Professor Garnet looked closely at the two symbols, his cold eyes narrowing in thought. He observed the twin horizontal lines on the left side as they curled at opposite ends and joined each other with a diagonal streak. He studied the serpentine pattern on the right that ended with a concave shape fitted with flaring dashes. After several minutes of intense scrutiny, he tilted his gaze up from the tablet in his grasp, raising an eyebrow.
Bellesmith sat across the oaken table from him in his office, fidgeting, waiting. The air pulsed with the ticking of an antique clock.
Sighing, Ganet zapped the image on his tablet clear with his horn and placed the glass sheet down. Folding his hooves he cleared his throat and spoke across the dimly lit compartment. "That is not the pattern we were looking for," he said.
Belle gulped, nodded, and stammered, "I know, Professor. But I'm telling you; it came to me. I saw it when I was last sequenced."
"The image we require data on is vital to understanding the subject," Garnet said. "The more information we have on the subject, the further we get to bringing glory to Ledomare."
"I am all for a successful experiment here in Blue Shelf," Belle said. "And I'm sorry, Professor, that I haven't gotten close to figuring out the meaning behind the symbol you've displayed to me previous." She pointed at the clear tablet. "But what I saw isn't a hallucination or a product of magical disconnect."
"Oh?"
"You have Dalton's reports," she said. "The last sphere I was in overtook the sequencing process. I had no control over the connection, and none of Dalton's assistants could pull me free until it was too late."
"Too late for what?"
"For me to receive a vision," Belle exclaimed, leaning forward as she spoke with emphasis. "It didn't just come to me after I was brought out; I saw it within the mental construct. The environment within the sphere was crafting the illustrations for me. This took place right after I had integrated deeply with a memory of great emotional importance to the subject. As a matter of fact, seeing the vision was what brought me back to a level of lucidity, allowing Dalton's team to pull me out. If I hadn't been allowed to see the vision, I fear I might still be in there, lost between the spheres."
"What do you mean... 'allowed,' Bellesmith?" Garnet's eyes narrowed. "You're a scientist, just like me. Surely you're not subject to flights of fancy."
"I know it sounds strange, sir. But if the Experimental Council of Ledo is right, and there is significance to the latest subject of Blue Shelf's sequencing, then this is exactly what must be expected. I believe we're onto something, Professor." She pointed once more at the blank tablet. "That image means something, just as much as the other one. All that remains is to find meaning to them."
"You mean names?" Garnet inquired. "Phonetics to the commands?"
Belle's chestnut eyes twitched upon hearing that. "You mean that's what the Council of Ledo requires?" She squinted. "Commands?"
Garnet took a deep breath. Without speaking, he extracted magic from a mounted crystal and produced a spreadsheet of data upon the tablet. Waving a hoof, he scrolled down the glowing words and altered a field of information at the bottom column.
Belle watched nervously.
Finally, Garnet spoke. "Fantastic work, Doctor. You've earned yourself a week up on the surface."
Belle exhaled sharply. She smiled wide and bowed her head slightly. "Thank you, Professor. I knew you would be impressed..."
"Oh, I'm not the one you've made an impact on," he said, gazing at her unemotionally. "I do not see the same progress that you believe has been made here. However, this decision is not up to me. Somepony higher up believes you must rest before engaging in what is undoubtedly going to be the most strenuous exercise thus far."
"Somepony higher up?" Belle remarked, blinking oddly. Her face paled as she murmured, "Shell..."
Garnet slowly nodded. "The leader of the Blue Shelf Enforcers was observing you in your latest sequence. I'm guessing the fact that you can still speak and function after such deep excursions within the subject's spheres is a subject of intense impressiveness to him. I am proud of you too, of course, but I must keep a professional and objective distance in my evaluations. Besides, you already have a mentor in Dalton."
"I understand," Belle said, then swallowed anxiously. "How... H-how much of an expressed interest does Shell have in me?"
"That remains to be seen. What matters is that you've proven to be quite resilient in the sequencing. And now that we know that the subject is capable of providing us more than the residual data that we've acquired, it would be as good time as any to start performing other experiments on it."
