Prologue - Falling doesn't hurt as much as you think.
Sweetie Belle just was not having a good day.
It was not so much this day was remarkably worse than any other. In fact, it should have been a very enjoyable day. She barely spent any time with her sister Rarity unless their parents were away. Helping her sister and Spike with gem collecting should have made her happy. It did to some small extent. She could be helpful to the best sister in the world and spend time with her just like that camping trip a while back.
But it wasn't enough.
She had been in this slump since her sister made those dresses for her and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders in the school play she wrote. Rarity’s dresses made the audience happy, but at the expense of her own play going unnoticed; a failure even if nopony said so. It wasn’t enough that nopony even remembered what it was about or any of the lines—deep down she knew she was not cut out for show business—but none of the most important ponies where there … including her sister. She couldn’t even blame her sister—not that she ever would. It was her fault for leaving it to the last minute. That combined with her continual failures over the past several weeks of "Twilight Time" in learning magic made her feel like she couldn't do anything right. She could still only lift a broom or maybe a half-full glass of water; a full glass usually resulted in a very wet Sweetie Belle.
With all that in mind, helping her sister with gem hunting was exactly the thing that she needed right now.
'Even I can't mess up hauling a wagon,' Sweetie thought morosely to herself. The act was something concrete; genuinely and unequivocally useful. 'If only I had been more appreciative of Rarity when she made those dresses for us … Then maybe she wouldn't feel so bad.'
"Oh Sweetie Belle!" her sister sang, grabbing her attention with a waving foreleg. She pointed towards a small hill. "There are more gems this way! Could you be a dear and bring the wagon over here? I'd do it myself but my gem-finding spell really drains the life out of me."
"Coming!" Sweetie said. Having been broken from her depressing thoughts, she brought the red wagon over to her sister and Spike.
Spike waddled over to her; a heaping pile of gems twice his size in his arms. "Here Sweetie Belle," Spike said as he dropped the fresh batch of gems into the wagon. He looked worn out; out of breath as he was with his knees shaking. With one look at Rarity however was enough for all his previous exhaustion to disappear. He quickly went back to work, digging in the places Rarity pointed out to with her magic.
The gem field they worked was far in the outskirts of town. Officially it was Diamond Dog territory, but Rarity had “convinced” them to split the field with her. Rarity never had a confrontation since; the dogs may have been stupid but they knew not to mess with her. It was now to the point that even Sweetie Belle could come along. Apparently dogs could still be trained after all.
The three of them worked like that for the whole afternoon. Considering the sheer quantity Rarity uses in her designs, Sweetie Belle was surprised there was still a gem field left at all. Then again, gem finding was a part of Rarity’s special talent. She was the shining example of what kept her searching for her Cutie Mark the way the CMC did. A pony who could live on her own and would even work in the dirt to make other ponies shine.
Sweetie Belle knew that her destiny would come from the most unlikely places. Just like her sister. That's why she was a Cutie Mark Crusader.
As she was thinking of these dreams of grandeur, the pile of gems in the wagon grew and grew until it actually rose above her head. She had hauled much heavier before, of course. Considering the weight she hauled during their camping trip in the woods, this felt little more than carrying her saddlebags to school. Still the it almost felt like the ground beneath her hooves was cracking under the weight.
'Wait... that's not right-,' Sweetie Belle thought before she suddenly found herself falling and hitting the solid rock below.
"Ooowwww!!! Argghh … ." She luckily landed on her fore-hooves and the wagon landed safely behind her. Apart from some soreness in her forelegs, she was remarkably unharmed. She did not want to think what would have happened if the wagon landed on her instead.
Sweetie Belle groaned as she slowly sat up; her fore-hooves hurt too much to stand up yet. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized she was in a semi-spherical cavern. Smooth, almost polished stone lined the walls, floor and ceiling. She looked up and saw her entry point; light pouring from the small hole in the roof. The walls were far too steep and slippery for her to even think about climbing out.
