"This..." Belle murmured breathlessly as she trotted around the billowing magic flame in the center of the chamber. "This is... this is definitely it..."
"Definitely what, exactly?" Phoenix asked.
"The thing that the runes inside the tome are responding to," she said. "Pilate and I were speculating that some ancient society of winged ponies may have had some connection to the symbols and what they mean to the machine realm..." She pivoted to glance at the six skeletons once again. "But these remains... I... I don't know where to even begin..."
"I hate to break it to you, Ms. Bellesmith," Phoenix said, "But we're not exactly underground."
She glanced at him with a light frown. "I am quite aware of that, Mr. Phoenix." She tunred towards the flame again. "But this still got here... some way or another..."
"How can you carry flame?" Kera's voice squeaked as the walked up to a skeleton and tapped at the dusty bone structure. "And just what's burning, anyways?"
"This isn't a normal elemental occurrence," Belle said. "It belongs to something older than recorded history... than most civilizations... maybe even time itself." She shuffled to a stop, blinking hard. "Whitemane said that the alicorns discovered this realm, floating in the ether, surrounded by chaos. Did they discover the flame to? Or did they impart it?"
"Huh?" Phoenix leaned in, squinting. "Whitemane?"
"Nnngh..." Bellesmith ran a hoof over her face. "I'm sorry. Sometimes it's hard to tell which memories belong to me and which belong to Rainbow Dash's..."
"And what would Rainbow Dash know about the symbols?"
Something akin to a dry chuckle escaped the mare's lips. "Absolutely nothing..."
"Well, that isn't of much help."
"Yes, well, Rainbow Dash helps in every other way," she said with a sigh. "As a matter of fact, she excels."
"Ms. Bellesmith..." Phoenix strolled over until he stood next to the mare. He spoke softly, "You came her with a specific goal in mind—to get better acquainted with Rainbow Dash, maybe even to find her. But this... this flame... these symbols..." His brow furrowed. "You mean to say that she's clueless about them?"
"It doesn't seem to be any concern of hers if they mean anything or not."
"Then how are we going to use this to find her? Is it... uh... a beacon of some sort?"
"I don't know—I don't know!" Belle paced around the burning red flame, groaning. "But now that we're here, and we're seeing what's going on, we have it in our hooves to do something about it!"
"Do what, exactly?!" Phoenix shrugged at her. "Ms. Bellesmith, we're only two ponies!"
"Three..." Kera growled.
Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Two and a half." The filly raspberried at him but he ignored it. "It is not our place nor our capability for... what, putting this flame back where it belongs?! And where exactly is that?"
"Mr. Phoenix, all I know is that Enforcer Shell of the Ledomaritan military killed many ponies and practically moved mountains in order to get at this stuff. He failed, and yet here we have an equally nefarious organization that somehow already has its hooves on the flame, and who knows what they're capable of doing?!"
"Ms. Bellesmith—"
"When Rainbow Dash touched one single flame in the heart of the machine, it was enough to dispel magic in a huge area, not to mention demolish any structure—natural or pony-made—that existed directly above the machine's location. This is power that simply does not belong to us!"
"And just what part does Rainbow Dash play in it?"
"She's all about equilibrium.. balance... prosperity..." Belle spun about. "For some reason or another, she's been given the authority by the powers that be to make use out of the flame. It's her calling in life... her destiny..."
"Then what are you doing here?!"
"Because it's part of my destiny too!" Belle exclaimed. "She's Austraeoh. I'm Eljunbyro! We're linked!"
"You're certain of this?" Phoenix gestured dramatically. "Cuz none of it makes sense!"
"I didn't promise you that I had an explanation, Phoenix."
The stallion closed his eyes.
Kera glanced curiously between the two.
Slowly, Phoenix breathed and said, "Ms. Bellesmith, I promised that I would help you in any endeavor. And I am not about to break that."
"Good..."
"Though this all seems crazy to me, it is my job to help you see it to the end..."
"I very much appreciate that—"
"But think about this..." His eyes reopened. "You're so concerned with destiny—with this magical world that's somehow governing your life—and yet, what if you're wrong? What if you're not this... this 'Eljunbyro?' What if Rainbow Dash is meant to go on without you?"
Belle shook her head. "I don't buy that for one second. I've seen visions, Phoenix. I've been to places that I can't understand. I know the part that I have to play."
