//------------------------------// // 9 The Dust of Ages // Story: Lifegiver // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Lily - 2nd of Midsummer ‘15 EoH - Midnight The party wound down just before midnight. Once I got into the swing of things, the actually rather pleasant party managed to make me completely forget about Lyra and our possible Windigo. It wasn’t until Scoots gave me a goodnight kiss and flew off with a happy grin, leaving me alone on the massive deck-roof next to my new home that I remembered there was quite possibly a very rare and dangerous creature below me right now. I’d heard legends of Windigos. They are real creatures, everypony who study’s magic or monsters knows that. They are largely mythical due to being more rare than an architect and an engineer agreeing on how to design a building, but they exist. Windigo are something of a puzzle for the Thaumaturgists. A living ball of magical energy, constantly draining heat from the world to sustain itself. That’s all I really knew about them. I had a friend who knew more, her thesis paper ‘Legends, Lore, and Truth: Postulations on Windigo Ergonology’ proved she knew way more about it then me. Or was at least able to get away with being pretentious as all hell. It's hard to say. The field of Ergonology is not very big. It’s hard to study energy based life when your one known example seems to be almost always hostile and too rare to easily find. She found one once. Managed to collect the data for her thesis. She doesn't have front legs anymore. Not flesh and blood ones at least. If I had been one year more advanced in my studies I could have regrown them for her. But that’s not how the cards fell. She found a Windigo, it quote ‘froze them off’ unquote, she wrote her thesis, got automail, and then graduated before me and vanished. Leaving me at the present, sitting on my roof, afraid of losing a limb via what had to be the most painful way possible, and considering begging Twilight for absolutely anyplace else. But there was a problem with that line of thinking. It felt cowardly. I like to think I’m a sensible pony. Not the fool who rushes in, nor the coward who never makes a move, a sensible pony who does the right thing. If I fled, then somepony else would have to deal with this. Even worse, this was a good building! Large, spacious, I could run more than a clinic here. I could make a proper hospital! Not a big one, but this was large enough where I could have a few apprentices one day who also worked as Biomancers here. There was room to build, to grow, to thrive! I couldn’t run with that on the line! That would be cowardly beyond measure. “Two minutes thirty three seconds!” Lyra’s voice exclaimed eagerly from just over my shoulder. “Ahh!” I yelped, turning in a mini-panic to find the minty mare standing a few feet behind me, dressed in a light armor of some sort. It was based around a simple black undersuit, fur tight, like a diver’s suit. The armored portions were a minty green, her own color but darker. It sort of looked like she was dressed in half of a changeling’s exoskeleton, with saddlebags tossed over her back. “Sorry. This suit’s stealth enchanted, and has sound dampening materials for the hoof-caps.” Lyra apologized. “Horse apples!” I objected. “You teleported!” Lyra giggled. “Oh man I wish I could teleport! I can’t wrap my head around that spell though… It’s a bit complex for me.” “Ah… Well, at least you came prepared.” I said pointing to her armor. “What is that, exactly?” Lyra grinned and nodded towards the courtyard with an expression that indicated we should go to it. “What, this old thing? It’s my pre-Luna’s friend armor. Unfortunately Luna keeps our good gear in her personal armory, so I keep this around for my um… Personal utility.” I nodded and started to descend the spiral staircase. “Ja, but what exactly is it?” “Oh. It’s a diver’s suit enchanted to be self-repairing with an old exoskeleton my changeling friend molted. I got her to shift to match my size just before a molt and turn her exoskeleton into a super-tough polycarbonate and ceramic… Um… It’s super tough ultra light plating. And I also packed some gadgets into it.” Lyra explained finishing as we arrived in the courtyard. Well, that was... Interesting. “So um, she’s okay with you wearing her old ‘skin’ so to speak?” I asked morbidly. Lyra rolled her eyes. “This is a mare who when we and some other friends were stuck up in the tundra, realized we had infinite food because we cared for her enough to regenerate