the gray stone, and the brown driftwood formed a hazy malaise in her eyes.
“Why are there so many of 'em?” Rainbow asked.
“For an age, it became the bright idea to turn this side of the Quade into a graveyard for out of commission frigates,” Bard explained. “The Luminards didn't mind, and the Six Tribes thought it was a healthy warnin' to all Colonialists tryin' to eke a livin' elsewhere. 'This is what's in store for you, ya heretical varmints!' Or somethin' like that. I dunno.”
Wildcard's talons swam through the air.
“Hmmph!” Bard's nostrils flared. “Well, if you tried to explain it, you'd make it all melodramatic-like, ya turkey!” Bard cleared his throat and glanced at Rainbow. “What was I talkin' about?”
“Naval graveyard.”
“Right. But then half of the ships draggin' in the decommissioned vessels started getting wrecked themselves. And by then even the Continentalists were makin' homes and ports out west beyond the Quade, so it all started to get really ridiculous. Reckon they just left the wrecks out here cuz this place is too perilous to build a lighthouse to give a more proper warnin' anyways.”
“Didn't stop the Alafreons.”
“Who?”
Rainbow sighed, shaking her head. “Never mind.” As she flew over the immense acreage of increasingly taller spikes, her eyes spotted a bright dot on the horizon. “Wait... I see something.”
“Yuffie Dum, right?”
“No, I see that too. I'm talking about something else.” As Rainbow cleared another spire, she saw the lit structure in even greater clarity. “There!” She pointed. “A light! Like a lantern! You see it?”
“My word!” Rarity exclaimed.
Wildcard gestured.
Bard nodded. “Eeyup. Reckon it's good timin' too.”
“I don't get it,” Rainbow stammered. “Just what is that thing? Do monks live there?”
“Nope. Not quite.” Bard smirked at Rainbow. “But it's a good sign nonetheless.”
“A sign of what?”
“That we done found ourselves a place to check in.” The stallion motioned as he and Wildcard dove down towards the structure. “Come on. And remember to lemme do the talkin'.”
“Uhhhh... sure, okay.” With a slight shudder, Rainbow and her friends followed suit.
Huh, Dash is making more sense and thinking more than Twi... we're doomed!
My response to time travel.
Nice timing there Pinkie.
All in all this should be interesting. (My response to this entire story.)
I been saying it for years, man. Elements of Harmony, not Elements of Niceness. The world needed the Spark unbound, and yet guided.
Thirty wide-arm pushups, ):(. Knock 'em out!
A graveyard of ships. My, isn't that a welcome sight...
That ship graveyard.
Dead ponies tell no tales, eh?
Anyone willing to summarize this story arc for me (Preferably without too many spoilers)?
I have no idea what it's about or if it's something I would enjoy in the least, thanks to the description(s) being so vague.
(I've also posted this same comment on the original story: "Austraeoh".)
pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/07/12/17/46/yin-and-yang-152420_640.png
Also, love the scenic imagery there at the end.
6454980 if you can decipher them, I like to think my little rhymes are fairly apt at describing the central story of each book.
--------------------------
Ship graveyard huh? Cool.
Getting a bit fatalistic there Dash...be careful thinking like that.
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
I think I understand the role of Pinkie Pie in this story. Ruin all of our bloody fun.
Its a good thing Pinmie interupted there. Dash was about to turn inside out and become out favourite sinuous Sideous.
Its the Keeper Of the Isis Light?
Yaay for Dragonfall 5 and The Wonder Horse.
Machine world, because loop quantum gravity logic using multidimentional solid state photon phonon structures just doesnt have style.
6455020 that pic link doesn't work btw. It just says no hotlinking.
The Underground Qualeroad.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
Some sort of ... more power magic? That caused the Elements to backfire?
Something like... an author?
:P
6454980
Rainbow goes east. If you aren't willing to take the journey, Rainbow won't help you either. Its really not that hard to read, anyways.
6455088
Eh, alright then.
Not gonna spend hours upon hours reading into a +3,000,000 word, +130 chapter story only to find out part way in that it's not something I'm into.
(Thus the reason I asked in the first place.)
Alright Dash, let me point out a few thoughts here for you to chew on.
First off, let's assume that you're right and an overriding force of magical destiny screwed with the Elements to ensure they'd explode your friends and force you to defeat Discord and spark your journey east. Let's just assume that's true.
The Elements still only turned Discord into stone. You are the one who chose to destroy his statue, presumedly killing him. You, Dash, not fate. If a higher power of destiny were at work, why wouldn't it have destroyed Discord itself and zapped you with the chaos? Even if it knew what choice you'd make, that of smashing the statue in anger, that doesn't remove the responsibility of your choices from you as you weren't forced to make the decision you did.
Now, let's also assume your journey east has been predestined by this higher power. Just how many of your choices on that journey have been your own and how many can you pin upon fate? What about the choices of other people you've met? Are you saying that every action Shell took, including the most horrible of them, were predestined and could not have been changed? Are you absolving him of his acts, saying it wasn't his fault, but that he, along with you, are just the butt-monkey's of destiny?