Phoenix bit his lip before hesitantly adding, "Were you the only one who qualified as 'Eljunbyro?'"
Belle froze in place, staring into the deep shadows surrounding them.
"What I'm trying to say... Belle..." He took a few steps closer. "Your loyalty is admirable... but think about what this is going to cost you. You're deep enough in it. You could be living a happy, prosperous life. You sure you want... you need to get it entangled in all of this mess still?"
She icily turned to glare at him. "You're certain you're not just speaking for your own life, Mr. Phoenix?"
He bore a long face. "We both know that I'm a coward, Belle. But..." His nostrils flared. "We also both know how little I have to live for... at th-this point..."
She chewed on her lip. Slowly, she looked away from him. Seconds ticked by. A minute. Thoughtfully, she tilted her vision towards the flame. Her brow furrowed, and she eventually muttered, "Funny..."
Phoenix cocked his head curiously to the side.
"The flame..." She pointed. "The only times I've ever seen it... or... well... the only times Rainbow Dash has ever seen it was inside the machine world."
"And?"
"It was much smaller than this," Belle murmured. Her eyes squinted. "Way smaller, as a matter of fact. This flame right here is like a bonfire compared to the energy she's run into before."
Phoenix took a sweeping glance at the skeletons surrounding them. "What about these... uh... guys? Could they be affecting the flame?"
"They could be girl bones too, y'know," Kera said.
Belle spoke over her. "I don't know. I mean, they could be connected. If these peagasi were—say—enchanted by the same power that stoked the fire..."
Silence.
Phoenix leaned in. "And...?"
"Unngh..." Belle face-hoofed. "This was always Pilate's department. I was never good with hypothetical calculations. I need cold, hard facts! Statistics!"
"How about wires?" Kera muttered.
Both adults glanced at her. "Huh?"
Kera pointed at the cables running from the six containers and through the metal floor. "Where do those wire thingies go? Has anypony bothered to guess?"
Belle squinted at the curious loops and coils of fibers being threaded down through holes in the metal floor.
"She may have a point, Ms. Bellesmith," Phoenix said with a stifled smirk. "We neglected to take into account the wire thingies."
"Hahahaha..." Kera glared up at Phoenix. "That's funny. Hey, knock knock."
"Who's there?"
Kera kicked Phoenix in the fetlock.
"Gah!" Phoenix stumbled back. "For Spark's sake! Quit doing that—!"
"Shhh!" Belle raised a hoof, her ears twitching atop her craned head. "Do you ponies hear that?"
Kera and the stallion froze. After a few seconds, Phoenix muttered, "You mean something other than the flicker of magic flame, the hum of cold black machinery, or the rattle of prehistoric pegasus bones?"
"I mean it. Down below..." Belle tilted her muzzle earthward. "I hear manaconduits buzzing and machinery moving."
"You mean there's another room below us?" Phoenix thought out loud. He pointed at the opened dome. "Below the flame?"
"Eh..." Kera waved a bored hoof. "It's probably the ring team junctioning chamber that Nightshade was prepping us all for."
Both adults glanced at her, wide-eyed.
Kera blinked back. "What?" She shrugged. "I hated that place. If you wanna go there, be my guest! Pfft! But do it alone!"
Belle looked at Phoenix. Phoenix looked at Belle. Swiftly, the mare trotted towards the wall along the edge of the cylindrical chamber. She hugged the side until she came upon a metal barricade. Looking around, she found a lever, and pulled it with her hoof. The barricade slid open, revealing a second door. She pressed a switch to open it, and was immediately blasted with a wave of cool air. Glancing back, she made eye contact with Phoenix. The mercenary marched swiftly after her. Sighing, a bored Kera stumbled after the group.
Side by side, Phoenix and Belle crept down a curved stairwell. As it wrapped around and descended towards a level beneath the flame chamber, they slowed their steps, graduating into a slithering crouch. They came upon a round room—much smaller than the chamber above—and decorated with far more luxurious and presentable furnishing. Peeking around the corner, the two watched as several bodies wandered to a ring of plush, reclined seats in the center of the place.
A dozen foals—the fillies and colts that the group had seen through the two-way mirror earlier—had gathered in the middle of the room. In swift order, they each rushed to an assigned seat. A stallion overlooked them, none other than Sir Ordo. He whistled and gestured, making sure they all got situated quickly and obediently. Once they were seated, he smiled and spoke in a melodic tone.
