The tunnel was dimmer than the rest of the cavern. As the walls closed in, the line of hanging lanterns stopped, and Rainbow Dash found herself trotting into pitch black. There was nothing to see beyond a few feet of distance, and yet Rainbow Dash felt as if she was being drawn forward. Her hooves tingled with each shuffling step. Her ears twitched, as if listening for a dim, otherworldly hum to start ringing in the distance.
Undaunted by the shadows, Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to her pendant and murmured a few words. A dim glow emanated from the ruby lightning bolt, casting a crimson aura across the claustrophobic rock walls before her. The surfaces were pale, like polished granite, and they rolled and spun like frozen sea waves or the inside of a nautilus' shell.
Rainbow Dash found herself weaving left and then weaving right as she travelled the length of this bizarre corridor. There was something curiously enticing about the trek, no matter how ominous it should have felt. Rainbow Dash couldn't shake the sensation that the trip was perfectly natural, almost like flying east.
At last, she came upon an opening. What she saw froze her in her tracks. The winding corridor came to an utterly flat stop. A perfect wall of ivory-white stone stood before her. It was a sharp contrast to the dark, grimy, soot-stained mines that she had taken to get there.
The air was terribly thin there. Rainbow Dash felt a sudden chill as she heard her lonesome breath dancing off the polished rock. If somepony had told her that she was in the deepest, most secret heart of the world, she somehow wouldn't have doubted it.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash marched past overturned bits of mining equipment and wooden carts in order to approach the flat wall. A crimson spotlight from her pendant tightened on a stretch of the immaculate barricade. Her eyes swam across the surface. At first, she didn't understand what was the point, for there was no blemish to be seen along the body of the stone. Then, upon a third examination, Rainbow Dash saw something—an image etched into the white granite. She could have sworn she had scanned that part of the rock already, and yet there before her hung an emblem as plain as day. It was a very simplistic formation, illustrated seemingly in two parts.
The left side was an omega symbol. The right side was a sphere that was partially transposed over the left image. Howbeit, bordering the circle to the right of where it intersected the left symbol was a sporadic series of squiggly lines.
Rainbow Dash was oblivious to the meaning of the dual characters, but a part of her shuddered at the implications of the right symbol's borders.
“Are those... solar bands?” she murmured aloud.
Never would Rainbow Dash have predicted that she would be so enthralled by such seemingly random lines. Perhaps it wasn't so much that she was enthralled, but some essence of her soul was obligated to peer closely at the shapes.
As a matter of fact, the longer she looked at the character on the left, the less it started looking like an omega symbol, and the more it started resembling a hoofprint. Without realizing it, her left forelimb was rising up to that particular spot of the polished stone.
The closer it got, a bright pulse of ruby light emanated from her pendant, and she could have sworn she saw a hint of lavender color to the edge of her peripheral vision.
Gasping, Rainbow Dash stumbled back. She felt her heart beating, as if coming down from the crest of performing a sonic rainboom. There were very few moments in her life when Rainbow Dash could count having been legitimately frightened by something, and ever since her journey east she had counted fear as the most frivolous emotion of all.
And yet she couldn't contain her thunderous pulse just then. A shiver ran through her body, and she was gazing too hard at the pale wall to even register the aura of lamplight coming up from behind.
“It's quite fascinating, isn't it?” an elder voice said.
Rainbow Dash spun around...
Augh! Cliffhangers!
Lavender light and mysterious voices? Oh boy...
There is no image!
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So in this chapter, Dash explores the deep cave that Sladesteed brought her to. She finds, at the far end of the cavernn, a wall of ivory white with a special hoofprint/sun symbol. However, when Dash brings her hoof up to the imprint, she sees lavender (Twilight?) at the edge of her vision and the imprint begins to glow, which is extremely ominous. Also there's another cliffhanger... These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Is RD tryinng to find new ponies to weild the elaments of harmony?
(Rhetorical question)
The picture isn't working here - they want you to pay for bandwidth the scallywags!
Also, great story so far!
This is all so ominous, it's almost scary. I just know something bad is going to happen in a chapter soon, maybe a battle? Whatever happens, she's not simply going to get her answers and fly out without a scratch. Nope, we're going to have to wait and see and what will befall our fateful hero, Rainbow Dash!
~FierceRainbow
And here comes Hushtail.
Twilight is guiding her....maybe. And that's why Rainbow thought she saw purple in her peripheral
Tentative theory: Rainbow is carrying with her the essences of her friends. Twilight was poking through right here.
Could be mistaken.
And here comes the mystery, the hint of something far far greater than just a simple exploration. Lets Go
So many colors being seen, and they almost seem to be guides at times. Alas, we've found a symbol for some reason or another. This story... is going to be hard to put down. I regret waiting forever to begin.
~SolidFire
Usually a series has two parts to it, a story arc, and what I like to call a 'myth arc', a buildup of all past occurrences across multiple stories. while it is not said, I think it is obvious what this chapter consists of.
02/15/2017 20:18 UTC
Glad I reread this in the browser, as the epub export seems to have lost the illustration so I had no idea there was one.
Pretty intriguing, this.
I'm not saying it was ancient aliens, but it was ancient aliens.
This images does not display, a shame as I really wanted to see it.
Image is broken. Damn...
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Most of them are broken, by this point. It's the same symbol in the book's cover, if you want to see what it looks like.
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Just click on the image and click on the little link next to "Source:". It will take you to another website where you can see the picture :)
(In case you can't get it to work, I took a picture of it and uploaded it to Gyazo: https://gyazo.com/898661e534886d4d2b245586fbcbece3)
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Yeh I managed to find the symbols on the wiki as well.
Also good to see i'm not alone on this journey, just starting Odrsjot.
I got chills.
First time through, it's living up to the hype!
Do it's the symbol on the cover. I wonder what it could mean.
DUN DUN DUNN
A cliffie!
Image is busted again, perhaps it would be better to also include a link to said image. Real world concerns aside it seems like destiny is calling for the Rainbow
07/13/2019
01:30 UTC
Might be time to find somewhere else to host tge image (Imgur, maybe?) since there's now a Photobucket watermark on it.
8½ years and no comment that the symbol in the image is upside-down for an omega: Ω?
If the text is correct and it is an omega, it would match the orientation of her raised forehoof; not so if the image is.
Reading this description, suddenly remembering something and looking down
Dressed for the Austraeoh reread https://imgur.com/M5OMKW4
Looking back, I forgot how much and how early the lavender phantom image came up in the text.
Okay, appearance of the lavender light at the edge of vision number three!
Also, happy to see that the picture of the symbol is back up, though I will admit that the giant Photobucket watermark across the middle is pretty funny.