Mouths of Foals
"This way!" Kera chirped in mid-scamper. She slid around a concrete corner, hung right, and galloped down a narrow corridor brimming with steam pipes and mana conduits. "Last one's a slightly less rotten egg!" The filly hopped a horizontal row of pipes stretching across a thin space lined with refuse.
"W-wait!" Bellesmith stammered. Every panting breath made her want to wretch; the stench was so bad. In an awkward jump, she cleared the pipes, then sprinted after the little foal. "Please! You're moving too fast! We're gonna lose you!" She looked behind her flank. "Mr. Phoenix?!"
"Shhh!" He slid into view, barreled after the others, and leapt over the pipes with appropriate skill Possessing stronger muscles, the stallion easily caught up with the dainty mare and nudged her into a faster trot. "No shouting! They're right behind us! They'll hear!"
"Hey, if you can't keep up, throw up!" Kera's voice sang, her voice echoing across the chilling space. She darted to the left, disappearing from view. "There's no room for sore saddles on the smell train!"
"What in the heck is she—?!" Phoenix gargled.
"Just follow her!" Bellesmith panted as they came upon the corner. "She's our only help!"
"Hey!" Kera's voice echoed. "What comes before goose?"
"Little foal, we're trying to—" Phoenix sped around the corner and immediately banged his head on two low-hanging pipes. "Aaaugh! Nnngh—"
"Duck!" Kera said from where she perched atop a bunch of crates. Giggling, she sprang off like a diver and made for a flat wall of polished stone from a looming skyscraper in front of them. "Come on! This way to Blue Belly!"
"Mmmf..." Phoenix crouched and lurched forward, rubbing his throbbing head with a hoof. "Some help..."
"Blue... Belly...?" Bellesmith murmured aloud.
The sound of scraping hooves echoed from behind.
"Go... Just go!" Phoenix hissed.
The two jumped over the crates and navigated a complicated forest of interlaced pipes. In flickering blurs, they spotted the bounding figure of Kera ahead, and they did their clumsy best to catch up with her. Ultimately, the filly ended up having to stop and wait over the course of twenty seconds for them to arrive at her location. And when they did—
"Spark alive!" Phoenix stammered, his eyes twitching. "A dead end!"
"Wh-what?" Belle exclaimed, looking every which way. The spot they had entered was a junction of three separate skyscrapers. The different buildings met together in one location, forming a curved wall and cutting the length of the alleyway at the head.
"What is this?!" Phoenix turned and snarled at the filly. "You did this on purpose?! I should have known better than to have us follow you! You want more than our books!"
"Well, duh." Kera stuck her tongue out. "Some food would be nice."
"Food?!"
"But we can totally talk about that later. Right now, it's Shinies Time!"
Belle blinked. "Shinies... Time...?"
Kera lowered her hood, once again exposing her bushy green mane. She pivoted towards a solid wall, held her breath, and concentrated. That silver tattoos along her body glowed like burning embers. Energy wafted up her body, coalesced in her room, and shot into the wall with a concentrated burst.
"It's amazing that a foal that young can pull off magic like that," Belle murmured.
"Ms. Bellesmith, now's not the time," Phoenix grumbled, looking over his shoulder. "They're coming for us and—"
A loud groan shook through the buildings. The same glow that had fluctuated through Kera was now pulsing across the granite slab. The two adults watched in awe as a door appeared, sliding up and exposing a narrow chamber within the centermost building. A dull blue glow inside the structure permeated rising mists and steam. From a distant glance, the passageway appeared to descend beyond the street-level surface.
"Ta-daaa!" Kera spun around with a grin. "What'd I tell you?! Blue Belly! Cuz it lets us go into the stomach of Blue Nova! Heehee!" She motioned with her head. "Come on, I'll show ya!"
Phoenix fidgeted, looking behind him as the pursuing enforcers grew closer. "Will it close shut behind us?"
"Uhhh... Do mules love onion rings?!" Kera motioned again. "Get your flanks in here! The smell's not so bad once you get used to it!"
"I don't think we have any other choice, Phoenix," Belle said softly.
"Story of my frickin' life." Phoenix motioned. "After you."
Cautiously, Belle stepped in. Phoenix followed, and not long after, Kera gave the wall another zap with her horn. The slab closed up behind them, just in time to shut the three off from the dead end long before the enforcers would arrive and scratch their collective horns in utter confusion.