Or is this all just a entrapping mental crutch to not only remove blame for the damage caused during your journey, but also to pscyhe yourself up for making similar choices in the near future? When the time comes to say, kill or destroy individuals, towns, or cultures in pursuit of the Seeds and the Midnight Armory is your tagline going to be "Its not my fault, I had no choice, this is the only way things could have happened! Its destiny. Its fate."?
Let's ask ourselves another question, Dash. If there is an overriding destiny guiding all of your actions that planned for this journey to happen, that needed this journey to happen, then why you? Why now? Any system designed to restore something would logically have much better and more complete failsafes than relying on one singular east horse to get it all done, wouldn't it? Why not Hurricane? Why not anypony before that? Why not anypony in the thousands of years between you two? You're making a lot of assumptions about a power you don't understand just to make it seem like your journey had to happen exactly the way it did, and hence ensure that every choice you made, including the bad ones, are suddenly okay.
And you're too awesome to fall into that trap. Because it is a trap, Dash. Yes, you have to sometimes use violence to defend yourself or others. Sometimes lying might work better to achieve a goal than honesty. But never forget that your choices are your own, and that you are never forced to do anything. You can always choose to tell destiny to go buck itself with a cactus. You can always choose to not play the game.
Most of all, take responsibility for your choices and don't fool yourself into thinking they weren't yours to make.
And that's my anti-destiny pep talk for the day. I'll schedule another one for whenever you decide to get mopey on the whole subject again.
6455096
In short, it's a absurdly long running adventure. The first book basically tells you nothing about why she is going east. She just flies and if she happens to meet a friendly civilization, sjr helps them out. Reveals happen in book 2, though it is quite disorienting due to the temporary shift in PoV. Anything more than that starts to go into spoiler territory, and if you really want, we do have a tvtropes page and a bare boned wiki.
6455096
It's difficult to summarize this story without spoilers. The best I can do is as follows:
Rainbow Dash flies east, to the edge of the world, alone. Adventure happens.
6454980 Honestly, I recommend you read the first twenty or so chapters of Austraeoh over asking for a spoiler-free description, because the best bit about Austraeoh is the majestic mystery of it all. The chapters are tiny anyway, so it's not like you would have wasted much time if you do. It'll give you an idea of what it's like, if nothing else.
But if I might, I'll just say here that I've been following this story for years, as have many others. This story is one very much unlike any other on the website. Austraeoh is a journey, both plot-wise and for those who read it. Every day is another chapter, and those chapters will continue to come until years from now, when all 200 chapters of the 12 books are completed. As of this moment, we have surpassed two million words. We have devoured many continents. We have slurped oceans dry. We have consumed countless towns and places, many characters and many faces, There were highs and lows. There were stops and delays. At one point, I fell off and stopped reading for six months, but I caught up. And as of this moment, as was then, as was when I started, and as she always has done, Rainbow Dash flies east. That is the story's description because that is the only way it can be described.
This story is probably my favourite story on the website. Hell, it's probably the only reason I'm still here. I would wholeheartedly recommend it anyday, and I do hope you decide to read it.
6455150
Thank you.
(That's the first straight answer i've gotten so far!)
The landscape reminds me of proposals for engineered landscapes meant to discourage entry and it sounds as if even the current inhabitants would say this is not a place of honor.
From the deliberately-wrecked ships we can infer that shipbreaking a few centuries ago was expensive & not worth the materials recovered. Perhaps Verlax manipulated the economy to ensure she got her field of wrecks?
Fuckin' damnit Pinkie!
Also: I'm legitimately uncertain whether the broken rule is one we should know of already that was simply one of the many things she chose not tell Twilight back in Kihutaja, or whether it is something completely new.
Also also: Dash. you're trying to speculate and rationalize things that you don't even know all of the rules of/for. We don''t even know if you know even half of the rules for what you're attempting to understand, and it's dangerous to try to live off an assumption.
6455098
Yeah basically everything here is a lot of how I feel I personally don't think much I can add at this moment.
6455088
Yeah, Deus Ex Machina is the one bending the rules of reality. You have to remember one of those Elements is Kindness and I don't really see Kindness killing off your friends just send you packing in one direction full of grief.
Well, If the Element of Kindness had a shed out back, I could see it happening that way.
Why are you making the assumption that the Elements of Harmony were dominated, against their 'will'? The end of the world would certainly NOT be a harmonious event, so maybe the elements sort of went along with Urohringr's plan willingly. Like others have said Harmony is not kindness, that's Fluttershy. Additionally part of having harmony is knowing when to break said harmony (or as it is better put, moderation in everything, including moderation) for the good of all.
The whole "angrily blow Discord up because plot" thing never really sat right with me. At least Rainbow noticed it too.
6455098
Agreed. Anytime you catch yourself rationalising this hard, you can be pretty sure that you already know what you're thinking about is wrong. You just really don't want to admit it.
That's what's so odd about this arc. Maybe it's just me, but I can't see the Rainbow of the last two continents giving Verlax this much credence. Chalk it up to a new perspective that began when Twilight was resurrected, but . . .
Right, because that worked SO well the last time.
