Austraeoh

by Imploding Colon

Spark

Rainbow Dash's eyes flew open, and she gasped for breath. Standing up, she looked at the wide space of metal gizmos and golden bowers surrounding her. Drowning in ancient architecture stretching above and beneath her for hundreds of meters, her only impulse was to smile and say:

“...it is a machine.”

She stood up on wobbly legs, rediscovering her strength. The crimson flame was gone from the pedestal, and instead the entire place was awash in lavender glow. She was in the center of it, the epicenter of a living candle.

Gulping, Rainbow Dash raised her hooves to her face and smiled even more.

“And I am the spark.”

Her eyes flickered red on yellow and back to their ruby glint. The pendant around her neck fluctuated briefly. She felt dizzy, but for the time being it no longer mattered. Her wings flapped once, twice, then blurred as she lifted up in the belly of the behemoth chasm of metal. As she levitated, the lavender light followed her, filling each remote corner of the place with illumination and purpose. Gears came to life. Pendulums swung as if on their own. Conveyor belts and pistons hummed with a timeless breath of industry.

Rainbow Dash lifted her way into a spiraling chamber of clanking and rotating parts. Lanterns flickered brightly, being lit for the first time in centuries. She looked everywhere, at walls studded with endless, complicated instruments. She didn't understand a single thing, and yet she comprehended it all. There was no questioning it. Her eyes were filled to the brim with lavender energy, like a solid explosion of intelligence was blossoming forth from the center of her skull.

Spinning around, Rainbow Dash saw a series of levers. Flying over towards it, she landed and gripped the handle with two hooves.

“Nnnngh...!”

Straining slightly, she gave the levers a heavy tug. Pipes hissed with steam and tesla coils sparked to life.

Twirling about, she saw even more levers waiting for a phantom to come and give them motion. She dashed over and yanked at the handles before pulling at the switches to the side and pressing at the buttons beyond them. Like a drunken boxer, she scrambled over the various contraptions, relishing the lucid engineering abilities for as long as they lasted.

Before the flame died out in her eyes, and the glow left her pendant, her task was completed. She felt another wave of dizziness, but bravely bore it as she sat back and watched through a glass panel while a large black object rose straight up like a huge piston.

Comments

[Pilate]

Epic. Glorious answers, I look forward to the next 144 chapters!

[Jade Curtiss]

4 CHAPTERS!

[zaponator]

Objective Completed: Find a way to raise the obelisk (That's an old one)

[Misplaced Modifier]

Title Obtained: "The Spark"

-Minty

[Rainbow87dash]

For some reason a song from the sourcerers apprentice piped into my head. U know the bit where he like getting the brooms and stuff to clean for him and thatbreallyncatchy music plays in the background that one

[Mithrandir]

Sweet. Bucking. Celestia. A Machine. I must finish this chapter...

[Csquared08]

It's a... machine? Say what now?

[MellowMabari]

Machine? Hmmm, interesting. So many answers, yet still so many questions. Onward!

[dashie76]

IIIIIt's Dashie's Fifth Marathon Evaluation Time!

Erm...alright, why is the obelisk hooked up to the engine? The engine has got to be millennia older than it, so why? Unless the entire hole that it fell down was one enormous piston shaft...These are my thoughts so far.

-MASH

P.S. I'm going to win. Nothing can stop me now. (Cue Inception music.)

[Regidar]

Day 10: A machine? Welcome, Dashie...

[AppleTank]

Twilight, charge me!
Javole!
Dash gets brain boosted for 10 seconds

[Unwitting Brony]

And suddenly BOOM! Answers. This is starting to give off even more of a Forerunner-ish feeling, what with their entire world being a machine, but it also reminds me of stuff the Titans would have done, in Warcraft lore.

Also, knowing how similar ponies can be to humans, the raising of the obelisk can mean one of two things- either New Ring settles down because they have their power and holy icon back, or they fight even harder for no good reason at all.

[Salted Pingas]

achievements.schrankmonster.de/Achievement.aspx?text=Rage%20against%20the%20machine...or%20just%20start%20it%20up

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

All apart of a grander plan.

[whizzball1]

What could this machine be? So deep. So, so deep.

[Zecoro]

Treasure planet?

[aRestlessCreativeGamer]

So a machine....we knew that. What is its purpose though? And now Dash has been proclaimed to be 'The Spark'. Is she starting a revolution? or perhaps just starting the machine? For better or worse, we're going to find out

[**Beert]

Ok, now I'm like 'wait, what?'

[djthomp]

Thank you Twilight for your continued assistance.

[MustacheMerlin]

But Magic is the spark Rainbow! Not Loyalty! That was Twilight Sparkle right there! The genius mare who raised a dragon, has a pet phoenix, studied under the sun goddess amd sometimes spontaneously bursts into flames! She also has a lavender aura, like the one you keep seeing everywhere.

(It's actually a magenta aura, like the streak in her mane, but almost everyone says it's lavender in stories for some reason)

[SolidFire]

This chapter and the previous one... they raise many more questions than they answer. Still, loving how it's all progressing.

~SolidFire

[RD-loves-RA]

I don't wanna read the part where the obelisk comes up with all those little dead foals...

[arancaytar]

“...it is a machine.”

The world is a giant alien mechanism floating in a sea of chaos, with a light dusting of trees and ponies on top. Hot damn, this cosmology is terrifying.

Edit: It is so much more mindfuck-y than that.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

And here we get to a central part of the entire Austraeoh universe, a machine world. That alone speaks of vast capabilities.

03/21/2017 00:23 UTC

[Falx_of_Lume]

the epicenter of a living candle.
Gulping, Rainbow Dash raised her hooves to her face and smiled even more.
“And I am the spark.”

Rainbow Dash is linking the first flame! :P

[ZanarNaryon]

6593335
Oh Thank god, I was afraid I had missed something

[God Praiser]

Oh my corn, so this I believe was the real origin of Sparky...

[Thread Necromancer]

[Icy Creation]

Equus is a machine?
Who built it? Why? What does it do? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

[arancaytar]

Twirling about, she saw even more levers waiting for a phantom to come and give them motion. She dashed over and yanked at the handles before pulling at the switches to the side and pressing at the buttons beyond them. Like a drunken boxer, she scrambled over the various contraptions, relishing the lucid engineering abilities for as long as they lasted.

Wow, I completely skipped or forgot this bit. I thought the machine came to life on its own as soon as she touched the flame.