every day. So she shifted parts of herself into plants and then just cut them off so we could eat. Meep’s super utilitarian. “Heck, using one of her exoskeletons was her idea. I was going to get Steel to forge me something. Uh, back on topic though; that tundra trip, that’s where my Windigo knowledge comes from. It’s also why I’ve got armor on, for stealth reasons. How good are you at sneaking?” I winced. That was all the answer she needed. “Good thing I brought some spare hoofcaps.” Lyra said to herself a she levitated four black boot-like bits of cloth from her bags. “Stick them on. They will prevent your hooves from making sound.” I nodded and slipped the small hoof only coverings on. Just before I was about to ask how they would stay on, I felt each cap magically adhere to my hooves. “I take it you have to intentionally take these off?” I asked. Lyra nodded. “What about if we need to talk?” I asked curiously. “No worries. I have a spell for that.” Lyra said with a dismissive hoof wave. “Right, so you’re a healer type. Do you have anything that can heal injuries quickly or does everything take you a month or so?” Ah I see, she was wondering what good I would be in a fight. Good for her. “I served as a city guard briefly. I may not have much mana, und I’m not too good with weapons, but I can fight.” I informed. “Not well mind, but I can protect myself.” “That’s good, but I am more interested in your levels in cleric, not fighter.” Lyra said in a way to serious tone for something that nerdy. I hadn't played Oubliettes and Ogres since freshmare year! The hay was a mare in her early prime doing playing a filly’s game? “I can heal simple injures quickly, ja.” I said blankly. Lyra frowned a bit. “Sorry if that sounded insulting… Right so here’s the plan, Cole takes point, I back her up, you stay on our plots and zap the cuts and bruises away. Sound okay?” “I’ll be honest, it would sound better if you hadn’t just treated it like a Oubliettes and Ogres game.” I admitted, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof. Lyra rolled her eyes. “You sound just like a Royal Guard. ‘Ma’am you can’t possibly have learned anything from a game,’ they say, ignoring the fact they use wargames for training exercises, and that Oh and Oh is literally a small unit tactics simulator.” “Er- well, be that as it may, it feels...wrong, to make a parallel between a real dangerous situation, und a game.” I said defensively. “You’ll change your mind in a while.” Lyra smirked. “Trust me, with Vi as your DM, the game is basically a simulator, not a game. Which is awesome! Satisfies the adventuring urge nicely. Now, while we wait…” Lyra hopped over to my side and sat down. Incredibly weirdly at that. She sat with her plot touching the ground, her spine vertical, and her legs in front of her crossed into a sort of x with her hooves on opposite sides. “That, can’t be comfortable...” I remarked instinctively. Lyra blushed a little. “Um, actually at this point, it kinda hurts to sit pony-style. Anyways-” She levitated a small black leather book out of her saddlebag. “Here she is!” Lyra informed passing it to me to inspect. I took the book with my magic and levitated it in front of me, turning it to inspe- Oh. If this was pony-made, it was certainly one of a kind, and very expensive to make. The leather wasn’t leather. It looked like leather, felt like leather, but it was definitely not made of dead cells. This was some sort of synthetic material, perhaps a superfine plastic thread woven into a ultra-tight mesh and then laminated. Or maybe some sort of latex. Whatever it was, it was some of the best synthetic leather I’ve ever seen. It beat the faux leather dress I’d gotten as a gift in college by miles! It also was not a paper book. But well, Lyra had said it was a device so I should have expected it not to be parchment. Though it wouldn’t have been the first enchanted animated book I’d ever seen. On the inside, the ‘book’ had two brushed metal panels that had that sort of silvery brushed look of aluminum, except for the center of each ‘page’ which was a jet black pane of glass, like an empty photo frame that had been polished into almost a mirror. “Well, this isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.” I admitted honestly. “Don’t believe it’s not pony made though?” Lyra asked. “That’s fine. Take your hoof and chip or scratch the glass.” I blinked and turned to look at her. Her face looked completely serious. “Are you sure?” I asked. Lyra rolled her eyes, then suddenly drew back