6455956 I think you can count on Bard to do the talking regardless of the situation.
After that dialogue between Twi and Dash I'm now almost certain the final seed will bring back Discord. There has to be a balance of some sort around the Austraeoh and what better way to do that that to bring back the lord(god) of chaos himself. It would also explain why Rainbow her dizzy spells are getting stronger and more frequent because his essence is getting stronger inside of her with each element returning. Can't have all that harmony without chaos it seems.
I already look forward to having ghost Discord be forced to make friends with the elements because he can't get away from Rainbow Dash.
Might be something involving Endrax and absolute power. That should concern the dragons more than Rainbow, though
The Ultimate Evil comes every five thousand years, and it can only be defeated by the recovery of the Sixth Element, Loyalty
Better then Ghost Discord. Real Discord pops out. Or maybe Ghost Discords, Specialty will be the ability to touch things. Just so the next arc he can single handedly ruin everything.
Positive and negative. Push and pull. Harmony and Chaos. The destruction of [most of] Discord necessitated the destruction of [most of] the Elements. Less chaos necessitates less harmony, and vice versa.
I wonder what unkind things Dash will need to do before she balances with Fluttershy?
6455055
I don't know. I enjoy the tension relief she provides, but that's just me.
6455026
If you line them up they form a staircase!
Older than Harmony after all. The question on hold is what exactly the nature of Harmony is to be pictured as then. Just basic common sense won't cut it at this point, not with it being a differing force from what we know it as.
Double the spectral radius as many times as you want. It ain't gonna stop Pinkie from butting in at the most critical moments.
Ooo, interesting thinking going on there. Thinking that Harmony and Chaos are being changed according to something's will is crazy to suggest.
Also, since the Elements are tools for keeping balance, that makes Discord a tool as well. But, does that mean he was created or was chosen, much like Rainbow was chosen as Austraeoh?
Or I may be reading too much into it.
6456486 Don't get me wrong, if Pinkie Pie wasn't trying to defuse any tense moments with overwhelming amounts of Pinkishness, I'd be disappointed, because she wouldn't be very Pinkie Pie. I'd just prefer she wasn't the tool of dramatic convenience.
This is going to be a pattern, you know? Any time Dash is going to get anywhere near telling her friends the truth about her chaos condition, or any details from her dark past, or anything she feels uncomfortable revealing Pinkie Pie's just going to interrupt as soon as Dash is about to say something. We're never going to get that true heart-to-heart discussion on all the horrible things that are eating Rainbow at this moment for a very long time.
6456096 Kinda reminds me of book five, we have dizzy-spells occuring more often and all.
Also:
I was thinking the same thing, after all, Yaerfaerda does mean to 'foal yesterday' or (a bit more simply) to make yesterday new/bring back the past, and with there being six seeds instead of five, there are no other beings to bring back besides Discord. The only thing that can really break that theory is if Yaerfaerda doesnt show up after AJ.
Also, also: what color would Discord's Yaerf be?
Anyone else wanna bet that the sixth beacon will bring back Discord?
6456684 You say that as if it's something that's only surfaced when Pinkie hit the scene. That's something that's been going on since the beginning of the series.
6456785 I'm thinking the same thing as well but there is one thing that I can't piece together. I feel like there should be a metaphorical significance for the last circle in ynanhluutr encompassing all of the others and I'm not sure how that quite fits with Discord.
6456096
If IC writes Discord as well as he does in Appledashery having all seven of them together should be hilarious.
6456238
Well, she's certainly told enough half-truths about herself over the course of the series to balance Applejack's honesty.
Let's hope that, if indeed she does need to lie, it doesn't destroy her friends' opinion of her.
6456785
Going back to this chapter, it still strikes me as odd that the right most circle would glow blue with the next two glowing lavender and white. Unless it's also representing an aspect of Yaerfaerda in that she's going back - in a sense - to revive her friends.
As for the circle that encompassed the inner six, was it not merely the outer part of the emblem's frame as it was described from Theanim's photo? It's just that the outer portion of the symbol Dash saw in Shoggoth was said to have been rectangular in shape instead while situated within a large golden plate/door. With no mention of any greater circle surrounding the inner detailing.
Apologies for any late edits. Connection's been playing havoc all evening.
6456684
I think it might be one of those "
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTHyou have to accept the truth" moments with her. Which is just the buildup of another horribly depressing moment. And will then be shattered moments later by her pinkness.6456890 Well yes, but it was never as shamelessly blatant as it is with Pinkie Pie, and I resent the fact her character is being abused to deprive us all of a bloody important conversation that's been a long time coming. I can accept that Dash might not be ready for it yet, but goddamnit, the great and almighty Colon need not torment
meus like this.6457168 I have no idea what you are trying to say. Do you mean that Pinkie can tell that Dash doesn't want to talk about it, and hence she deliberately derails the conversation? I'm not sure she would do that, because it was Dash who brought it up in the first place. It's clear that Dash does want to talk about it, because she keeps bringing it up and ruminating over it.
Well, I think I know what controls Urohringr...
*puts on dark shades*
It's a lemur obsessed with Disney Princesses and Applejack!
6455098 I agree with your arguments.
6454935
Hear hear.