"Very well done, children. You have made the Madame very proud. You shall be rewarded for your punctuality after the session is over."
"Is..." One filly trembled to speak. "Is the M-Madame going to be w-with us, Sir Ordo?"
"Now now now..." He chided her with a click of his tongue. "No speaking out of order, Niija. Save your breath for the dreamworld. Speak once you have found your place within the ring." He finished one last lap around the chairs and clapped his hooves. "Alright now, children. Caps off."
With lethargic motions, the Xonan foals reached their hooves up beyond their tattooed faces and gripped their horns. The tips came off with the slightest tug, and each of them deposited the fake prosthetic onto a tray situated beside each of their chairs.
Phoenix flashed Belle a look. The mare's mouth hung open. Without thinking, she raised her forelimb and touched the stub on her own forehead.
"Good children. Close your eyes. Rest easy. Do the Madame's bidding, because the Madame cares for each and every one of you." That said, Sir Ordo shuffled over to an edge of the dimly lit room. With his hooves gripping the controls of a console, he pulled two levers and twisted a dial. A hissing gust of exhaust billowed through the room.
Belle and Phoenix looked up to see a cylinder of metal descending from the ceiling above. The outer edge of this protruded twelve mechanical arms which lowered and hovered above each of the twelve different foals. Then, with precise movements, the arms lowered tiny metallic cones over the waiting horn-stubs of the Xonan children. Wires sparked to life, running up the arms and into the cylinder that hung over the dozen chairs. As soon as the machinery brimmed with mana, the twelve bodies relaxed. The foals went into a trance-like state, their eyelids fluttering and their limbs lying limp by their sides.
The two hidden ponies watched as Ordo walked one last time around the group. Satisfied that they were all unconscious, he smiled to himself and made for a lone door. It slid open, revealing a brightly lit manastation positioned adjacent to the chamber. The door cloesd behind him, and he was gone.
After a few seconds, Phoenix trotted out. He snuck towards the door and placed his head towards it. His horn glowed, and his brow concentrated in thought. He turned back towards Belle. "It's a small room, but I don't think he's in there. He must have trotted off to another location altogether, Ms Bellesmith." He paused, blinking. "Belle?" He turned to look at her.
She stood before the ring of chairs where the foals were reclined. Her pale expression hung in shock.
"What is it?" Phoenix scurried back towards her. "Do you know what the heck they're doing?"
"They... they had their horns removed..." Belle murmured. "All of them." She gulped. "They're just like me now. They're prime for sequencing." She looked up at the machine. "This is a sphere sequencing chamber... just like the one back at Blue Shelf, only it's far more complicated. More advanced." She gritted her teeth. "Instead of relying on one sequencer, she's utilizing many. These children are acting as a bank... a mana server... and they're all linked in..."
Phoenix made a face. "Linked in to what?"
"What else?" She gazed up to see several cables running down from the ceiling and into the cylinder that hung over the foals, its arms connected to their stubbed horns. "It's all starting to make sense now. But... but to think that they took these children... these poor, poor Xonan foals and lopped off their—" She blinked, then stammered. "Kera?" She looked all around. "K-Kera?"
"Belle..." Phoenix was pointing at the stairwell from which they came.
Belle spun around. She looked to see a pale figure huddled against the far end of the stairwell, hugging herself and shivering. As silently as she could manage, she galloped over and knelt before the foal. "Kera. Kera, look at me..."
"It's a stupid room," the foal muttered, her face taut and frowning in spite of her shivers. "Nothing but boring stuff happens here."
"Kera..."
"Nnngh..." Kera looked away, avoiding Belle's gaze. "I have better things to do... more exciting things to do. I dunno why I even brought you two dumbbells here in the first place..."
"Look at me..." Belle tilted Kera's chin so that the child could look at her. "What's happening here is awful. Truly awful. And it's okay to feel scared. But you know what?" She smiled. "To have made it out of here with your horn intact is a sign of true courage... not to mention tenacity. You're a very brave pony, Kera. You don't have to prove that anymore than you already have..."
"What do you care?" Kera frowned at her. "All you want to do is find some... stupid flame to a bunch of dead winged ponies."
"There's a lot more at stake here than just you and me, Kera..." Belle gulped. "Even more than your friends here..."
"Pfft. They're not my friends. They're weak..."