"Rarity!!!"
The small unicorn kept calling out to her sister. As Rarity had gone on ahead, Sweetie Belle feared her sister might not have noticed her fall.
"Sweetie Belle?! Sweetie Belle?! Sweetie Belle!" Rarity's voice called out as she got closer. She saw the hole and peered down into the chamber, seeing the glimmer of the cart. It was hard to tell in the dark but she assumed the grey shadow resting next to it was her sister. "Oh dear! Sweetie Belle are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I think I'm okay sis. My legs are a little shaky but it doesn't really hurt too much. I don't think I can make it out though, the walls down here are too steep."
"Oh, thank goodness. Unfortunately, I don't think I can lift you out using my magic with you being that far away … I'll go get help right away! Just wait here and don't move a muscle! Spike and I will be back in no time." With that her sister left.
"It's not like I have anywhere to go … " Sweetie Belle mumbled to herself.
‘Stupid cave, stupid legs … stupid Sweetie Belle!’ She thought, reprimanding herself, ‘Arghh! Why can't I do anything right! All I had to do was haul a wagon. A Wagon! And I can't even do that right. Rarity really is the bestest sister, putting up with a useless blank flank like me … .’
Sweetie Belle sat there, brooding over her recent setback in a long string of failures. The dark damp cave doing nothing to improve her mood. Typically she had her friends, Rarity or at least the comfort of a pillow to vent her frustrations but whenever she let out anything here, the echo-chamber of a room would send it right back, making her feel worse.
Seeing that her legs were feeling better, she stood up and looked around some more. It took a minute, but she found a difference in the cavern wall around her. A passageway of rock and bits of rusted steel was just out of view from where she landed. If she was a geologist, she would have recognized that the passage seemed too regular, and the rusted metal too large to be natural or part of an ancient pony settlement or device. Sweetie Belle wasn't a geologist, however. She and the rest of the CMC only spent an hour researching for their Geologist Cutie Marks before they realized they really didn't care about the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks. No matter how fascinating Pinkie Pie's sister's poems made them seem.
‘I could wait for Rarity to come back with Twilight … ,’ the mischievous filly thought, her mood improving, ‘Or I could do something for myself for once and leave this cave on my own! Won't they be surprised when they come looking for me only to see that I'm already out.' She smiled at the thought. I'm not going to end up like Apple Bloom was and have my sister coddle me and keep me from helping. I'll show Rarity that Sweetie Belle can solve things on her own!’
With that, she lit up her horn which illuminated the dark passageway. She may have had trouble levitating, but just making the horn glow was a cinch. She stood proudly. Looks like magic practice if paying off!' Sweetie Belle thought. With her newfound motivation, she started down the long tunnel, unaware that it wasn't as straight as she thought. Slowly she began to descend …
Twilight had spent the better part of the past two weeks rebuilding her old library into her newly christened 'crystal tree castle … thing'.
She liked her old library better.
Maybe it was just nostalgia, but the warm cozy feel of the wood that would keep her warm on a late night study session, the musty smell of well-worn tomes that lingered even when she had done her monthly cleaning and reorganization, it was magical. Even her room in Canterlot Castle did not feel as familiar and cozy. She would really miss her old library. She even cried; inconsolable for two days, although her friends kept insisting it was closer to a week. She always told herself to never cry over tattered tomes but this was an exception: the books and her home made it personal! As far as she was concerned, Tirek would never spend enough time in Tartarus to make up for it!
After she had recovered from the shock, she went back to thinking logically, as was her nature, and made a checklist. She could replace most of her books. Many were still in circulation, and most of the irreplaceable ones had been in the basement and were still fine. The Princess gave her those books after all and she could never call herself a faithful student if she could not protect her teacher's precious tomes from a little magic. Still, those books held more than mere words and knowledge. She learned lessons and had sleepovers surrounded by those works. It was not simple sentimentality when she would not sell them at the Rainbow Falls Trader's Exchange. They truly could not be replaced.