"What kind of experiments?"
"None that concern you, Doctor. After all, you've sacrificed enough as it is. And, like a good Ledomaritan, it is my task to pay you back." He leaned over and passed the tablet over. "Your hoof, please."
Belle swiftly raised her right forelimb and hovered it above a magical hologram. Bright red lines scanned her hoof, turned yellow, then turned green. One of the crystals on Garnet's desk flashed.
For once, he bore a smile, albeit a stale one. "Congratulations, Doctor Bellesmith." He stood up. "Now, go and be with your beloved."
Dang I was wrong again, im guessing Garnet put a tracking thingy in Belles hoof?
Oh my gosh, so much exposition I this chapter...Just let me collect my thoughts...
...Ok, first off, this chapter has sparked a pretty important theory of mine.
I believe that the word Austraeoh is the verbal command that relates to the symbols seen by Rainbow Dash in the first story. Now we have been introduced to a second set of symbols. If my theory holds any truth, then this set of symbols or perhaps a more significant set that we will see later on is paired with the name of this story "Eljunbryo".
Now that we have a guess for how the names of the stories relate to the stories themselves, I would like to propose a totally far fetched guess for what each symbol means.
I am going to guess that each symbol relates to a element of harmony. "Austraeoh" is the symbol for the element of loyalty while "Eljunbryo" is the command for the symbol that relates to honesty.
I say this because the symbol was brought on by highly emotional interactions with the element of honesty. I personally doubt that rainbow dash actually had that symbol burned into her memory by some leaves. Instead, I believe that the symbol Belle saw was a product of sequencing and not actually part of the memory itself.
This whole theory would largely explain why Axan said "Austraeoh" when she recognized the element of loyalty on rainbow was wearing.
What do you guys think, plausible or total BS?
'other experiments' doesn't sound very good.
Random guess: The Beloved isn't another Pony, but something more like Soma from Brave New World? Probably totally wrong here...
And what kinda experiments are they gonna do on poor Dashie?! Nothing too scary, I hope. Mostly for their sakes. Bad things happen to Ponies that do harm to Dash.
1496338. Your theory is highly likely and very much along the lines of what I was thinking as well. I'm sure more will be revealed in time, but it's a good hypothesis.
1496338
....does that mean IC is going to write six of these stories?
YE GODS
1496961
YE GODS AND LITTLE FISHES!
Well, that was a surprise.
I will be very interested to see this beloved. Very, very interested...
Well, this author sure seems to like the word 'beloved.'
I think "beloved" pops up in all of his longest stories at some point. But there are a lot of recurring themes, like loneliness.
I'm gonna frickin' frame this quote somewhere. I swear.
1496338
Ooh, good call. I was kinda getting that vibe, too.
This place definitely sounds like the slave place mentioned in Austraeoh. Good productive ponies get trips to the surface, who knows what happens to the not so productive ones. Here's to hoping the "subject" is a salvageable version of Rainbow Dash. And oh my, seems like I've accumulated some chapters again, which means I can go back to the standard - Onward!
So lets see what Belle is going to be doing at the surface. I'm interested to see what our time frame is
Oh God, I think i figured something out here.
What if the other subjects the comments are saying were sequenced before RD arrived are the other 5 elements. What if the ponies who became attached to the subjects became the new bearers of the elements. Bellesmith is the new element of loyalty or something and the earlier tests were done involving the other elements. maybe RD arrived after the other elements due to her not dying immediately and surviving another few months past the event that killed the other members of the mane 6.
Just a theory i got while reading. with everything else happening i doubt it will be correct.
I now regret not starting this sequel the moment that it came out.
I shall catch up
GOTTA GO THROUGH
Also, Beloved is best pony.
I like the URL for the picture at the beginning. "screwyoupilate.png" Very nice touch.