her hoof and punched the left screen dead center! The glass spiderwebbed into a thousands seperate pieces, shattering and- and… not leaving the frame. Instead it quickly melted, flowed back together and reformed into a single sheet of material again. Completely new looking. As if it had never broken. Without a single trace of thaumaturgic current. “Huh…” I said with a frown, leaning to inspect the pane closely. “Now, could ponies make that?” Lyra asked. “Nein.” I concluded. “If that had radiated some mana, ja, but… I don’t think our tech is that good.” “It’s not.” Lyra confirmed. “I’ve seen glass that can fix tiny scratches that was ponymade when you leave it in the sun, but that’s it. You can snap that entire tablet in two, hold the bits together and it’s good as new. She always fixes herself.” “Alright, I‘m inclined to believe you. As far as this is not a pony-made device.” I said acceptingly. “But as for your idea about ‘humans’, show me what you got.” Lyra smiled, took a stylus out of her bags and gently tapped the glass with it. “Hooves won’t work. It’s gotta be something conductive. Because she was designed for fingers.” Lyra said as the black screens suddenly brightened to a still black, but glowing faintly sort of black. A moment later a blue circular logo flickered into existence on the righthoof page. The logo was sort of like a letter o inside of another letter o with little tick marks at odd angles around each o that rotated around the center point of both o’s. “Good evening, Ms. Heartstrings.” A odd female voice said, coming from the device itself. “Hey Spice!” Lyra greeted, “Could you-” “Wait! hold it! Are you a person?” I asked, leaning forward to inspect the ‘book’ much much more closely. “No, unknown equine, I am Terran Systems Inc’s Simple Personality Interface, Civilian Edition, or S.P.I.C.E. I serve to facilitate the operation of this Terran Systems Inc Mark Seven Personal Media Device.” Spice replied. “Please remain quiet while my owner, Ms. heartstrings, utilises my functions.” “Yeah, don’t interrupt. She gets confused very easily… Human tech and Twilight’s translation spells don’t get along well.” Lyra said insistently. “Spice, can you tell me my current location?” “You are currently standing eighty six point three five kilometers bearing two hundred and eight point one three degrees from the Imperial Palace on Terra. WARNING: This is a restricted zone. For your safety, please leave the Palace defensive zone.” Spice warned. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Lyra. She winked back. “Spice, what is Terra?” Lyra asked. “Terra is the homeworld of Terrans, also known as Humans in some more traditional circles. Terra is the center of the Terran Empire. It is also known by the following unofficial names: Earth, Monde, and Erde due to linguistic differences. NOTICE: Using any name other than Terra on official documents is punishable by a five thousand credit fine.” Spice informed. Lyra nodded, “See? This girl thinks she’s on another world entirely. An older one. One I dug her up from.” “This unit is functioning properly, Ms. Heartstrings. Your insistence as to this planet not being Terra are worrying. Please seek psychiatric help. Xeno friendly clinics are within three hundred kilometers of your location.” Spice informed as Lyra closed her and slipped her back into the bag. “So, how about now?” Lyra asked smugly. “I’m inclined to believe you.” I replied. There was more to that however… “That said, if you are right, I do not see it impacting my life much if at all.” I admitted. Lyra looked a bit hurt, but nodded and gave me a sigh. “Yeah that’s the problem… All the truth does in this case is change our cultural narrative. Which is why nopony cares…” “I care.” Another pony’s voice said from in front of us! My ears stood up in alarm, my heartbeat sped up, and I readied my magic, horn blazing as I calculated whether to fire blind or throw up a shield. Then the air in front of me faded into the shape of a blue mare with a blue and white mane. “Hey Cole!” Lyra said happily. I took a deep, relieved breath. “Oh thank Faust! Why would you do that?” I begged. “Do what?” Cole asked with a look of serious confusion. “Uh, you didn’t intend to be invisible?” Lyra asked, one ear drooping. Cole facehooved. “Ugh! Sorry! I can’t believe it’s taking me this long to remember I have to remember to be visible…” “Um, what?” I asked. Ponyville was apparently a land of pure confusion. Oh no! That’s why Scoots warned me to ‘forget it Lily, it’s Ponyville.’ The town was a weirdness magnet! Cole blushed lightly. “Uh, well… I’m half windigo. After I figured out how my powers worked well… It- It’s not like unicorn magic. Like at all. So some things are hard. Like staying visible after I know how to turn invisible.” “At least you’re not falling through floors anymore.” Lyra giggled. “Yeah, thank Celestia for that.” She said with a pained smile. “Half?” I asked. “Didn’t you say that she was a windigo? How do you even become half an energy based lifeform?” Cole’s ears drooped. “Um… Well, you don’t. But most ponies don’t know that about us so you know they think we have normal flesh bodies. I say I’m half windigo because then I’m not instantly a monster. I’m the child of some poor mare who well, encountered a windigo. So instead of grabbing torches and pitchforks I’m treated kindly. “Also uh… I literally didn’t know myself till a month ago. I- I‘m a pony. Inside, you know? I don’t act like they do. At all.” Lyra nodded. “One hundred and twenty percent true right there.” She shuddered. “Ugh! Your birth mom was horrifying.” Cole winced and then turned to look at the doors. “Yeah so, this is the place huh?” I took a second to compose myself and nodded. “Ja. Scootaloo and I encountered, um, whatever we encountered just inside the doors. Right in front of a grand staircase in the lobby.” I turned to face the doors, bolstered a bit by the fact that I had two famous adventurers interested in checking it out. Still, there was the major question of, “how safe is it to go in there blind?” “Not at all safe,” Lyra answered with a grin. “That’s why I called Cole over. So she can scope it out first.” Admittedly, that was a professional response, but... “Okay, but how safe is that? Und also how do we know whatever it is can’t hide from her?” Cole chuckled. “This isn’t the first time we’ve done this. It’ll be fine.” “I just don’t want to have to regenerate somepony’s legs.” I nervously explained. “I lost my left hoof once.” Lyra remarked. “I can tell you from experience that I’ll be okay if that happens to me. I reacted in the proper manner to the injury.” “The hay you did!” Cole said, face stretching into a huge grin. A huge grin full of literally perfect teeth! Holy cow! She had to be obsessed with oral hygiene to a- Right! Lyra said her day job was dentistry. Duh. Wait, if she was tangible energy, she could just will her teeth to look perfect… Her body was basically an illusion spell, I think? There is never a library when and where you need one. Hold on, she’d said something. What was it? Oh yes! “How did she react?” I asked wanting to know for the sake of me being the closest pony to provide medical attention. “Also, who healed your hoof?” “I did.” Lyra said nonchalantly. “I poured a healing potion on both stumps and stitched it back on. Good as new! Also Bonbon likes the scar. Say’s it’s totally badflank.” I turned to look at Cole, searching for the story. She gave me a knowing nod. “We were investigating the Everfree back when the Timberwolf population started to skyrocket.” Cole began. “One bit off her hoof just above the joint in an ambush, so we fell back to a nearby logger’s cabin-” “Hey! This is my story!” Lyra objected. Cole rolled her eyes, “Go ahead.” “Anyways, I couldn’t let that alder-nosed colonoscopy bag keep my hoof.” Lyra said resuming the story. “It was a matter of pride, principal, and really not wanting a prosthetic limb because no doctor alive would let me have a hand.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m talking about you, Sky!” Her normal face popped back into existence as she continued. “Now, there are two normal reactions to being grievously injured. Panic, which is the bad one, and seek medical attention, which is the Good one. I chose the Lyra one, and wrapped my stump with an old shirt from the cabin to staunch the bleeding, applied a tourniquet, modded a chainsaw, attached it to the stump, went back out into the woods, cut that Timberwolf open, got my hoof back, and rubbed its nose it’s own mulchy intestines!” She finished with a serious, and also crazy gleam in her amber eyes. “W-I… Really?” I asked, ears laying flat. “Yep.” Cole confirmed. “Best day of my life!” Lyra insisted. “I even got to use a bucket list one-liner.” “So um, I take it you’re not afraid of the potential danger?” I asked, hoping to get back on topic, my apprehensions being almost completely allayed. “Not one bit!” Lyra announced, taking a look towards the upper floors. “So Cole, how about you go through the wall about