"It's... a sewer?" Belle remarked, squinting through the steamy blue air.
"More like a maintenance hatch," Phoenix muttered. He took one sniff, regretted it, and struggled to hold his lunch in. "Nnngh... most Ledomaritan cities of this size funnel their waste and garbage through an elevated pipe system much like what we're seeing here. Each block has a mana-powered incinerator located within the largest building."
"Guess it makes sense why they'd lock a place like this up for only qualified ponies to access."
"And guess who's figured out all the locks?!" Kera tossed back at them as she innocently cavorted through the pungent fumes. "Only cuz they taught me how to pick them good!"
"Wait..." Belle narrowed her eyes. "Who taught you?"
"You've got pretty eyes," the filly suddenly said. "I bet your mane would look twice as good too."
Belle blinked at that. "Er, uhh... thanks—"
Kera shot back in a pale bolt and leaned towards the two, beaming. "My name's Kera Tin Mehjj! That's 'Kera' for short. 'Meh' if you feel like yawning."
"Uhm..." Belle shifted nervously and gave her a sisterly smile. "That's a very... uh... pretty name, Miss... Mehjj?"
"Ungh!" Kera pouted. "I just introduced myself, didn't I?"
"Right, but of course, Kera," Belle nodded. "I'm Bellesmith."
"And I wanna throw up," Phoenix exhaled, green in the face.
Belle cleared her throat. "And this is Mr. Phoenix. Thank you very much for what you did for us back there."
"That totally makes me forgivable for the stuff I did with the books, right?"
"Huh—?"
"Right!" Kera pulled the green book out from under her cloak and tossed it at Belle's hooves. "Here, save this for a time when you gotta do the opposite of throwing up!"
Belle breathed with relief as she knelt down and returned the book to Luna's satchel. "I can't believe how close I came to losing this..."
"Why's that one so important?" Phoenix asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought the older tome was necessary for finding where you need to go."
"Of course it is!" Belle said with a frown. "But it's one of my few connections to Rainbow Dash. It was special to her, and so it's special to me. Besides, the ancient book..." She lifted the tome from the saddlebag and inspected it for damage for the first time since picking it up in the alleyway. "There really isn't any way I'm going to figure this out while relying on my spirit alone. If I focus on Rainbow's memories, then maybe—just maybe—I can adopt the same intuition she has and figure out just what—"
"'Innavedr.'"
Both ponies looked towards the filly.
"What... d-did you say...?" Belle remarked, her eyes narrow.
Kera pointed up at the tome. "That's what the crummy old book says on the front, doesn't it?"
The glanced at the bell-shaped symbol, then back at Kera. "You mean... you can read this?"
"Pfft! And you can't!" Kera smirked and began trotting down the steamy corridor. "What a waste of a cutie mark, lady!"
"But... b-but what does it mean? This 'Innavedr?'"
"The hay should I know?!"
"But I thought you—"
"Look, that's what the words say! Who cares if it's gobblygook! What, did you write it?"
"Well, no—
"Less talking and more prancing! Blue Belly is nice, but everytime I think of food in this place, I feel like spitting something up that's greener than my mane!" The filly giggled as she slid down a series of grimy steps and galloped forward. "Come on! There's a way out the other side! I'll show you!"
Belle stood, breathless, cradling the book with a quizzical expression.
Phoenix trotted head, paused, and turned to glance at her. "Is everything alright, Miss Belle?"
"I... I-I just don't understand..." Belle gulped, then glanced at him. "'Innavedr?' I mean... is she making this up, or can she actually ascertain the phonetics?"
Phoenix took a deep breath and softly said, "You've seen her coat, right? Surely you know where she's from."
Belle's brow furrowed. "What does that have to do with anything?" She blinked, and her expression melted into that of concern. "And just how did she get here...?"
"Adoption? Slavery? Pony trafficking? Pick your poison. The war makes orphans of us all." Phoenix shrugged. "As for what the little scamp just said, I couldn't tell you. Legends say that the Xonan language is as ancient as their culture. They're one of the few kingdoms left in this part of the world that values religion over the state. Why else have we been butting heads with them for so long?"
Belle's eyes drifted towards the pipes lining the corridor. "I... do remember Pilate once speaking of the complicated nature of Xonan languages..." She gulped. "And... how incredibly intricate they were..."
