I think we're lost

by Poetic Brony

Bloodlines part 1

Twilight was looking over Arron's Map she had spread out over one of her tables in the library.

"She seems excited," Dave whispered to his brother. "She acts like your map is some kind of lost treasure."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at what he said. "She a complete egghead, she thinks all books and stuff are treasure."

Arron folded his arms and nodded in agreement.

Dave went over to one of the cushions and sat down. He disturbed Spike who was in the middle of reading a comic book.

"Hay, watch it," Spike cried as he glared at Dave for his unwelcome intrusion. Dave gave him a disingenuous shrug in return, "Dragons!" Dave muttered.

"I heard that," Spike retorted.

"And I care because?" Dave sarcastically replied.

Spike groaned, he got up and walked over to the other side of the library muttering incoherently. Spike slammed himself down onto one of the bean bags. He huffed a puff of smoke in Dave's direction before turning his back to the human who was now occupying his previous seat.

Arron shook his head, Rainbow Dash covered her mouth to try and stifle her giggles.

Spike tuned his head to give her a disappointing glare. "Et tu Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow Dash stopped giggling. "What?" She asked Spike, though everyone knew she wasn't being honest.

"Whatever," Spike said going back to reading his comic.

Arron ignored them, he went over to the table where Twilight was ogling his map and if he didn't know any better he swore she was actually drooling a bit.

"Like the map Twilight?" His question made her jump, he apparently startled her from her reading. She vigorously shook her head before quickly wiping her mouth with a hoof.

"Oh," She said turning her head to speak to him. "Arron, yes this map of yours is wonderful, I was going to ask you if, well that is if you wouldn't mind—"

"Of course you can have it," Arron said with a smile, then he frowned. "It's not like I can use it here." He muttered.

Twilight ran over to him and hugged him around his waist. "Thank you, thank you! You have no idea how much better our own maps can be once I give this to the topographers in Canterlot!"

Aronn didn't really know how to react to Twilight's sudden embrace, he started sweating. I know she means well but I don't like being hugged like this... he thought. She seemed to notice he wasn't comfortable with her clinging to him so she let go. Arron let out a sigh of relief relaxing when she did so.

"I'm so sorry," Twilight's said, her ears dropping. "I didn't mean to—"

Arron shook his head. "I know, Twilight it's just, where I'm from most people don't hug."

"You guys don't hug?" All three native Equestrains exclaimed in unison.

"Let's just say, it's not common practice." Arron said trying not to offend them.

"Ya," Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Hugs, who needs em!" She folded her forelegs and huffed. Twilight shook her head at her, Spike rolled his eyes and went back to his comic.

"Anyway," Twilight said. "I think we should see if we can get you guys back home." She trotted to the door and turned her head to Arron who was looking perplexed that she was leaving. "Don't worry I'll be right back." She said before leaving the library, closing the door behind her with her magic.

Arron sighed and went over to a bean bag chair next to the one Spike was occupying. "Hey, Spike?"

"Ya?" He replied glancing up at him from his comic.

"Is that comic your reading any good?"

Spike glanced at his comic before replying. "I guess so." They both fell silent, Spike went back to reading and Arron pulled his balisong out of the pocket of his cargo pants and started flipping it while he waited for Twilight to return.

The Alicorn princess was trotting down the hallway she halted and opened the door to a large room that housed the mirror that served as a portal to the human world. She walked up to her homemade device and used her magic to levitate the book that served as a conduit of communication with her human friends. She opened the book to a blank page she pulled out a quill from nowhere and started writing.

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Two human brothers have appeared here in Equestria and I need your help to find out how they arrived here. They've brought a map with them and I'll send you a copy later. Right now I need you to see if anyone has been listed as missing. Their names are Arron and Dave De'Levant, they said they're from a city called Goffstown in a place called New Hampshire.

Your friend
Twilight Sparkle

She was about to close the book but she took her quill out again.

P.S They have a car with them, though I don't know if that's significant or not.

Then she closed the book, it started glowing when she did. "I hope that she'll know what to do. I mean ponies turn human when they travel through the mirror." She said thinking out loud. "But, they didn't get here through a mirror, they drove?" She rubbed her chin with a hoof. "How would one drive to Equestria?" She sighed as she headed back to the library. "Perhaps I should investigate that car of theirs, maybe there's some kind of magic involved that we've never seen before." She went wide eyed in excitement. "Wouldn't that be something! I mean a magical car that can transport ponies to the human world and humans to Eqestria! I bet Rainbow Dash and Pinkie would love to visit the human world!" She halted in front of the door to the library. "I mean if this New Hampshire isn't anywhere near Canterlot High then we wouldn't have to worry about the alternates of themselves running into each other," she exclaimed as she opened the door.