"Now why do I not believe that for one second?"
Kera bit her lip. She took a few seconds to glance at the ponies in the chairs, and her eyes watered. Clearing her throat, she looked away. With a clenched jaw, she nevertheless managed to grunt, "I really don't want to be here any longer than we have to."
Belle took a deep breath. She turned around and looked at the machines, then back at Kera. "I'm sorry, Kera, but we can't leave right now. Not yet..."
Kera looked up. "Wh-why not?"
Belle stood and said, "Because I have to be a courageous pony too." She trotted along the edge of the wall.
Phoenix was in the process of opening the door and checking the nextdoor room. He saw instrument panels, seats, and intercom systems—but no sign of Sir Ordo or any other pony. At the sound of Bellesmith's rummaging footsteps, he glanced back with a confused expression. "What are you doing?"
"Is the coast clear?"
"Uh... yeah..."
"Think you can keep it that way?"
"It looks like there's a door that I can lock from the outside, sure. But anypony with a lick of sense is gonna know something's fishy in here if they come back and can't get through..." He stopped in mid-speech to squint at her. "Ms. Bellesmith? What are you looking for?"
"Never mind." She pulled at the edge of the room. "I found it." A piece of the wall slid out, then unfolded again to form a very rough cot. She reached in and pulled loose a series of wires with a tiny metallic cone attached to the end. "Blue Shelf had lots of these. Seems like Professor Garnet shared the best of the best with Nightshade after all."
"What is it?"
"A tertiary access point. It was used to facilitate the junctioning process for novices." She gestured overhead at a wire that ran up the wall, dangled across the ceiling, and fed into the side of the hanging metal cylinder. "As you can see, it should grant me direct access. I just may need to bypass a few spheres from within—"
"Oh for the love of Spark..." Phoenix slumped limply against the doorframe. "You've gotta be joking!"
"You're going to connect with them?" Kera asked, bounding up.
"Yes, Kera," Belle nodded as she slid onto the cot. "I'm going to sequence."
"Ms. Bellesmith!" Phoenix sputtered. "That's... But that's just—"
"Cool!" Kera grinned wide. She hopped. "Can I help?"
"As a matter of fact, you can." Belle said, nodding towards her as she hoofed her the cables. "Use your wonderful telekinesis to attach these to my horn. And you see that dial to my left?"
"Uhhhh... yeah?"
"Pull the two levers beside it and turn the adjacent dial about ninety degrees to the left. Do you know what I mean by ninety degrees—"
"Pfft. Please. I'm a foal, not a bag of bricks."
"Alright then..." Belle chuckled.
"This is no laughing matter!" Phoenix hissed at her. "Who knows how much that thing can scramble your brain!"
"Mr. Phoenix, I know that you've made me a promise, and I respect that." She looked at him from where she was lying back. Kera telekinetically attached the wires to her horn-stub before trotting over to the controls. "But there are some places where you simply can't follow me. What we need the most now is answers, and this is the best option we have for getting them."
"I can't just let you kill yourself!"
"Good. Then don't." Bellesmith pointed at the adjacent office. "Guard that room. Seal it up. Pull whatever switches you have to pull. If any of Nightshade's cronies arrive, wake me up."
"And just how the heck do we do that?"
Bellesmith turned towards Kera. "Turn the dial slowly back to it's starting point, then push the left lever... then the right."
"That it?" Kera asked, green eyes bright.
"Well... that will get me unsequenced. The next thing is to wake me up."
"And how should I wake you?"
Belle smiled. "Quietly, preferably. I mean, how do you like waking up?"
Kera smiled back. "I'll have him kiss you awake," she said, pointing with a giggle.
"I've never hit a foal," Bellesmith muttered. "But there's always a first."
"That makes the two of us," Phoenix muttered. "Ms. Bellesmith, if this doesn't work—"
"Get yourself and Kera to safety," Bellesmith said, firmly glaring in the stallion's direction. "If I can't get any secrets out, then there's no reason for you two to stay in."
Phoenix bit his lip, but eventually nodded. "Alright. Just... Just don't do anything crazy in dreamland or whatever."
"I'll try my best." Belle turned towards Kera. She nodded.
Kera gulped, then put on her best smile as she pulled at the levers. "Nighty night!"
Belle's eyes rolled back. She gasped. All was light, then stars...
Then black.