She sighed again as she reigned in her emotions as she faced the facts. Like her princess-hood, the castle and the destruction of her old library was something she would just have to get used to. Old Twilight might have been depressed for a few more months but she was a princess now. She would not let Equestria down.
She could not deny that the new library was better from an objective standpoint however. More space, straighter and wider shelves. It was also much easier to keep clean, much to Spike's delight. Now that she thought about it, Spike had been bringing in all the books he could scavenge from the wreckage Tirek made and was helping her organize them into the new shelving. 'Where is that dragon?' she thought.
"Spike! Oh Spi-" Twilight called out for her number one assistant. It was only now that she remembered that she had given him a break to help Rarity with her weekly gem scavenger hunt. "Right, I forgot about him helping Rarity.” Putting down the list of books needing to be organized she sighed. “I guess I should focus on-"
"Twilight!!!"
She turned to see Rarity and Spike at the door. They were both out of breath and sweating. Something must be VERY wrong. Sweating meant galloping. Rarity only galloped when she was serious. She was only serious when the situation was really serious.
"What's wrong Rarity? Did something happen while you were gem searching?"
"That's … exactly … it … Twilight … ." Rarity replied in between heavy breaths.
Catching her breath did little to stop the fashionista from looking completely frazzled, but it made her voice more intelligible. With some measure of composure, she added, "Spike, Sweetie Belle and I were spending the afternoon digging for gems when my sweet sister suddenly was swallowed up! One moment she was there, the next she had sunk into a sinkhole! The hole was too deep and I couldn't get her out! My magic simply isn't strong enough … Believe me when I say that of all the worst things that could happen, this is The Worst Possible Thing!"
She was not even pausing for dramatic timing or getting her fainting couch.
Rarity never does that.
"Oh! That really is serious!” Twilight replied, bringing a consoling hoof to her friend’s withers. “Well then, lead the way! I think I could levitate her out if I can see her. If not, I can always teleport in and bring her out. Actually, wouldn't wings do the trick? Why didn't you speak to Rainbow Dash. Couldn't a Pegasus just go down and get her?"
"I thought of that on the way back, darling, but I wasn't sure it would work. The hole is very small. She may have been able to get in and out, but I didn't want to waste time on anything but a sure thing. Oh, Sweetie must be scared stiff right now. We simply must hurry!"
The passageway seemed to go on for an eternity.
The air got more stale and damp the further Sweetie Belle went along, and the filly had started to feel dizzy. Only a few minutes later, however, the air suddenly felt cleaner and fresh, like she had breached through a water's surface and now the cave felt like it had a direct connection to the surface. If Sweetie Belle had been more attentive, she might have considered the transition far too sharp, but she could hardly walk let along think. By now, she realized that she probably should have stayed where she was, but she also knew that it was far too late to go back. Although she could not put it into words, she would not have lasted much longer and probably would collapse from hypoxia on the way back.
With the sudden burst of air, she felt she might be close to the surface and raced forward. The passage was straight … oddly so. Apart from the occasional shift in the rock, the passage's metal supports were far more uniform and shiny now.
Eventually, she reached the end of the tunnel where a large, circular, metal door once stood. It was like the door she saw used at the vault in the Ponyville bank. It had long since fallen off its frame and lay on the floor. Long, corroded, steel bars which had once held the door in place were now ripped apart by the passage of time.
Sweetie Belle may not be getting her geologist Cutie Mark but she was no fool. A big door like this meant only one thing; there were secrets inside.
‘Maybe this is some sort of hidden base or secret underground lair?!’ She thought. ‘I may not have found a way out, but it looks like my boring walk down that tunnel wasn't so pointless after all! Wait until Apple Bloom and Scoots hears about this!’