Spike finished reading his comic and was putting the stacks of books back on the shelves when he heard Twilight come through the door. "Who wouldn't be running around?" He asked as Owlishious handed him the next book to be put away. "Whoo?" Owlishous hooted.

Spiked sighed in frustration. "That's what I just asked, who wouldn't be running around!"

"Whoo?" Owlishous hooted again. Spike gave up and gave Owlishious an irritated glare.

Twilight let out a nervous laugh as she trotted over to the table with the map. "Oh, nothing just thinking out loud is all," she said with another nervous laugh. She opened the book to the page with the message she'd just sent to Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight's horn glowed while she closed her eyes and concentrated the magic in her horn to scan the map with a wide narrow beam of purple energy. She had to concentrate even harder narrowing the beam's width to match the width of the page in the book. When she directed the beam at the page it left an exact copy of the map's image she just scanned.

With a snap Arron latched his balisong closed before he got up to look over Twilight because he was taller than she was, just to see what she was doing.

"You used your magic to copy and paste my map into your book in order to send it to Sunset Shimmer?" Arron asked.

"Ya," Twilight said before shaking her head in confusion. "Wait how do you know about her?" She turned around and stared up at him she had to crane her neck to do so as he wasn't even a foot away from her.

He rubbed his head and looked up and away. "I don't know her personally," he looked down at Twilight who was now looking rather suspicious. "But I do know of her..." He blurted while he slowly backed away from the now glowering alicorn.

"Emmm..." Twilight grumbled. "Why is it, I get the feeling that you're hiding something from me?"

Arron broke out in a cold sweat as Twilight continued to scrutinize him, even though he was much taller than she was he still felt tiny while under her gaze. He was about to tell her everything but then a certain pink pony burst into the library everyone turned at Pinkie's abrupt entrance.

Pinkie glanced around the room before taking an inhuman inhalation. Her face contorted as her barrel swelled like a balloon. "Arron, wasabouttosaythathewatchesusonhisTVathomebutheDVR'sitsohedoesn'thavetowatchthecommercialstheshowwe'reoniscalledMyLittlePonyFrinedshipisMagicbyLaurenFaoustandeachepisoderunsabouttwentyfourminiutsifyoucutoutthecomercialslikehedoes"—She said pointing a hoof at Arron—"soheknowsaboutSunsetShimmerashesawyougothrughthemirrorintheEquestriaGrilsmovies," —Pinkie took several quick glances around the room—"Eventhoughhethoughtthemoviesweregoodhelikestheshowaboutusmuchmore" She panted for a few moments in order to recover from her monologue. When she caught her breath and was calm enough she ran over and hugged Arron's leg. "Oh, thank you! I knew you cared," she cried.

Arron stood in a daze because like everyone else in the room he didn't know what just happened. I didn't know her Pinkie sense could do that, he thought.

Pinkie looked up into Arron's puzzled and stunned face. "Oh, I don't need to use my Pinkie sense to break the fourth wall silly, that's something I've been able to do since I was a filly." She said with pride.

Twilight vigorously shook her head, and it sounded like someone was banging on a cowbell when she did. "You mean you watch a TV show! About us!" It was Twilight's turn to hyperventilate. She swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. She trotted over to Arron and used her hoof to motion for him to get closer. Arron shook off Pinkie's rant and got to one knee so that he was closer to purple alicorn princess. "Do you mean you watch us—" She glanced around the room. Is she looking for a spy or something, Arron thought. —"you know when we're alone?" She whispered. I have no idea what she's talking about, Arron thought. Then he noticed the bright blush Twilight had on her cheeks.

He quickly stood up and stiffened. His face was completely red. "It's not that kind of show," he stammered, nearly dropping his balisong he was so flustered.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief when he told her this.

"Pft," Pinkie scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hoof. "It's not like it's a big deal, I mean the cakes are married and they're really loud when they do it—"

Twilight went wide eyed and gave Pinkie a menacing glare."Pinkie," she shouted.

Pinkie seemed confused. "What," she said surprised. "It's not like it's that big a deal, I mean where do you think Pound and Pumpkin Cake came from?" She rolled her eyes as Twilight face hoofed, then ran her hoof down her muzzle and moaned.

Rainbow Dash was clutching her stomach and laughing. She was too busy watching Arron who had covered his ears when the conversation began. "Lalalalala...I'm not hearing this... nope, nope... I hear nothing... I'm not listening... lalalalalala...." He chanted so that he couldn't hear Pinkie and Twilight's messed up conversation. Arron cautiously lowered his hands from his hears but Pinkie was still talking about Mr. and Mrs. Cake, so he went over to where his brother was snoozing with a book over his face and kicked his shoe to wake him up.

"Huh, wha..." Dave sputtered as he sat up making the book fall off his face. He looked around and frowned. "Oh, I see we're still here..." He glumly said after yawning.

