Follow the Horizon, Break the Circle
“Harmony... Chaos...”
Verlax spoke.
“Impermeable barriers to one another...”
Verlax circled the circle while Rainbow Dash peered out from within.
“Parallel lines of perfect antithesis...”
Verlax's shadow came to a stop, her hooves scuffling metallically through the blinding blizzard.
“...but only because we let them be.”
Rainbow merely watched, her face frozen in confusion as she listened.
The shadow and its glowing eyes turned to face her.
“Imagine that you spun the lines, so that they blurred into a pair of circles. Now, imagine merging those circles together, so that you could see that they were both one in the same.” She paced closer, her mane billowing like a dark cape behind her figure. “Imagine... just imagine that this was once the way things always were, and only a mind defined by its linear frailties could comprehend otherwise, forced by limitations: tiny thin slits through which one is forced to perceive the emotionless mechanics of this vast and unfeeling universe. Try to imagine an encompassing, a listless all-purpose purposelessness, stretching outward and inward in every direction, yet in no direction. A singularity and a void all in one. There would be no truth, for there would be no need for truth. Loneliness wouldn't exist, for there would be no one, no other, no all or nothing.
“How would one perceive of the imperceptible? Simple. There had to be a schism, a break, an epic cataclysm of such great and indomitable magnitude that it broke the laws and wrote them all at once, forcing into being beingness itself. How could this happen? It doesn't matter, for it had to happen, or else we would not be here discussing its happening. And for the laws of existence there were equal laws of nonexistence. For destruction, there was construction. For harmony... there was chaos. And you and I—goddess or not—we all live in the beautiful detritus of yesterday's apocalypse, a twilight that never ends, for it is always ending. What you and I call reality is simply the appendix to a chapter that exists outside the boundaries of any language...
“And yet, like trusting children, we all repeat it. We—the cosmos, the microbes, the oceans, the dust—we all emulate it, acting it out through eons of repetition, using planetoids as stage plays and continents as pulpits. We repeat death and rebirth in our futile attempts to become it. Sometimes in harmonic ballet, other times in chaotic bloodshed, we zig zag all the world's lines in hopes that it can become the circle once again... and never again.
“We did this until, at some point in time, the process became uniform. The accident stopped being an accident, and simply became a healthy reality. And it was at some point later, with the sum of all recorded knowledge and ignorance... regrets and hopes... dreams and fears... that a gaggle of curious creatures found their lines intersecting, and they decided to build a circle... to make it manifest through the greatest collage of ideas ever assembled in the history of everything. This was their gift to the universe... their gift to themselves... their home and gravestone all at once.”
Rainbow's ears folded back. At last, she murmured: “Urohringr.”
“However, their first mistake was in assuming that the epic monolith would be permanent.” The shadow paused in pacing, turning towards Rainbow yet again. “After all, can you blame them?” Then, with a loud burst, the shadow exploded, and Verlax turned into hundreds of thousands of pegasus shapes, all circling and flocking around the cylindrical blizzard like a cacophonous swarm of bats.
Rainbow gnashed her teeth, clamping her hooves over her ears as she hunched over and hissed in pain from the noise.
Through it all, Verlax's voice came booming with agonizing clarity. “Maybe it was done maliciously, or maybe it was made manifest by accident. But, one way or another, a singular member of this group—one very familiar to you and I—broke the covenant that had been so daringly made in the eons previous. The result was the greatest collapse to the greatest construction ever made. I trust you've always known about the Sundering, Austraeoh. What you haven't understood until now is that it was simply the lines' destiny to intersect and emulate the circle yet again. By breaking it, yes. But the Sundering was never just one event. It surrounds us. It defines us. And when the pieces fall apart just to fall back together again...”
Just like that, the screeching stopped. The flapping shadows all converged into one. The silhouette of a massive, five-horned dragon stood above Rainbow Dash, its wings outstretched.
“...it is like beautiful poetry. And you and I, Rainbow Dash, are on the cusp of a brand new stanza. We are so very lucky to witness it... to draw forth the breath that sings it into being.”
Rainbow seethed and seethed. She lowered her hooves from her aching ears and hissed: “I think... I-I think...” She gulped hard. “...you're an even nuttier melon fudge than Nevlamas.”
Slitted eyes flashed a hot blue. “My younger sister's biggest mistake was to obsess over chaos and chaos alone. But she can't really be blamed. She always was an idiot.” The shadow shrank into a petite pony size and trotted closer to the eye of the storm. “And for my older sister's transgression...” A metallic chuckle lit the air, adding frost to the swirling clouds. “...I can smell her fear on you, the same anxiety that once led her to eviscerate you in anger and denial. She thinks she's making a difference now, but all she values is harmony. Her arrogance is a dangerous thing. Nevlamas may have lived if it weren't for such self-righteousness.”
