Dear Twilight Sparkle, Selene, and the other princesses
Let me start out by saying that I HATE brownies now. It would have been nice to get the warning about them so I could have prepared before going into the village but there just wasn’t enough time. It was like an entire village of mini-Discords in there even though they didn’t have his magic. At least some good came out of it all in that I at least have some ideas on what to do when facing something that magic isn’t reliable against. Speaking of Discord, how has he been doing lately? I can’t recall ever seeing him around since Fluttershy vanished and I lent him a corner of the manor property.
On other things, it was nice to be able to talk with Luna and Selene again even if it was during a dream. They did manage to point something else out that I forgot to mention in my other letters. Sometime after I left Ponyville I managed to grow yet another tail, though I’m not sure when it happened exactly. Knowing Twilight she’s probably going to be a bit annoyed that she can’t do her usual research on me whenever something odd happens. Granted this time I may not have minded as badly since I didn’t even know I could get more than three. My mother never taught me much about our kind and I thought her three tails was the most possible. Looking back she probably had more but kept them hidden through the spells she did manage to teach me. She never did tell me much about her life before having me as most lessons were of a more practical nature based around survival and magical skills.
Someday I hope to find out more that I should have learned if things didn’t turn out like they did but for now there are some more immediate problems. I managed to find some kind of underground facility by literally falling into it. Time had eroded away at the ground covering up a part of it which decided to fall apart just as I was walking over it. Luckily the fall wasn’t too bad so I only earned a couple minor scrapes and bruises. I took a bit of a break to rest up and write this before I started to explore the place and see what’s here. From the little I can see here it doesn’t seem as if anything has been down here in a long time. I can’t tell how old the place is from here but it doesn’t look like something that would have been in a Daring Do book. Granted the statues of ponies, gryphons, and minotaurs scattered around would fit in them. Well there’s nothing else to talk about for now so I think I’ll just send this off now.
Your Friend,
Flarenza
Sending off the letter I take a moment to look around the immediate vicinity of the underground complex. The room I’m in seems to be some kind of entryway as one of the paths out of it seems to angle upwards. The statues are really the only point of interest in this part of the complex and a close inspection of them doesn’t reveal anything of interest. “Whatever owned this place before had a rather odd sense of how to decorate the place. Maybe some kind of reclusive sculptor lived here? Would explain why someone would put something like these in something meant to be hidden.”
The next room didn’t reveal much else other than even more statues of the various races and even a few non-sentient predators. As I moved deeper and deeper into the place the trend continued though the ones deeper in started to look more and more detailed. This led credence to my previous suspicions about the place but with the number of statues I’ve found it was starting to be a bit creepy. At the same time I was starting to feel as if something was watching me but on searching there was nothing to be found and there were signs that nothing had been in this place for a very long time. “At least there doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous in here. This may not be something that would be in a Daring Do book, but add in some traps and maybe a bunch of killer felines and it would come close.”
I was starting to wonder what the point of this place was as there hadn’t been any furnishings of any kind anywhere and the rooms I’d passed just seemed rather pointless. Examining my enchanted map I found that I had been steadily moving deeper and deeper underground at a steady pace. I hadn’t noticed this fact at first but I had to check when I notice that nearly every turn I’d come across was in the same direction. “Okay I may have been wrong about a sculptor being at work in this place. No matter how reclusive they would be they wouldn’t need this much space. In fact there isn’t much that would need a something that goes this far underground unless it involved powerful or forbidden magic, or was some kind of secret fortress.”
I made note to ask Twilight why her lab was so close to the surface while being inside of a town. I knew she had some powerful protection spells on the place but my own experiences showed that even that isn’t always enough. If I ever returned to Ponyville I’d probably work on expanding my own underground workspace so that the more dangerous things were placed deeper with some fail-safes to prevent any damage from spilling over between them.
Other than the feeling of being watched there wasn’t much of interest to be found and I was starting to get bored. Just as I was about to turn back I came across a large antechamber that was nearly completely filled with statues facing what appeared to be a throne on the other end of the room. “Well I think the creepiness factor just went up quite a bit now. Still no clue on what the point of this place is or what was being done here in the first place.”