there and-” “Wait, what was the one-liner?” Cole asked with a confused face. “It was ‘Groovy’.” Lyra replied, looking a little annoyed at having been interrupted. “How is groovy a one-liner?” Cole and I demanded together. Lyra sighed and facehooved. “It’s… I… Bonnie got it! Look, let’s just get on with this. There’s something interesting in there!” Cole nodded and gave the two of us a grin as she faded back to nothingness. This time I could see a few flickers of thaumaturgic current as she vanished, but only while she faded. Once she was gone there was nothing to be seen. Not even with a unicorns extra senses. “She’s good.” I mused optimistically. Something thumped into the hotel's door! “Ow! Damnit!” Cole cursed. “I guess I forgot to go intangible… My bad.” A second thump echoed through the courtyard. “Um… I’ll try the wall.” Cole announced. Then a split second later. “Nope. This building is phase-proof. Somehow.” “Thought so.” Lyra said with a sage nod as she trotted over to the wall. “Right, I’m going to chip a small hole in the wall and you squeeze through that.” Lyra’s horn blazed gold for a few minutes as she attempted to use a few different spells on the wall a foot to the left of the left hoof door. As I waited for anything to happen, her face grew more and more irritated until suddenly with a blast of magic she vaporized a chunk of brick! “Oh.” Lyra and Cole exclaimed an instant after shard of stone stopped flying dangerously close to everypony’s eyes. “Some warning next time would be great!” I grumbled, blinking stone dust from my eyes. “Sorry!” Lyra apologized. “That’s a solid wall of steel in layed with quartz spell circuits, isn’t it?” Cole asked with a sigh. “Yep.” Lyra confirmed. “Who built this place? Thestrals?” “Nah,” Cole disagreed, “this isn’t nearly that overbuilt. Have you seen Pattern Steel’s house?” “Point.” Lyra grunted. “Wait, the walls are metal?” I asked curiously. “Yeah!” Lyra exclaimed. “Good metal too. This isn’t steel. It’s too blue and silvery. Judging by how far I am from the doorframe and the apparent thickness of the doorway… We have a half-pony’s length of solid metal behind a veneer of rock. This is overkill even for an old Guard defense post… That’s what it was before a Hotel, right?” Cole nodded. “That’s what I heard too. But yeah, warded alloy steel walls… That can keep me out. Could be an old Tribunal base?” She mused. “Eh, maybe… But they supposedly told the EUP all of their bases locations when they were defeated wayback when. This is their style though. Especially with how much mana these wards must burn every day and how long it’s been empty… That efficiency rating is on par with their advanced Thaumaturgy.” Lyra said, debating herself internally. “Well… If a few Ruby changelings could run this place as a hotel for twenty years, any traps the Tribunal set in it must be gone. It’s likely a fallback position somepony forgot to demolish or appropriate.” I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to read more local history. “Could somepony give me the short version of what the Tribunal is?” “A supremacist group left over from pre-Celestia times.” Cole answered. “They were some sort of shadow government until around nine hundred years ago when they were exposed. If I’m remembering my history right Celestia took them down, executed the leaders, but let their troops change sides if they wanted.” Lyra nodded. “Yeah… Basically they were dark magic types who wanted to put unicorns back in charge of everypony. The modern Equestrian black ops force called Trident is descended from their members who defected. Because you don’t waste excellent spies and stuff.” “Thanks, I should read some local history.” I decided. “But for now, do we have a plan b?” Lyra nodded. Her horn flashed gold for a moment. “Okay, everypony, for the next twenty minutes only the three of us can hear each other. They can still hear things we do, so keep quiet. Lily did you lock the door when you ran out?” Oh. My. Faust. I hadn’t! I didn’t even close the door! I just sprinted like mad, and now here I was, door closed… “Your face says no… And that you left the door open.” Lyra said in concord. She reached over and tried the door, then shook her head. “Locked. Hopefully a security feature. Lily, open her up. Cole, you head in first… If you can.” I stepped forwards to unlock the door, reaching for the key with my magic and stepped directly into a patch of the most intense icy cold to ever exist on Equis! “Oops, sorry, let me step out of you.” Cole said as