"Come, on Dave," Arron said while motioning for his brother to fallow him. "let's get going."

Dave got to his feet and scowled. "Where?"

Without a word he exited the library and headed for the Castle's main entrance. Dave was slow to follow, but he soon caught up. Neither of them noticed Rainbow Dash hovering over their heads, she landed on top of the Nissan and tilted her head to the side. "So where are we going?"

Arron shook his head, pulling his keys out of his pants pocket. "We,"— he said gesturing to himself and his brother. —"are going to take a look around those old ruins Apple Jack mentioned. " He glared at her. "Now get off my car!"

Rainbow Dash seemed angry at first when Arron ordered her to dismount his vehicle but then she had a conniving grin on her face. "I'm not moving unless I can go with!" She stated with conviction. She stomped her hoof on his roof which made him wince.

There's no arguing with her, he thought, opening the door so she could get in. She seemed excited when she jumped into the back seat with a smile of victory adoring her muzzle. Arron closed the door and opened his own. Rainbow Dash was startled by the sound of the engine coming to life. He rolled the rear window down on his side so that Rainbow Dash could stick her head out and feel the wind on her face as well as see the scenery.

"This is so awesome," he heard her say as they sped around Ponyville because he didn't want to crawl through the center of town.

It wasn't long before Sweet Apple Acres came into view. "Hay," Rainbow exclaimed as she turned her head to Arron. "Do you guys want to see if AJ would like to join us?"

Arron shook his head and Dave didn't respond. "No, Rainbow," Arron replied. "She's busy and I don't want to stop, because if we did then Apple Bloom would beg to come with us."

Rainbows ears flattened and she scrunched up her face. "Good point."

Arron sped up when he noticed Apple Bloom looking in their direction. She dropped the pail of chicken feed and started galloping towards the entrance of their farm to greet them. The three of them could see her lips on her muzzle moving but only Rainbow Dash had the ability to hear what she was saying. Rainbow Dash brought her head back in the car and craned her neck over Arron's seat. "I think you'd better go faster or else Apple Bloom will make us stop!"

Arron winced when she yelled in his ear. I'm not about to let a young filly explore an old ruin, if anything happened to her Apple Jack and Big Mack would kill me. With that thought in mind he stepped harder on the accelerator .

Rainbow Dash watched the filly when they went speeding past the orchard. She saw Apple Bloom get to the entrance and yell at them to wait, but they were long gone. Rainbow thought she saw tears roll down the filly's muzzle while she looked out the rear windshield, but she was now too far away to be certain.

The ruins were just that, ruins. Arron, Dave and Rainbow Dash stood in front of what was once a grand set of double doors, now the archway was caved in on one side, the doors themselves were nothing more than piles of rotting timbers with rusted ornamentation. The walls looked sound enough but the window had long since deteriorated, again, leaving three ornate brass bars that turned green and all of the middle ones looked very brittle.

Dave frowned as he turned to his brother. "This is what we drove out her for?" He gestured to the ruins. "You want us to run around a building that looks as if it could completely collapse any minute now? And you want to go inside?"

Arron shook his head. "Nope I'm going in, you don't have to if you don't want to."

Dave muttered several curses under his breath. "If you're going in, then I'm going in with you."

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash cheered. "That goes double for me!"

Arron shook his head again and headed inside. He had to pick his way through the timber so that he wouldn't cut his leg on the sharper pieces. Rainbow Dash was hovering over him and watching his progress.
When he got to the entrance he looked up at her. "Rainbow Dash mind giving me a hand with this?"

She seemed perplexed and showed him her hooves. Arron shook his head, "Sorry, it's a figure of speech—"

She waved both of her fore hooves at him in a dismissive manner. "Nay, I know what you're sayin" She said, dropping down next to him. He crouched and grabbed a hold of what was once the top of the door.

"Alright, on three," Arron counted down and then they both pushed on the door. Arron was careful to make sure the door wouldn't come down on his small blue furry companion. Rainbow Dash was pushing using her forehead. Arron was glad he was wearing gloves because if he wasn't then he would have been pulling out a lot of splinters from his hands and fingers.

The door collapsed onto itself when they got it about half way up. The mess kicked up a lot of dust when it did. The two of them let go and re-grabed the door that was now folded over in the middle. It's new more compact form was much easier to move but it was also twice as heavy. Dave seeing them both struggle with it walked around the mess and joined them. With his help they easily pushed it off to the side.

Now that there was a clear path to the entrance the three of them went inside, Arron was the first one in though he had to duck down and get on all fours because a partially collapsed column fell just inside what was once an entrance hall.
Dave had a harder time than his brother, he was much taller and wider. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand had no trouble at all getting inside. The three of them stood in awe at what they saw. "This was a church!" Dave's cry made the place echo, the roof was still intact, there were holes where the light of the sun shined through, but they were few and far between.