“Says the Divine who's lied to an entire continent full of sentient beings just to gain power,” Rainbow grumbled.
The shadow raised a hoof. “Responsibility. Not power. Though those two qualities are often commonly associated, only a kindergartner would consider them one in the same. No...” The equine head shook. “What I've done here in this ocean could not have been accomplished in my sleep, which is what your beloved princesses do. The alicorns of the sun and moon coast along on this cosmic waltz without questioning it or thinking outside the lines that their alien ancestors have painted. They ride the crest of a magic spell that's been thrown into kinetic motion since time immemorial. One day, the energy in those spells is going to fade away. And why not? The original casters either died or abandoned this island in the void epochs ago. But I?” Her wings stretched and unstretched in supple shadows. “I know the price of longevity, now more than ever. But when I first graced these shores, and I saw these mortals at war with one another, I knew that transforming them was no way of restoring them. I had to preserve their sins as much as their virtues. Harmony without chaos, after all, is a prison, and being ignorant of it is the one true Hell.”
“And you call this place a paradise?!” Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth. “There are pirates and mobsters and corruption all over the high seas! I shudder to even think of what I'll find in Rohbredden!”
“You will find peace,” Verlax said. “And peace is not absolute. Nothing is. Nothing... save for the Sundering, and the forces that are compelled to repeat it, whether it involves us or not.”
“And lemme guess...” Rainbow flung a hoof. “You already signed up at the recruitment office ages ago.”
“What you call Rohbredden... my children... my brood... I call my greatest experiment. Well... second greatest. You're here now... and we can finally follow through on my vision.”
“Vision???” Rainbow blinked. Hard. “What vision?”
“The truth I witnessed about the Sundering...” The shadow receded into the mists. “...thousands upon thousands of years ago... when I attempted to follow my oldest sister, Endrax, into the void...”
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So if she's to be believed, Axan is Harmony and Nevlamas is Chaos, making Verlax Balance?
What would that make Endrax and... the other one, then? Good and Evil? Complete the morality compass points?
Yep, Dash, she is a few pegasi short of a weather team.
i.imgur.com/Xxi0piP.jpg
Alright. Buck this. Midnight isn't going to attempt to ascertain to what the fuck they just read. Most of this we already knew, but who is the singular pegasus that Verlax spoke of?
Who!?
Meh, if the universe is unfeeling, let us feel for it.
6399605 Discord? Endrax? Faust? Shell?
Huh.
Verlax has been to the other side. Or at least tried. And she's still sane... ish.
I really don't know what to think of this.
6399612 AHA! Shell is the true villain behind everything, and is actually an immortal alicorn who hid his wings the entire time, which explains how he was able to live for so long, and he's the one who broke Urohringr and somehow... Eh. Nevermind. We obviously won't see him again. There's no way he could ever survive being stabbed off screen and not having his head blown off. Now we just have the cheap knock-off toy Revan who thinks he's better but in reality he isn't even worth a Thunderhorn. Shell had great backstory. Revan's just a thug.
I predict nothing good can come from helping Verlax. She's resigned herself that these events can't be changed and will most likely do what she can to ensure that events cannot be changed. She gives me a very ME reaper vibe with her philosophy.
6399616
Not really sure she counts as still sane. The Jury's still out on that one.
Well... that was a fun exposition dump.
I like Verlax. Ice people always seem to be fun to listen to.
glad to see the Divine of magic is no different.
-Memories given light, ease a lonely flight. Ynanhluutr.
So far, I find Nevlamas's understanding of the universe quite interesting. She stated that before the Sundering of the great Contruction, there was a Sundering of the Universe that brought all of reality into being. While some of us are wondering who is the Pegasus who sundered the construction, I'm wondering who was the being that Sundered all of the universe and rewrote its very laws.
Well, like all wise nutcases, what she is saying has a grain of truth. But only a grain, the rest is just flights of fantasy.
Ah, Verlax, you're as verbose and deliciously obtuse as I hoped. Love the big cryptic speeches about the nature of reality that these immortal types can pull off. There's always this point where you kind of want to ask them if even they know what they're talking about. Still, not clear yet what Verlax's play for Dash is here. Stands to reason there is some task that only Dash can perform as the Austraeoh that Verlax needs doing and she's trying to spin a tale to convince Dash to do it, or perhaps reverse psychology Dash into doing it. Manipulation has to be going down here, because that's Verlax's thing, but I feel like we're not going to see the whole of it for awhile yet. Not until the next book, probably.