Searching the room itself didn’t turn up much more than the previous rooms, though the statues in this one were the most detailed yet. There were multiple exits out of this room which meant that this was probably the lowest point of the place as well as the main section of the complex. Of course that led to the problem of deciding which path to take first. “Since this room is set up to be like a throne room that probably means that the side room lead to things that would be for servants or visitors if there were any. Of course the three palaces that I’ve been in were set up with different things in mind but the path behind the throne was almost always for the private use of the princesses and their most trusted guards.”
With this in mind I made my way around the throne to check the area behind it. As I suspected I found a passageway there which led off into the darkness. I was about to enter the passage when I felt a field of magic spring up ahead of me, blocking the passage. “Well this is interesting. Whatever is down this way must have been important if the owner of this place has a shield protecting it that is still active now.”
Seeing as this is the first sign of anything even remotely threatening I decided to shut off my light spell and replace it with something I had been toying with for a while. Tapping more deeply into my magic I called out a few wisps of flame to float around me and bathe the place in a red light. While it was a bit more power intensive than a normal light spell I was able to use the flames to attack or defend with if needed.
With that preparation completed I turned towards the shield covering the passage and began to examine it. I couldn’t see where the source of the spell was but from what I could tell it seemed to be just a basic repelling field. Tentatively bringing a wisp into contact with it revealed that there didn’t seem to be anything else other than the shield as its only reaction was to glow brighter from the contact. “I could probably break it pretty easily if I poured enough power into it but I’d rather not waste the energy. Besides it’s not like I’m in that much of a hurry to find the end of this place.”
Examining the shield more closely I took a seat and tried to make myself comfortable. I was surprised by the strength that flowed through the shield and wondered how long this place had been buried. “Either this place isn’t as old as I thought or else whatever used to be here was pretty powerful. Still I haven’t met anything yet that was so powerful that there isn’t some trick that’ll get around their magic. Even Twilight has lost practice duels because she got overconfident in her abilities while her opponent studied her spells and habits enough to break them easily.”
I decided to start with some simple tricks on the shield first and was met with mixed success. While none of the easiest things showed any promise I was able to get a partial success with a magic draining spell. Unfortunately the shield was strong enough that the spell would take days to full drain it of power. It was a good sign that it did work though as I could possibly modify the spell in a way to work. Taking a closer look at the shield a started trying to sense exactly how the magic within the shield resonated. This was actually the most effective way to break through other beings magic but it took time to do and was easily countered by changing up how you focused your magic into your spells. I learned that this was how Celestia was beaten by Chrysalis during Cadence’s wedding as she had gotten lazy about her magic over the years.
Finding the proper frequency of the shield was relatively easy to do since I had the time to study it. Once I had found it dispelling the shield by draining the magic away into the air was a simple enough endeavor. I made sure to remember the feeling of the spell just in case I ran into any other wards or magical traps further along. Strangely enough the magic in the area didn’t dissipate like I expected it to do but somehow started to steadily increase. Shrugging it off as being nothing I made my way down the passageway.
As I expected the passage led to the personal section of the complex that the owner used. The first set of side passages looked to lead back to the other parts that were just off of the throne room but further along I found what appeared to be the main bedroom. The crumbling state of the bedding revealed a bit better of how old the place was which meant that the owner was decently powerful considering the strength of the spells.
Little of importance was to be found in that room, but there were the remains of clothing and other adornments which I scavenged a few gems off of. While it wasn’t much it would at least be something found on this little trip if nothing else was found. There was still more to explore and if I was rather optimistic after this relatively early find.
The next few rooms didn’t yield much else other than a smattering of trinkets but the final room is where I hit the jackpot. “Research journals! So not only was the previous inhabitant of this place strong magically he was also courteous enough to leave me something to read.” I chuckle at my little joke. “Well at least now I can figure out what was being done here and maybe learn a trick or two I can add to my own repertoire. That and maybe make Twilight jealous about finding something that she doesn’t know first.”