the coldness went away. “T-t-t-thh-thanks.” I stammered, deciding to just tough through it. “Upside, you know what it feels like if a windigo touches you now.” Lyra said. “You’ll be able to warn us.” I nodded and unlocked the door, pushing it open and stepping out of the way so I wouldn’t have my spine suddenly soaked in liquid nitrogen again! The door creaked open. A cold draft blew out of the dark, dusty interior. By the dim light of the dying lightgems I could make out the still dropped box of cereal, sitting in the half-hoof deep dust. A odd silhouette shape glowed briefly in the doorway. Cole hissed in pain. “Ah! Okay. No. I can’t go through that… Ow…” Lyra’s eyes widened slightly, “Are you actually hurt?” “Maybe… Felt like getting my nose sandpapered.” She muttered. “I… I don’t like this. You go in. I’m waiting here for one hour. If you’re not back by then, I’m getting everypony to go in after you.” That was an excellent plan! I was happy to be a part of it. “Gut!” I exclaimed. “ Here, take the key so-” “No, keep it. You may need it for inside doors.” Cole said urgently. “It will be fine. Octavia can pick locks.” Lyra nodded and stepped into the entryway, then slowly passed through the door, frowning as she moved. “Oh yeah, it’s unnaturally cold in here… Come on Lily, watch my back.” “You girls be careful.” Cole warned as I walked inside just behind Lyra. The entryway was exactly as I remembered it. Dark oak floors, grand staircase heading up to the wrap around balcony. Gray stone walls with the top halves covered in white marble. Dark orangish wood floors covered in an age’s worth of dust. Lyra gently stepped over to the box of cereal and bent down to look at it. Inspecting it in a critical manner before nodding to herself. “No strings attached… And nopony picked it up. Ah, see this?” I stepped forwards to see what Lyra was pointing too. A hooffull of cereal was scattered around the box, looking as if it had crumbled partially to dust. “Yes. Somepony stepped on this.” I said then blinked. “Wait, there’s no hoofprints in the dust!” “Mhm.” Lyra sighed. “It’s a windigo. It drained heat from the cereal, which made it shatter. This confirms it, they only ‘eat’ matter when hungry. Odd that it chose food though. Instead of say, that door handle.” “They could eat that?” I asked as Lyra stood up and headed for a set of open double doors to our right. “Yeah. Or at least, Cole can. I get why she still eats normal food pony style. I mean, she did it that way for her whole life. But I have seen her turn a table to frost and wood dust.” Lyra mused, carefully peeking around the corner before heading in. “There’s a chance that this one may be visible. It’s hungry, so it may not want to burn the energy to stay invisible.” I nodded, if they did take more energy to remain unseen than seen, that was reasonable. Also good for us. The room Lyra and I stepped into was a large dining room. The floor dipped down leaving a raised portion all the way around the room with a fireplace at one end. Two tables covered in the dry rotted remains of pink tablecloths and dust formed the place where ponies must have once sat and dined. “If there is a windigo trapped in here, how did the hotel function?” I asked, the thought occurring to me. Lyra paused, then turned to face me with a grim smile. “Lily, you’re a genius! But your point makes this a million times worse…” “How?” I asked, a sneaking suspicion forming in my mind. “Because it means there is either a hidden room where it was trapped for years… Or it’s been trapped here recently. Meaning um…” Lyra gave me a hurt look. “If someone brought a windigo into Ponyville, we have a huge problem. Hopefully it’s not that. If there isn’t a hidden room where one has been trapped because of the crazy wards… Lily, somepony died in here.” I took a step back in shock. “Windigoes can’t enter, or leave due to the wards.” Lyra clarified. “Meaning somepony would have to intentionally have let one in. Making one getting trapped here unlikely. So there’s either a hidden room in an old Tribunal base, a very very bad thing… Or Somepony got in here, became trapped and… There’s no pleasant way to say this…” Lyra groaned. “Windigos are born when a pony is cannibalized… Whether by themselves, or by another… And um… Sometimes the pony can live. Assuming the windigo that forms in their body, and then possesses the corpse doesn't drain all of their body heat in their first hunger… Or that the pony doesn't bleed out…” “Uhhhh… So that means that Cole-” Lyra threw up a