My suspicion of the Professor extends to Shell.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
So we get some exposition in this chapter: First, Ledomareis the supreme ruler of Blue Shelf. Yes, I can stop referring to it as "the society" now. Also, that beret guy at the end of the last chapter was apparently a member of the Council of Ledomare, which I assume is the governing body of Blue Shelf. Also, it appears that this entire facility is underground, since Belle earned some time on "the surface." Reminds me of Aperture Science...Also, we get the new symbol. I don't know, but the one on the right almost looks like a sonic rainboom. Anyone else agree? These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
1513622
You lucky bastard. You know what? Imma gonna try something.
Imploding Colon? If you read this, I want to know your opinion on the name "Malus Armor"
Sounds like the name of a guard, eh?
*droids
ledo is looking to bride the gap through rainbow dash.
.....You know I said I was joking right?
1496338
Ah, good, someone else shares my theory. Connecting them to the symbol sets makes sense too.
Does this mean there's a seperate set of Iron Factories only openable with the element of Honesty (Eljunbryo)?
Shell and Ledo have found a door into the Machinery. They want in, and somehow or other, they've figured out that Rainbow is/was the key. But since they can't use her for whatever reason, they're looking for an alternative.
2129692
Rainbow be dead. The subject was stated to have "terminated" several chapters ago.
1496338
I think you're right in seeing a connection between the "sun and omega" symbol, the element of Loyalty, and "Austraeoh", though I think >>FloorBelow had the right idea about "Austraeoh" and "Eljunbyro" (and, I suppose, "Innavedr" now) being a more direct reference to the Divine Five. These dragons were here, according to Axan (Chapter 187 - Axan):
Further, she says (Ch. 187 - Axan):
And (ditto):
So, Celestia's "Creation" and Axan's "Equine Seeding" seem synonymous. Going back, I'm less sure now that the Divine 5 represent the Elements of Harmony. They certainly represent 'universal elements', as Luna said, but it also seems as though they value harmony much less so than any alicorn we've seen so far. Assuming they do represent the Elements we know and love, this lack of preference for harmony would seem to suggest that 'balance' was more their aim. They may have been responsible for the power behind the elements of harmony, the Harmonic Prism, and in that case perhaps having the Prism and the Elements on opposite ends (Equestria and the Midnight Armory) of this double-sided flat-earth would make the two harmonic poles balanced (i.e. both sides would have a harmonic core and the cores would be furthest from each other). The rest of the world, being less-harmonic, or downright chaotic depending on which side, are likewise balancing each other, though through being equal opposites rather than through positioning. Axan's "Golden Age" must have looked nothing like the current setup, as this form of balancing is a very precarious set of scales, one side nearly all the chaos (excepting the Prism) and the other nearly all the the harmony (excepting the Discord statue and now chaos rift, sort of yinyang-esque). Dragons, being hardier creatures (able to easily survive (usually) in a non-passive or even threat-filled environment), must have had a more evenly balanced world during their Golden Age, with chaos and harmony abounding everywhere.
Now, the second quote. Axan describes scouring the world, not unlike a certain blue pegasus, and after the fact being drained of energy and hope. So the world ran fine during the Golden Age, no need for expending unnecessary energy balancing the world, but after the Equine Seeding there was suddenly an overabundance of harmonic energy plopped down on the top-side of the world. So the Divine Five, in the interest of balance, create the Harmonic Prism and leave it at the furthest point from the alicorn arrival. The initial land isn't enough for the alicorns and so expand outward, spreading the influence of harmony and sheltering pony communities across the topside landscape. The Divine Five have to react, and so (here's the punchline) the divine dragon connected to the "sun and omega" symbol and the element of Loyalty (as well as "Austraeoh") left (divine?) Flames at various pedestals within the topside Machine as a stopgap measure to keep things from falling apart completely from complete imbalance. Speaking of the Flames (>>dashie76), because I've seen nowhere in the comments as of yet where both are quoted I will here for convenience (they are both red and so cannot represent different elements as earlier theorized) (Chapter 74 - Flame):
It's later explained (Chapter 76 - Lavender):
Here's the second Flame (Chapter 142 - Pedestal):
And the fateful end to Austraeoh:
It seems like she's reacting to the light, or 'spark', within the element, rather than the element itself (remember that Celestia and her haven't seen each other for thousands of years, and the elements would have almost assuredly looked different then than they do now). Where I see all this theorizing breaking down, at least right now, is that it has no explanation yet for this (Chapter 188 - Purpose):
So far, there is no clues to my knowledge of what the Sundering could be (excepting Consus I saw mentioned once, but that wouldn't make sense unless Consus came to the world before the rest of the alicorns and just crashed face-first into it, causing untold problems for the Divine Five). I'm still unsure about how the spark, Purpose, and the lavender light completely fit in yet, but this post looking at it now is such a clustered mess I'd just better stop now. (1,337 words, ridiculously large post is ridiculous)
"The machine is broken; the spark is gone."