She carefully climbed over the fallen door and into the room beyond. The room was nothing like the cave or tunnel she had left, it wasn’t a particularly large room but it was encased entirely in a green rusting steel construction like the door. Fans and metal boxes littered the floor. Fallen metal shelves lined the room, empty of anything except growing moss. The awed filly had never seen so much metal in one place except maybe the Manehatten bridge. That bridge was simple painted iron though, not like the metal before her. Through the patchy rust, the metal here was bright and gleaming despite the age. 'It seemed like an awful waste to put all this metal in some random cave,' Sweetie Belle thought, 'but that's just proof that there is a secret here!'
At the far end of the room was another door, this one smaller and more simplistic. A regular, rectangular, metal door. It was more intact than the previous one but still had fallen off its frame. Climbing over this door as well, Sweetie found herself in the final chamber. Her hooves stopped clopping for the first time since she left the Carousel Boutique. Not because she stopped moving but due to the cushioning of the floor. Unlike the stone, dirt and now metal she had been stepping in, the floor here was a patterned blue carpet; faded and worn with age but still very much intact.
What really caught her attention, however, was the light at the center of the pitch black room. The source of the light was a lamp embedded into the ceiling. It was like none she had ever seen before. There was no fireflies or oil so it must have been a magic lamp, but where those were really advanced, certainly not something Sweetie Belle thought she would find in an ancient ruin. The object of the lights attention was a simple metal pedestal.
She walked up to the pedestal. Now intrigued with the mystery before her, she completely forgot her goal of making it back to Rarity.
‘This place seems way too old to be an underground lair, but too fancy to be a ruin. Hey! I bet I can get a Cutie Mark in Archaeology like Daring Do! Discovering ancient artifacts in an ancient ruin deep underground.’ Her thoughts drifted back to the pedestal. ‘Alright … what would Daring do?’ She giggled at her terrible pun. ‘First I need to check for any hidden traps. Just like in Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone!’
She slowly circled the pedestal, observing very intently the slight green rust on the edges and the simple etching of a lines detailing the simple platform. She poked and pressed at the column but could not find anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied with her sleuthing, the filly stood on her hind legs in order to observe what was on the pedestal which had—until now—been too high up for her to see. What she found was that there was nothing there.
‘Awww, darn. I was really hoping for someth-’
She could not complete her thought as the light above her began to shine with greater and greater intensity. She tried to step back but found herself almost bound in place. The light wrapped around her, feeling strangely physical and tingling on her fur. Before she could figure out what was going on, she collapsed into unconsciousness.
"Here we are Twilight, darling. This is the spot."
Rarity approached the hole carefully, not wanting to fall in like her sister. "Sweetie Belle! Sweetie Belle, are you there? I brought Twilight here to help you but I'll need you to come into the light if she is to use her-"
Unfortunately for Rarity, she wasn't careful enough and fell into the cavern below. Regaining her wits, she found herself falling not two feet from the gem wagon her sister had been carrying. Immediately behind her, Twilight teleported into the cave. Rarity was briefly dazed but suffered less damage than her sister had. She quickly shook her head, getting her bearings again.
"Are you alright Rarity?" Twilight extended a helping hoof which Rarity accepted.
Helped to her hooves now, Rarity looked around. Not seeing her sister she began to shake, looking under every rock and into every hole in the cave. She began to sweat and in a broken voice she said, "I don't see my darling sister anywhere? Oh no you don't think that-"
"She's not here.” Seeing her friend’s shocked face she quickly added, “Not in this cave that is. I could see that from above. I sent Spike back to get the rest of the girls together just in case before I teleported down here." Seeing Rarity was about to speak, she silenced her quickly with her hoof. "Before you finish that thought, I found a tunnel." Twilight pointed her wing towards the passageway that Sweetie Belle had accidentally created earlier.