Something I'm wondering about, Verlax talks about Urohringr as if it were a singular thing, but I'm pretty sure I remember one of Dash's visions showing that there were multiple rings, and that Urohringr was just one that drifted off into the chaos cloud/nebula thing some eons ago. Or am I remembering wrong?
I had to reread everything Verlax said, but it's starting to make sense in its own way.
6399638
Now, we just need her to break into song.
...and exists inside the imagination of a Dr. Pepper drinking Lemur.
6399709 Unless she starts singing in Dovah, no, no we do not.
I saw where you were going with that, and I am not having it.
6399655
Nope, you are remembering correctly.
It's not clear what's up with Verlax. Is she sane? Insane? Does she want Dash to continue with what she has been doing? Does she want her to do something different? Should the Austraeoh do something different?
oh god metaphysics
Oh, now I'm starting to get it. A lot of what she says doesn't strike me as particularly wrong, but my experience is that most characters like this in stories tend to be missing one vital piece of the puzzle, and that the hero must prove their diagnosis wrong. Far be it from me to guess what that piece may be at this point, however.
More troubling is this:
It makes me wonder what that "greatest experiment" was. The implication I'm drawing is that it has to do with Rainbow herself. We already knew she knew Rainbow was coming... but how far did that foresight go? What hand might she have played in everything that's happened? Is it possible that all the prophesies of Austraeoh--and the mythology surrounding Rainbow's fated flight east--were penned by Verlax herself? If so, to what extent has Rainbow merely been dangling from her puppet strings? There seem to be forces beyond Verlax at work (ancient symbols on the doors to the machine world, otherworldly voices, etc.), but where do they begin and Verlax's medding end?
Or am I completely misreading or misinterpreting her? We might just have to wait and see.
Hmmm, interesting philosophy. Kind of fits with quantum mechanics and big-bang stuff: There was nothing until it was observed then there was something, and before it was split into something the nothing was everything.
That being said, doesn't mean she's a good person, but I like her dualistic view of things so far.
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Daring Do?
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Fluttershy confirmed worst pony, as usual.
Alright now we have an idea of what she believes is going on here. Now only time will tell if she is correct or is just also mistaken like has happen quite a few other times in this story.
Edit: Though again she is very deceptive so for all we know everything she says could be a huge lie.
6399720 Imagine if she can use Thu'um..
Dammit, Boss #33, you're monologuing just like all the others!
I absolutely love the character of Verlax. It's really as I thought, each Divine has broken into her own kind of madness. Axan looked to Harmony, saw it fade and despaired. Nevlamas looked to Chaos, saw it rise and was destroyed trying to fight it. Verlax however got mad with thinking.
She's a philosopher through and through and a very accurate, extremely well-done representation of what happens when one of those goes off the deep end: she thought just that tiny bit too far, lost grip on reality just that little bit too much, has driven her theorems and models to just that small amount of consequence too much to make everything collapse.
She is neither wisdom nor strength corrupted, like Axan and Nevlamas - she is wit, intelligence and mind out of control. Her thoughts are full of over-encoded sophisms, but all of those are based on very valid mullings. The sage she once was is still visible, though frozen over. This character is a masterpiece.
This for instance. Not commonly associated. Always intertwined. She recognized the truth in her thoughts, thought herself smart and with that smug self-certainty then didn't notice when that truth started to slip into self-righteousness.
And right back at you, you pseudo-philosophic, Daoism-guzzling, walking circle jerk.
6399576 She has associated Nevlamas, Axan and herself with Chaos, Harmony and balance, yes. But that doesn't mean much. If anything, Sturke is the Divine of balance. Keep in mind she is insane, her words hold great value as the bearer of historical information - in this case, teaching us that just one particular pegasus was responsible for the Sundering, not all of them - her interpretations thereof however only give us information about her, not the things she analyses. What irritates me is her statement about "one very familiar to you and I". I would assume a forebear of the Austraeoh, but even then: how are we supposed to understand that statement? Dash knows none of the proto-pegasi as an individual. Discord? Actually Discord? Well it would have to be - could he have corrupted the people as a whole?
6399616 We can also not be sure if "the void" actually refers to the dark side. I have the feeling it means something else - and I do believe we're about to learn more about Endrax, for that matter.