Perhaps the elements were supposed to be monitoring the machine world. Keeping it "alive."
Welp. I was wrong about the symbol, it's not the hoofprint-sun thing, but an even weirder and abstract one. Maybe this new one is the symbol of Discord and the hoofprint-sun one is the symbol of the Machine or alicorns?
>http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/shortskirtsandexplosions/screwyoupilate.png
LEL
Command? Command of what? This Machine?
I wonder if the spark is in pieces and each piece means one of the commands. I wonder if there are as many pieces as there are Elements.
1882476
Good show!
Hmm, now who is her beloved?
4083050 I don't think so. I don't think any pony except the one with the spark is capable of controlling that super machine. I dont know if im right in assuming this, correct me if i am, but my impression is that the whole middle layer of this apparant disk of a world is nothing but churing cogwheels and other various mechanically sequenced parts.
Plus i must say, since i forgot to comment on this in austraeoh, im amazed at how tough the material that makes up the machine is. It even barrierates the elemental forces of chaos upon entrapment of said forces. Material like that makes Graphene look like dried up paper. I LOVE it :D
What if Equuis is actually Cybertron and this all ends with the all-spark giving birth to the Transformers?
6459374
So you are saying autobots dream of electric ponies?
Alright, so not the magic symbols that access The Machine, but still symbols nonetheless. Also, Shell's favor does not seem like something you want. Well, now that the tracking device in Belle's hoof says she's clear for surface leave, it's time to find out whether or not her 'beloved' is real.
Or alive.
Maybe those glowing lines mean Belle has Scar's tattoos. That'd be an interesting fight scene to watch...
I just realized that the symbol from the first book must have been Austraeoh
Really sucks that Photobucket ruined all the 3rd party links. I feel like I'm missing something by not getting to see the image in this chapter.
How much you wanna bet her beloved is not at all what we think?
I'm picturing a mental construct. Maybe a telephone Boothe.
Or maybe they're all just doped up on shrooms to make them think they have somebody who cares for them.
Who knows?
Maybe he's just a beast of a stallion? Or a true rarity in the world.
8421447
I think all the picture is, is a picture of the austraeoh symbol vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/austraeoh/images/4/46/Symbol_austraeoh.png/revision/latest?cb=20150513194132
8888362
Actually I do believe that the symbol talked about in this chapter is not the austraeoh symbol we have seen before but instead that of eljunbyrough
9718630
You are correct, it is Eljunbyro. Unfortunately the image is once again busted.
07/29/2019
19:06 UTC
She discovered the dreaded photobucket.
Well, this is where I throw in the towel. I tried hard to push through this, but just couldn't. Both stories had serious problems with a total lack of information causing the "plot" to make absolutely no sense, but where the last one could be carried on the Strength of Rainbow's character and prior investment until you finally got around to telling us what is going on, Belle Smith is a blank slate with no discernible personality doing things for no meaningful reason and possessing no motivation beyond some "beloved" we have absolutely zero information about which makes is absolutely impossible to care about this story. Throw in some stupid details like apparently not knowing Rainobw's name despite knowing about all the other stuff she got up to, and I just can't bring myself to read any more. I'd rather imagine a better ending to the last story and move on.
Also, "Bellesmith" is a completely unworkable contraction when using the French "Belle". In English, that extra "e" stuck in the middle causes it to parse out as "bell-es-mith" so you really should have left it as "Belle Smith".
3682939
This post's link to the image seems to still be working if ya can't see it in the chapter.
10598649
Damn, that was a long time ago