"Hey!" Kera's voice rang from above and below. "You fart heads making out or something?! Let's hoof it!"
Phoenix rolled his eyes. He nodded at Belle. "Supposedly, she can get us out of here."
"You think you can open the doors to these maintenance hatches with your own horn?"
"Not without the knowledge the kid's apparently got."
"Then I guess we have to depend on her." Belle slid the tome away, stood up, and briskly trotted forward. "Do me a favor, Mr. Phoenix."
"Hmm?" He moved after her. "What's that?"
"When push comes to shove..." She glanced aside. "Let me and me alone talk to her."
"Heh. You say that like it's such a sacrifice."
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Wow. I'd forgotten all about that symbol until that link.
So Kera has tattoos, huh? This could get interesting...
Huh. The ol' tome's written in Xonan.
I believe the last Austreaoh was a Xonan pegasus.
2568322
I think it's far more likely that Xonan evolved from the language of the tome. We did much speculating on the symbol at the time, having the name is nice, but unhelpful until it's purpose is realized. Based on the last two, however, we can assume that it relates to a theme in this stage in the journey. If Austraeoh is independence, and Eljunbyro is friendship, companionship, then perhaps Innavedr is unity. A broken party of friends struggles to reunite, afterall. This would fit with the cohesive nature of the symbol.
2568339 Good point there.
I still think the last Austreaoh was a Xonan pegasus. Ancient Xonan. As in, before it was called Xona. Or something.
Ok, Kera is too adorables. stahp with the squee.
Children Of The Sea - Black Sabbath
I know I've read something like this whole "magical street smart kid saves the day" before, but I can't for the life of me remember where.
Kera tin... What you did there, I see it.
Huh. So Pilate's been analyzing old Xonan (or related to xonan) scripts this whole time.
So, the Machine has been around for quite a while longer than anything living on it right now, especially the ponies. How the heck did a script like that evolve to have the same symbols as RD encountered as far back as when she met Gold Petals? Did the alicorns deign to mark the world with their script? Or did the place come pre-packaged? And don't even get me started on Belle's fainting spell way back when.
2568339
Wait I thought Eljunbyro was endurance.... Also, I'm actually still more willing to believe the language came from the ponies, not the other way around. Maybe I'm just a stubborn mule, but I don't see any conclusive evidence why it might be otherwise, although your theory could still hold true as well.
Precocious little scamp...
I love Kera! She is a lot like scoots!
2568481
Indeed.
2568535
Eljunbyro brought the wind to Austraeoh, a certain beloved pair (though the unicorn more than her beloved) brought Rainbow Dash back from the metaphorical dead, and then her spirit back from the certifiably insane. The companionship is what stabilized Rainbow and got us to where we are, today.
kera is really confusing.
So that's why she was complaining about the lack of pictures...
Heh, I like Kera. Full of life, and spirit. Very interested in her backstory.
2568778
I know that, but didn't they explicitly mention at some point it was "endurance"?
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't want to argue about it, and I'm definitely too lazy to go and re-read all of Eljunbyro for one word, so I'll just take your word for it I guess 
keras gonna break my heart with that cuteness i swear
and so we finally find out why this story has this title, great job!
2569425
Translated to English, "Eljunbyro" is roughly "endurance birth." Rainbow is "born" and she endures.
2569425
I think Skirts uses this for the roots, if I'm not mistaken. It's the first google result for "old norse dictionary", and he's never been a particularly studious researcher, so...
"Eljun" is endurance, "byro" is birth.
According to this, "Inna" is accomplish and "vedr" is either wind or storm. One of those sounds mighty ominous...
2569448>>2569451
Uh huh, well that clears up a lot. Thanks guys
Now we're getting somewhere. I had a feeling it might be cultural, though I'd forgotten the bit back in Eljunbyro where Pilate discussed the Xonan language. Also, this talk of there being a correlation between the titles and Old Norse tickles my old linguistic impulse. Mayhaps I'll have to do some research. I'm also thinking that Kera might be laughter, rather than honesty. She's definitely channeling something like Pinkie Pie at times. And on that note:
Might those shinies be...bright?
