Innavedr

by Imploding Colon

Know Belle Fu

"Nnngh... fuuuu... fuuu-nnnghhhh..." I hugged myself, quivering all over. I heard her hoofsteps shuffling through the mud, only it wasn't mud. My ears were dancing with the rhythmic chirps of a health monitoring station.

I looked up, and I saw my mangled body lying in bed. Only it wasn't my body. I wasn't a stallion... a soldier... a martyr...

What was I?

Then I saw her face. She had eyes like demonic pools of blue beyond the fabric of nightmares. And I realized finally what I was.

I was helpless.

"You infiltrated my home..." The mare said. Ripples of magic emanated from her figure, flying into me, into my entrails, into my soul. "You accosted the components of my experiment..." Her eyes narrowed like sapphiric daggers. "Why?"

"Unnngh!" I yelped, feeling my body melting into the floor. I planted my front hooves against the tile to keep from sinking, and I felt like I was swimming through a sea of briars. "Unnff... I... I-I wanted to know... t-to know more..."

"You seem to have many answers," she said. She was towering over me at this point. "What could I possibly give you... besides a swift end to your stubborn mind."

"What you do here..." I said, snarling up at her. "What you do to these foals..." I gulped as I felt my lower body merging with the black, thoughtless void that surrounded us like ravenous limbo. "It is wrong. I don't care how rich or ancient the past is that you wish to excavate..."

"I am not a historian," Nightshade said. "I am a revolutionary. What I am building is a utopia, free from this war, free from pain..."

"Like the pain... of y-your brother?" I spat, staring at the effigy lying upon the cloud that was drifting peacefully away from us both. "What kind of a sibling would steal his last waking memory... and use it as a weapon?"

Her piercing eyes melted briefly. "The kind who wants the end to all weapons... and pain..." Her deep breath added to the vacuum of the nebulous mindscape. "Even if she must die as the last monster of a wasteful era..."

"I... I don't understand..." I hissed, my eyes tearing as I felt my chin sinking into the puddle that my conscious was becoming against the floor. "What could you possibly accomplish? Are you trying to rebuild some... s-some ring? An arcane world?"

"You cannot rebuild the world. It is far too shattered. I only wish to reinvent. To repeat history is to repeat pain. My brother and I... have given up far too much to let that happen." She lowered her muzzle and hissed at me. "What have you given up?"

I glared at her. My words came out like glaciers in a river of death. "Do not talk to me about sacrifice." I felt my vision dancing to yellow and red and back as a fit of anger made my voice crack. "The closest you'll come to loyalty is a bad case of indigestion."

"You won't be around to test such a stab," Nightshade said. "You have a rich, eloquent consciousness." Her horn glowed as my vision fogged up from the floor washing up around my head. "I'll enjoy wearing it from time to time..."

I gasped. I thrashed. I sputtered.

Then as the waves of blackness almost overtook me... there was a spark from the deepest pits. The room shattered, and I felt my body blossoming back into the fabric of the dreamscape once again. I was flailing, enraptured to see my own limbs again. What's more, I was falling... flying... sailing away from the room and the darkness and the ring and her surprised blue eyes.

"You'll have to get used to your own skin, lady!" I shouted in some far-off voice. A devilish grin washed across my features and disappeared just as quickly. "Unless you are giving wind to her wings, you're not going to invent a single blasted thing!"

She shouted something, but I was blissfully out of earshot. Blood rushed into my head, followed by a blinding, cleansing flash of light.

Comments

[Personifire]

What just happened? Sequencing is weird and all, that much is clear, but what just happened? Looks like Nightshade tried to kill Belle somehow, and she grew wings in the process. Is that related to her status as Eljunbyro? Actually, I'm a bit more interested in how all this stuff works in the sequencer. It's so odd.

[dafiltafish]

and that if how to tell a corrupt corporate head to kindly fuck off.

[GAPDashie]

Whoa. A little emergency pegassistance?
Looks like that link between Dash and Belle is still in working order.

[AppleTank]

Awesome Mode: Activate!

It is super effective (against that piece of rubbish.)