"Twilight, you don't think she-"
"A Cutie Mark Crusader leaving behind a safe cave to go exploring a dark, dangerous and unknown tunnel. Gee, I wonder … ," Twilight said with a deadpan expression. She didn't mean to sound so annoyed but she had spent enough times cleaning up Ponyville of their antics that she felt she earned the right to be a little short when it came to Rarity’s sister’s behavior.
"Hehe … ,” Rarity said, briefly letting out a sigh. “When you put it that way … Alright, I guess I can refrain from being too much of a drama queen until we at least give this tunnel a look. A lady must always remain composed." Rarity said as she fixed her frayed mane. She loved her sister dearly and was still very worried, but finding a missing Sweetie Belle was almost a daily occurrence and—while she hated to admit it—one she had all but become accustomed to. 'All in a day’s work of being a good sister,' Rarity thought, 'just like my darling sister’s … “juice”.' She shuddered, 'This is just something one has to put up with!'
Lighting their horns, the two of them stepped into the tunnel. Unlike Sweetie Belle's journey, however, they did not feel the effects of the tunnel's dampness; their far larger lung and magical capacity protected the from the worst effects. Also unlike Sweetie Belle, Twilight took notice of the tunnel's odd nature.
"These walls are too uniform to be natural," Twilight observed.
"Well, this is a gem field," Rarity commented. "I would be more surprised if Diamond Dogs haven't come through here. The savage brutes … ."
"No, I don't mean unnatural in that way," Twilight replied. "Look at the metal in the rock. This is processed steel … or was. The deposits are also spread out uniformly, like a mineshaft. Dogs don't do that. Also note the scraping on the rock. It's well worn down but I can see these were dug with powerful tools … or at least large ones. The groves here are too uniform to be natural and the helical screw pattern is a clear sign of a modern drill. It would be far more uneven with a pickaxe or paws."
"Okay, so it's pony construction then. An abandoned mineshaft is hardly-"
"But that's just it! I've never seen pony, griffon, or any other construction like this in all my time studying excavation magic! Metal is far too expensive so we use wood. Also, look at the rust. This isn't just a few hundred years old, these rods must have been ten times the size initially when you look at the holes. Why, they might even be hundreds of thousands of years old! We may be looking at a ruin of a prehistoric civilization!"
"You don't think the tunnel will collapse do you?"
"Oh no. They may have been for support while the tunnel was under construction but the rock is well compacted now just like any other natural tunnel. Anyway, just imagine what a prehistoric society of this advancement might be like! Considering the grooving in the rock these weren't mined by magic but by drills. But drills this size would require a lot of power. No steam drill I've seen would even compare … at least not for such a long tunnel. Wait, did you feel that?! I think the air just got cleaner! What could have caused that! Wow, this civilization might have even been more advanced than ours! Just think-"
"Twilight, as much as this … tunnel is fascinating-" Rarity cut in.
"and it is! Oh it is …" Twilight replied, a disturbingly happy look on her face.
"We have to find my sister. This tunnel isn't going anywhere, you can always admire it later."
"Oh right! I could bring a Canterlot archaeology team! They've always been complaining about 'Completely ruining a thousand years of study with magical appearing civilizations' so I'll make it up to them. They will be absolutely thrilled when I give them some real work to do. Oh and…"
Rarity did not respond, knowing Twilight was unreachable at this point. While she enjoyed Twilight's thrilling intellectual conversation most times, her sister was too important to be slowed down by one of Twilight's tangential observations. She quickened the pace, which forced Twilight to abandon her monologue in order to catch up.
They reached the door and the room.
"Oh look at this door! It's hard to tell with all the rust but the machining work is spectacular! That's weird, the rust here is green… Wait, that can only mean one thing! I think the whole room is made of stainless steel! Gosh, this much must have cost a fortune! Current prices have it worth even more that 24 carat gold! I'm not going to lie Rarity, this might be the most significant find since … ever!"
Twilight might have been distracted, but Rarity was nothing if not focused. She quickly sped across the room and through the second door. There she found Sweetie Belle, unconscious on the floor in front of some strange metal stand.