6399638 Verlax's the Divine of Frost. But as the Divine of Magic, I appreciate your compliment.
Oh god, verlax is a philosopher, the greatest kind of madness to turn to
Feels like Eljunbyro again. What is life?
So Verlax took both harmony and chaos to the max rather than just one and over time emerged as this all-knowing Divine that is, funnily enough, also a bit out there.
That is pretty awesome
HOLY CLIFFHANGER BATMAN!
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That little shadow show of screeching pegasus shapes had me thinking of our fuzzy nocturnal pals.
I mean, Dash is familiar with one in her group. Plus Verlax allegedly had her reasons for disregarding their kind during Unification. Perhaps something sour really did happen "eons ago" between the divine and Echo's ancestors.
Huzzah, I have finally caught back up! Also, cliffhanger! I guess it't time to get the whiskey out again.
Poor Verlax, totally crazed.
And we havent found out yet what happened when she tried stuffing herself down Chaos throat and got spewed back.
1.bp.blogspot.com/-h01jZyxlFZc/Tp0GNWFBltI/AAAAAAAABTQ/pKSbPXO6o8A/s1600/end_of_ponies_by_chobit_389-d4d5gmz.png
I actually don't quite think she's mad. She's just hard to understand--at first blush. But once you think of it. In the setting of this story, her words make sense.
In addition, her words give me the feeling that Discord may be in the last seed.
-Spirit (Yeast and Treacle)
6400353 Well, I just realised--we don't actually know what Discord is. We know where the alicorns came from. We know where the Divines came from. But who or what is Discord? He has no history that we know of. If I remember correctly not even Celestia and Luna really knew who he was, like they did Chrysalis.
Gah, whenever we get close to some good ol' ancient history, its always wrapped up in words and riddles and crazy talk. Why you gotta be like this, Verlax?
I'd say it's more than possible for Rainbow to get out of this without having to fight Verlax...
...but who am I kidding? Of course they're gonna fight, and of course Rainbow's gonna win.
Glorious exposition.
Well, this has certainly made me reassess my thoughts on Verlax, but eeeeughghhh...
This is the kind of talk that makes me really worry...
6400878 We know that in the Skirtsian Equestria, he is not the draconequus but a draconequus, as there is an entire race of these spirits. As a spirit, I'd wager he came from where they all came - born from the primordial essence of chaos that among many other things condensed itself into the cloud surrounding the world shard, and by nature feeling compelled to stir up some crap.
6401079 Ohhhh. Never mind then; I must have forgotten.
Oh, great. She wants to be in charge. And has a maniacal need to pat her own Ego.
Her mindset is like Mr. House in Fallout: NV. Except she actually believes herself to be a Goddess.
... Funny, most people wind up killing Mr. House.
Someone likes to describe reality as a song methinks.
One does not leave a construct when it's stuck in a cloud of chaosness.
I like this Divine. She's totally got so many of the bits and bobs that make up Zen and stuff. It even seems to me that she's alluding Urohringr to a self, but is caught in some of the illusions of birth and death.
I also have this weird feeling that the spherical description of the antiparallel lines of chaos and harmony is some easier-for-readers-to-understand offshoot of how certain things in math and engineering manipulate things. Understanding Imaginary numbers and how complex numbers are amazing things. The real and imaginary planes intersecting and how it can abstract into phase and magnitude.
Verlax doesn't care about being nice or being mean. She's invested into her work. I like where this is going.
Verlax is nutty.
6400674 I just want to understand what the flying fuck happened with Equestria.
Or is this dude going to tie both universes? I mean I know that RD never went to an epic journey on TEoP, but still.
If he does it, I'll hug and kill him at the same time.
The morality that Verlax is spouting is warped and incorrect on a number of critical points.
One flaw that stands out immediately is that Good and Evil are equals.
In reality, Good is far more powerful than Evil: Evil is a perversion of the natural order, a parasite that cannot exist without good.
So, let's see where Verlax's screwed up view of the world takes us...
So now we are learning what each divine represents in the spectrum. Harmony, chaos, balance; Axan, Nevlamas, and Verlax. So Endrax and . . . the other one I can't remember are the only ones left. I wonder . . .
I'm getting a cult leader vibe? Anyone else getting a cult vibe? Dash, if she offers you koolade, Dont drink it!
6399639 why who else but the true Big Bad of the story... The seemingly unstoppable eldritch abomination that makes all who see him flee in terror:
no, not Shell guys,
I meant Dissy himself.
Come to think of it, if she restores her friends, does the catch involve restoring him as well
... Yes, I'm still talking about Discord