Grabbin' some pipe access
I have a feeling we'll end up in Xona for at least one story arc after the party reunites. If all the symbols we've been finding since Austraeoh can be traced back to the Xonan language, it's a good bet that there's somepony in Xona who can translate (or at least interpret) the symbols. Considering that Xona borders Ledomare to the east... it all adds up well to me. Anyone else find a flaw in the math?
2569725
Nope. Now, for the gang to survive long enough to get there. Odds are, someone dies.
2569703 Hey when'd you change your name?
Welp, judging by my feelings and the feelings of others, looks like you've written a winner with Kera. An adorable blend of street smarts and hyperactivity that's just begging to stab you in the back.
The plot is now as thick as a rice pudding. Frickin' love rice pudding.
2569451 2569448
Interestingly whilst looking at that Old Norse PDF, I noticed that the word for grab/grasp is fang. Where I live, it's still used when one talks about how you might 'fang hold' of someone.
Or as the locals might say:
Interestin' whilst lookin at th'Old Norse PDF, ah see as t'word fer grabbin is fang. At wom us'n still usin' eet as when thayt gahn on abowt 'ow as tha might fang 'olt o' some'un.
2568752
Scoots mixed in with Pinkie.
...that's terrifying, actually.
So, Xona holds the answers, eh? Not really sure how pleased I am about that.
While it's certain to be interesting, moving between two places which are at war with the other, I historically have a habit of hating tribal races. But eh, if anyone can make them seem good, it'll be you.
Until then, it's time to wade through a sewer! Lets hope nobody runs them over while they try to drive upside down in the tunnels.
2569679 Shinies? dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/36538/skritt_happens.JPG
I lack the insight on this topic to actually speculate. So Xonan is a symbol language somehow based, maybe even identical to, the language spoken by the machine's originial creators. We know the actual meanings of the three words, and the context is highly informative (Just how the hell is a single symbol a compound word?).
Some connections, the greater revelation is approaching, but we're not there yet. Well damn.
Ceterum censeo Searinem delendam esse to kill some time while we wait.
2572145>>2572145
Well, Kera can read the symbol, in terms of interpreting its sound value, but she doesn't know what it means. At the very least, this suggests that Xona uses a writing system based on the machine-language. This, in the same sense that we can see a German word and generally know how it might be pronounced, since it uses the same characters, but not understand what the word translates to. That's my guess. There definitely seems to be a connection between whatever ancient culture was involved with the machine and Xona, and I'm excited to see that aspect explored.
Keep in mind Chinese writing, where one symbol can represent a whole phrase. I think Egyptian hieroglyphics worked in the same way sometimes.
Things are definitely heating up.
2569679
Shortskirts needs to finish that story off. I loved every second of it.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well then, it's time for round three! I suppose that that dead pegasus must now have some sort of connection to the ancient Xonans. First there was Austraeoh - the one who would go to the east and save the world. Then there was Eljunbyro - the one(s) who would wake Austraeoh from a sleeping death. Now we've got Innavedr - and as usual, we have no idea what it means. Perhaps Kera represents Innavedr - the one who will reunite Austraeoh and Eljunbyro in order to get them traveling east again? (Especially since I really want to see Dash actually go east again.) or perhaps it means something else entirely.
...
Yeah. The latter is probably true. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
2569725
Ooh, good prediction. That really would make sense.
2571025
T-T-T-Title Drop!
Title Drop.
-SPirit
2568827
Please, please, please tell me you didn't let Skirts use your name as a character and NOT notice. Kera Tin? Keratin?
Dammit, Kera, stop being best filly so much!
maybe she isnt to useless after all -puts butcher knife away-
c:
Oh shit! We found out Innavedr! However...
I'm hoping we get more on Xonan culture. All we've gotten so far is how much they suck from Ledomartans.
Here is why when you get a translator, make sure they understand, not just know what is being said.
I had a feeling Phoenix wouldn't have hard feelings toward Kera. After all, refusing to slay civilians was the main reason his group defected. On another note, Kera's a fount of random knowledge, it seems. I hope we get more backstory for her when they infiltrate Nightshade Industries.
Neat. That ability to magically open doors may just come in handy for certain other buildings.
Ooooo.
Oh come on.
As if a learned Doctor of something or other and Pilate and that other guy would not even recognize the language of pretty much the only other culture they now, the one with which they fought for...whatever the prolonged period in question is.
Now that's just silly.
6774440 The queen could be blocking all communication and cultural influence.
She's just full of energy.