"Oh Sweetie Belle!" she cried as she lifted the unconscious filly. "Oh thank Celestia, she's still breathing! Hurry Twilight, we have to get her to the hospital as soon as possible!"
Twilight was broken from her trance and came quickly over to Rarity. Seeing the situation, she levitated the small filly to her back and teleported as far up the tunnel as she could, running the rest of the way. Rarity quickly followed after her.
As they and the glow of their horns left, the room remained dark, the light of the lamp that enveloped Sweetie Belle permanently extinguished now from age. Now it and the crumbling ruin could finally rest. It had finally fulfilled its purpose.
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This gonna be gud!
Should be "a part"
75-0 as of post. Holy..
Welp, best get to reading!
Somewhere, Maud Pie is crying. Almost imperceptibly.
This hole should be renamed the Bellesbane. Or the Bellesmouth. I notice Twilight made a much smoother entry ...
Just be glad, Twilight, that Spike lusts after Rarity instead of Sweetie Belle -- or Spike would be getting into trouble alongside the CMC.
Why is its meaning lost forever? Twilight knows where is the ruin and can always take archaeologists back to the site, can't she?
4815477 For me, it's 150-4.
4815621
The entrance and/or the ruins itself might have started to collapse on itself as soon as they left.
Sounds like a Vault
Her
___________
move down a line.
___________________
Nice start. So far this seems like it'll be an interesting read.
It has a few minor errors
4935056
There's a goshdarn lot of them, actually.
Still, interesting story.
4815621
4824084
Alternatively, the purpose of the ruin is completed, and the mechanisms, without power, are too complex for ponies to understand fully at this point of their science. So while the ruins will increase their relative scientific understanding dramatically, they will never understand exactly why the ruins were there, or what their purpose was.
I'm gonna enjoy this
My only complaint with the intro is the rusted, stale, damp, metal corridor; Sweetie Belle should be dead from hypoxia because of the oxidizing rust.
A quick fix would be that Sweetie feels a draft and decides to follow it for a way out. The air would become less stale and damp as she went deeper.
The rest would still make sense as the facility is still powered until Sweetie comes into contact with the room.
4815621
This would be fixed with my above correction. Twilight sends a team back, but because it's no longer powered and supplied with fresh air, the rust finally wins out and the structure caves in.
6132733
Hmm, never considered the effects of hypoxia. I only had the filly down there for about 15 minutes (her concept of time in the dark cave would lead her to grossly exaggerate it) but she would have a very small set of lungs so it only makes sense that even a short time and a relatively short corridor would have her collapse from lack of oxygen. I have corrected it (at least in this chapter, I will add more notes in subsequent corrected chapters as to avoid spoiling them for new readers).
As for what I meant by "its meaning forever lost to the sands of time," just like what Kage no Brony said below, that was a spoiler to the fact that despite them following up on the cave (I did hint that Twilight would be sending a archaeological team from Canterlot down there), they would never figure out its meaning.
Corrections are below.
Jeez, that was a lot of exposition.
This has come highly recommended to me from multiple sources, so let's see if it lives up to the clamor, hmm?
Just read the first chapter. So far I can say my interest is piqued, but I'm not sold yet. A tiny bit of ancient curiosity, and Sweetie is certainly characterized well.
Occasional grammar hiccups did take me out of it a few times, namely with verb tense. The example I can remember is below...
('hears' should be 'hear', since the noun is a list of multiple people.)
Otherwise, looking forward to seeing where this goes!
-GM, master of Sweetie Scouting Protocol.
Didn't she simply discover the passage?
alone
4817211
As I begin my descent I see markings on the walls left by previous explorers, bearing their names and dates. I, too, shall leave my mark here, if only to continue the tradition.
1,381-36
As much as I yearn to delve deeper into this mystery the hour grows late. I shall retire and come anew with fresh eyes 'pon the morn.