I chuckle to myself as I try and think of Twilight’s reaction to this find as I page through the journal. My mind jerks back into the present though when I realize exactly what it is I think I’m reading. After rereading it over once again I am relieved that I was mistaken, but the truth isn’t much better considering the situation. “For a moment I thought he was researching into necromancy, but it looks like they were building golems. It’s strange how similar the process is for reanimating the dead compared to animating an inanimate form shaped like a living being.” I start to skim through the journal a bit faster as all the statues I remembered seeing come to mind. As I near the end of the journal my fears are realized.
“’The traitors may have won with their poison but I’ll have the last laugh. As soon as they try to break into my laboratory they’ll activate the trap I left sending every golem in the place into a frenzy destroying everything living thing they can find.’ Did nobody ever try to get back here until I broke the shield on it? I really hope that isn’t true.” Hearing noises start to sound through the halls of the complex shows that my hopes are for naught though.
Not knowing how much time I have left I shove everything that I can reach into my packs to go through at a later time. Thoughts on why it took so long for the golems to animate and begin moving came to mind but the only thing that I could think of is the age of the place. As I finish packing the last of the books in the room the first of the many golems I passed entered the room. I only take long enough to note that it is a gryphon-shaped golem before I try to blast it with a bolt of force just to see the attack slide off of the construct.
“Oh great, they’ve been treated to resist magic as well as be made of stone? I really need to find a weapon to use in this kind of situation one of these days.” After a quick test to see if I could levitate the thing and failing, I instead grab one of the stone tables in the room and slam it into the creatures head. This had the effect of shattering it apart and breaking the spell that was animating it. This reveals a gemstone that was buried in the neck area that wasn’t easily seen from normal angles.
“Huh, a power source on the outside of the body? Well I guess that makes a target to aim for if I felt like having a scavenger hunt on each golem. Escape is a much more reasonable idea right now though.” Judging by the one golem that already found me, and if they are all similar, they seem to be all about power and not on being fast. This proves to be true as well as showing their lack of intelligence when I find a group of them bunched up in the hall keeping each other from advancing any further.
“I’m starting to wonder how well these things were tested before they were created. Either that or they only work well with someone leading them which kind of defeats the purpose of making them if they need to be watched constantly. Well at least this makes my job easier if I don’t have to worry about them working together.” After watching the movement on the clustered golems for a bit I decide to take the easy way and use them as stepping stones to the other side. A few of them tried to grasp at me as I passed but they were so tangled up that their movement was too limited to have a chance even if they were fast enough.
Soon enough I reached the throne room to find the entire place in chaos. “Really? They’re even fighting each other along with everything else? I really want to take the time to read through those journals now to see what the creator of these things was thinking.” I had no problems dodging all the constructs as I made my way out when I noticed that a few of them had started making their way up towards the surface.
“Maybe I should hurry this up a bit and get to the surface before any of the golems do. It wouldn’t do to have any of these things getting outside to terrorize the countryside.” Picking up the pace I pass a multitude of golems as I head towards the surface including the ones that were in the rooms originally. None of those ones had left the rooms they started in which hinted at them being guards of some sort. Of course considering they were of a lesser quality than the ones on the lower levels they were quickly overwhelmed.
“The layout doesn’t make much sense when I think about it. What would the point of putting the weakest golems out front as guards and the strongest ones further in? That just lets invaders get in some practice fighting the easy ones so they are prepared to handle the best ones more easily.” The opposite proved to be much the same as I reached the room that I fell in through to find that none of the other golems had arrived this far yet. The guards of this room were so easily dispatched as I shattered their heads and the gems with random debris that fell in with me originally.
Once I dealt with them I turned my attention to the passage leading down into the golem facility. Using my magic I do everything I can to collapse the tunnel to trap the golems underground. Once I finished that I climbed out of the place back to the surface and contemplated my next move. “Well with how poor their intelligence is they should be able to get out of there, but I don’t think that I should take any chances.”
Luckily I wasn’t far from where I started the day out from which was next to a river. I started digging a trench back towards the rivers with my magic, making sure that it was deep enough to hold a decent amount of water. Once I reached the river I broke through the last bit of earth diverting a good amount of water towards the complex. “That should do it I believe. While it’ll take a while it’ll eventually flood the entire place it should prevent anyone from getting in there to accidentally dig the golems out.”
From then on I continued on my way once again until I found a good stopping point for the day where I spent the rest of the day reading the journals until I fell asleep.