[Lightning Bearer]

2736543

You have to remember that the world of sequencing, like the world of dreaming, is entirely intellectual. Yes, Nightshade was trying to kill her, by annihilating her very consciousness:

I gulped as I felt my lower body merging with the black, thoughtless void that surrounded us like ravenous limbo.

As for what saved her, it was apparently her connection to Rainbow Dash (i.e. the parts of Dash's personality that seem programmed into Belle at some level from the previous sequencing) that saved her. Keep in mind that Belle has literally taken the role of Dash in Dash's memories in other sequencing sessions. And notice the mentions of voice cracks, devilish smirks, etc. When that part of Dash, that returning spark, awoke in Belle, she must've taken the form of Dash, wings included, and flown away.

Yes, it's weird. But like I said, just look at it as a dream. It's all mind, symbolism abounds, and almost anything can happen.

[Riverwing]

Thanks Kera.

[The Great Turnip]

Alas, Nightshade failed the final test. She frickin' had to have a mini-monologue before dealing the final blow. Pity.

...On the other hand, Belle's still alive! That's a plus, I guess.

[Nevlamas]

Her piercing eyes melted briefly. "The kind who wants the end to all weapons... and pain..." Her deep breath added to the vacuum of the nebulous mindscape. "Even if she must die as the last monster of a wasteful era..."

She knows she's a tragic figure. Oh sweet merciful heavens I love this character.

2736543 2739116 But Dash isn't the only one who got her hooves dirty here.

I glared at her. My words came out like glaciers in a river of death. "Do not talk to me about sacrifice." I felt my vision dancing to yellow and red and back as a fit of anger made my voice crack. "The closest you'll come to loyalty is a bad case of indigestion."

Do we know someone with that eye colour? It also sets me off that she spoke of Dash (resp. the Austraeoh) in third person in the last paragraph. And what about that devilish grin? It is probably just me, but I feel like 'devilish' would rather fit the other one...

I think it's amazing that Belle would feel Discord's influence there. Given how she sequenced with Rainbow during her worst phase of chaotic infection I somewhat wonder: did the part of Rainbow's mind that seems to have bled into hers just remember the possession... or did it carry said possession along with it?

[Fishberry]

It appears Belle may have sequenced into a Dash sphere.

[Honeytiger]

Did she switch bodies with that dude?

[MellowMabari]

Ooh, a past plot point has returned! I was wondering when the connection between Belle and Dash (as well as Discord's influence) would be broached again. Now I really can't wait for a big 'ole reunion for everyone. Also, torturing innocent ponies is not how you go about ending a war, Nightshade.

[dashie76]

IIIIIt's Dashie's Eleventh Marathon Evaluation Time!!!!!!!!!!!

So I think I see where Nightshade is coming from here. I don't' think that she cares about being a monster as long as she leaves behind a utopia. Also, she seems to know something about the ring...was all of the ring but the plane destroyed? Probably. Also, it looks like Belle's status as Eljunbyro and Innavedr kicked in and helped her escape. These are my thoughts so far.

-MASH

P.S. I...did...it...y-yeah...
WOO!! I missed this!!

[Hap]

Nightshade: "I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin."

Belle: "So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?"

Nightshade: "I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Belle... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

[Super Trampoline]

2738023 pegassistance is best portmanteau!

[whizzball1]

Belle being Innavedr and 1/2 Eljunbyro and being connected to Austraeoh has set her destiny. There is no way to interrupt it now.

-Spirit

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

Belle needs to be more assertive.

[Regidar]

Her eyes narrowed like sapphiric daggers.

Too many blue eyes...

Dammit, in trying to erase Belle, all she did is wake RD from her slumber in her mind... HAHA!

[Hazard]

"The closest you'll get to loyalty is a bad case of indigestion." That line cracked me up.

[Tim the Planes-pony]

"The kind who wants the end to all weapons... and pain..." Her deep breath added to the vacuum of the nebulous mindscape. "Even if she must die as the last monster of a wasteful era..."

Only a normal soul can kill a monster, only a normal soul can hope to. One does not destroy what one hates by becoming that thing they hate. Nightshades plan was doomed to fail the moment it was thought up.

05/14/2017 23:41 UTC

[Luminous Lead]

8163541
Good old Alucard.