hoof to cut me off. “She refuses to tell me. Her adoptive parents are monster hunters, they raised her from a young filly… To see if they could civilize one. We are not talking about my best friend’s origins. Skip it!” I nodded. “Okay. Dropped.” That wasn’t a topic to push, even if I wanted to actually know myself... “My point is, a tragedy happened here… If we don’t find a skeleton or bone dust in here, we need to look for a hidden room. Windigoes may be, horrific, and they are predators, but they in some cases can be people. I can’t imagine being trapped and hungry for… Oh Luna, the thing could have been stuck in a hidden cupboard for almost a thousand years.” I winced. That was very uncomfortable… The thought of being trapped in one small space for multiple lifetimes. I couldn’t stay sane. “You sure you want this building?” Lyra asked as she started to inspect the room. “It’s not the building’s fault bad things happened in it.” I answered, peering under the tables. “Odd way to handle things. Most ponies I know would tear down a house a murder happened in.” Lyra mused. “Ja, well, if Germanes thought that way, we would have to rebuild almost every public building.” I answered, seeking conversation to distract me from the creeping horror. Oh Faust! What if somepony got trapped in a hidden cupboard and grew so hungry that- “Uh, we need to talk about absolutely anything. Please! “ I begged, giving Lyra my most pleading of pleading looks. Lyra winced, “Ack… Sad Bon-bon face! You don’t need to do that, I’d like to not think about the details too. Uh, oh hey, so back in oh-two, my friends and I wanted to get Meep and Cole to hook up. “You see, Cole had been crushing on the bug for, like, literally her whole teen and adult life. At the time we didn’t know that Meep was a Changeling, and we also thought Cole was a pony. This was about oh… Thirteen years ago. Long time. “But anyways we worked out a plot where I rigged it so we won the contest to be Princess Cadence’s Bridesmaids. We thought we could use the romantic backdrop to do some good old fashioned relationshipping.” Lyra kept talking for the entire time we searched the old building. She told the story expertly, only pausing when we had to take a moment to slowly peek our heads into each room to check it over for well, a body. It was nice to have the distraction. I didn’t know much Equestrian history, and apparently their plan to make their friends hook up was interrupted by Queen Chrysalis’s first invasion of Equestria. I was stunned at how incompetent Lyra described her as. The Demon Queen of the Swarm definitely had gotten more cruel and effective over the years, though I still wasn’t sure sure how I felt about my part in Chrysalis’s demise. The next few minutes were a mix of Lyra’s story, my wishing I had done more in the actual fight instead of just healing ponies afterwards, and briefly letting Cole know we were fine when we had to go to the outer balcony to check the hotel rooms, just incase they were where… it was. Nothing. Each room was empty. No body. No windigo. Just eery silence, dark rooms, a few old dresses, and dying light gems. Lyra and I trotted back into the lobby. “-after that, Meep managed to prove her real identities to Twilight, who got a letter to Celestia who in turn got her Equestrian citizenship as her real Changeling self. Just in time before the anti-changeling witch hunts started up. “I’m glad the lovebugs are welcomed in Equestria now. Took a good four years before they could be seen in public without being attacked, regardless of hive… But now, well, equality for all really means all.” “I suppose that includes this windigo then?” I asked through morbid curiosity. “Yes. If she’s not hostile. Under the most recent Sapient Species Act, regardless of species, any thinking creature who is not a danger can live here.” Lyra said casually, then sighed. “Though there are still plenty of ponies who don’t care about the laws… Like the Tribunal did, lots of ponies out there would like to change things. “Man I hate exploring their old ruins…” Lyra lamented. “Ja…” I nodded. We had checked every room. There was nothing here. Nothing obvious. There had to be a hidden room someplace. “All the dimensions add up…” Lyra groaned. “Length, width, height… No possible hidden room bigger than a dish cupboard. Meaning we have one of my least favorite things.” “What’s that?” I asked, frowning in concern. “A building this big and heavy has to have a substructure to help hold it up. There’s got to be a basement. Seen a stairwell going down in here?” Lyra asked bitterly. Oh… Oh this did not bode well. Not at all. Not one bit. When I had been twelve, I got lost in my family’s basement… “Oh… Yay…” I fearfully moaned. “Well, let’s do this.” Lyra sighed walking off towards the door which led to the kitchen. “Why the kitchen?” I asked, following after a moment’s hesitation. “Not kitchen, pantry.” Lyra muttered. “You don’t hide a stairway or ladder someplace just anypony could stumble across it. Ever wonder why bookcase doors aren’t really a serious thing? Ponies casually pick up books. We put coats and hats on pegs… If you have a hidden entrance it goes someplace few ponies will go.” That made perfect sense. I wished it didn’t. Nothing good could come of a hidden basement. All of the horror movies with creepy sex-maniac killers have hidden basements! Lyra walked through the kitchen and opened the small door to enter the pantry. The dust still bore our prints from walking through it last time. I nervously eyed the rows of shelves and cabinets that filled the small room, checking to see if any of the scattered boxes, bags, and bottles had moved. Checking to see if there was some sign the windigo was stalking us. Nothing. At this point, the nothing was getting more terrifying than any something could ever be. I wanted a monster to leap out of a wall! I wanted plates to fly across the room in an explosion of pottery! Give me something I can see! Let me know where it is! Lyra started to check the walls near the door. Wanting to move out of her way, but still have a clear line of sight to the door so I could bolt, I backed into the corner of the room directly opposite the doorway, pressing myself firmly against the wall so Lyra could have room to wor- A sharp click split the air as my rear left knee depressed a patch of wall. Hidden machinery beneath the floor groaned, shaking off the sleep of the ages to whir to life. The center of the room dropped down a few hooves, smoothly sliding into a recess in the floor beside it, opening a one pony wide hole the length of the floor, with just the doorway wide strip to use as a landing. White stone steps slid upwards, grinding slightly as they moved, forming stairs that plunged down into the inky black depths, until with a click and a humm the stairwell was illuminated by a large lightgem at the bottom, flickering, dying white light flooding the newly revealed oak wall paneled stairwell. Lyra hissed. “Luna’s mane… If it didn’t know we were here before, it does now… We better move.” “Out of here?” I asked, voice just a little squeaky. “No, down. We’re here to scout. This is a very expensive way to hide your basement… We need to know.” Lyra said as she took a piece of chalk from her bag, marked the button with an x and wrote 'press for basement, Lyra', then quickly started to descend the stairs. I hesitated a moment, bit my lip, did my best to push fear aside, then followed her down the stairs. The steps descended maybe fifty feet in a straight line then came to a sharp righthoof turn. I noticed a button on the wall at the bottom of the stairs as we turned the corner and let out a relieved sigh. At least we wouldn’t be trapped here. The floor underhoof was made of steel. An odd choice, especially since it was burnished to a dull shine, and the dim flickering lights reflected off the floor. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the lights were not flicking like they were on the last dregs of mana… We came quickly to another right hoof turn, where the one pony wide path became a two pony wide steel stepped staircase… And the walls oak paneling stopped and some odd green ceramic tile covering began to replace it. Lyra and I descended the ‘cut out as if by a chisel steps. The staircase seemed to go on forever. One straight line. No bends. “So… One deep basement…” I nervously joked. “I see floor.” Lyra announced with an urgent ‘stay ready for anything’ tone. Forty five seconds of stairs. To get to the basement. With every single step, the temperature fell noticeably, I could see my breath midway down the stairs. This so did not bode well… We stepped out into the dark, only barely lit room at the base of the stairs. Whatever other details and features the room had instantly became irrelevant. You’d never see them. Not with what sat recessed in the far wall. “Well…” Lyra said, ears drooping fearfully. “Buck…” “Ja,” I agreed, “buck…” There sat in the wall, a three pony wide circular, magically reinforced, pure steel, frost covered, vault door.