The high rafters and cross beams were definitely weather worn but they were still strong enough to hold the ceiling aloft. The rows of pews looked worse for wear, when Arron placed his hand on one of the back rests he was left holding a good sized chunk of wood.

"Operative term being was," Arron said as he dropped the piece of pew that clacked against the stone floor and kicked up a swirl of dust when it came to rest.

"What's a church?"

Rainbow Dash's question made both men look at her. "You know a place of worship," Dave said. Rainbow Dash only shrugged, she obviously didn't know what that meant.

Arron started for the alter, the wide walkway in the center of the room was completely free of any debris but he did kick up quite a bit of dust with every step he took. "A church is where one goes to pay homage to ones deity," Arron explained. "And this looks more like a church dedicated to Jehovah if I'm not mistake," He frowned when he got closer to the marble statue that was hung up on a cross on the right hand side of the alter. There was another statue of who he assumed to be Marry but the face had long since cracked that it could have been any number of famous women from the bible. "I have no idea what a church like this is doing in Equestria, it's not like the ponies here worship our deity." He got to the altar and placed his hands on it then looked at Rainbow Dash. "No offense."

Rainbow Dash was craning her neck to take in the grandeur of the place. Several of the stained glass windows where still intact and the big circular one at the back of the room had a few missing pieces but it was still a sight to behold. It's brilliant colors were shining down on Arron as well as the altar making them both look like they were bathed in a heavenly glow.

I feel like this place is even more special than Celestia's castle, she was thinking when Arron's question finally reached her ears. "Oh, what?" She said. "Yeah, none taken." She waved her hoof at him as if she was the least bit fazed by what he said.

Arron rolled his eyes and grinned. It's no wonder most bronies think she's the best pony, he thought as he rubbed the accumulated dust off the altar. He went wide eyed at what he saw engraved in it. There was an image that should not have been there.

"Dave, Dave!" He yelled to his brother in order to get his attention. Dave ran over to stand next to Arron. "What, what, what?" Dave's quick reply was cut off when Arron pointed at the top of the alter. "Is that what I think it is?"

Arron started to vigorously rub the dust off the top of the alter. Rainbow Dash, curious to know what they were looking at pumped her wings to fly over to them, her brows furrowed when all she did was barely get an inch off the floor before falling back down. She groaned in annoyance, before she tried again and the same thing happened, so with an aggravated kick she resigned herself to trot over to the two men who were both staring wide eyed at the altar. She put her fore hooves on the top of the altar and tilted her head to see what they were looking at. "What's so great about these?" She said, perplexed that they made such a big deal out of some designs that were scratched into the altar's top.

Arron and Dave both frowned. "These are no ordinary markings," Dave said, pointing to the one closest to her. "That is the symbol of the Templar Knights."

Arron pointed at the one on the right. "And this one is the mark of the compass that represents the Order of the Freemasons."

"And this one in the center," Dave began. "This is the symbol for the Huguenots" They said in unison.

"Rainbow Dash," Arron said in all seriousness. "These marks represent three of the oldest holy orders on our planet."

Dave put his hand on his chin and pouted. "But the Templar's and the Masons hated the Huguenots,"— He lowered his hand and turned to his brother. —"didn't they?"

Arron shrugged. "I don't know, it is strange that the Masons, Templar's and Huguenots would have built a place of worship together." He looked around the place but the only symbols of the three orders that could be seen where the ones facing him.

Rainbow Dash huffed, "Big deal, so some religious nuts teamed up and built this place. So, what!" Dave and Arron glared at her, placing all four hooves back on the floor she trotted off to look at something on the other side of the room.

Arron squinted and smirked. "You can't fly right now can you."

His statement caused her to halt. "How do you know that?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, she swiftly turned around to give him an accusing glare.

Arron's smirk turned into a full blown smile. "It's because, Dash, the Masons as well as the Templar Knights didn't like people using any form of magic and when you passed the threshold the symbol's they marked on the keystone made sure that no magic could work in or on their holy building and grounds." He crossed his arms in satisfaction because her face told him everything he wanted to know.

Dave interrupted Arron's gloat fest, he tapped him on his arm. "Hey bro," he said when he got his attention. "Don't these symbols, I don't know look... off to you?"

Arron looked at the three symbols. "You're right," He exclaimed. "they are!" The sign of the Freemasons was upside down, the Huguenot cross was crocked as well as the cross representing the Knights Templar.

Dave noticed that there were holes that circled the three symbols so he blew out the dust, stuck his fingers in the holes surrounding the cross of the Knights Templar and began to turn it so that it was right side up. The sound of stone grinding against stone filled the room and made Arron and Rainbow Dash cover their ears. Dave winced at the noise but when he righted the cross it made a ca-thunk, it sunk a good two inches into the altar. With this new discovery he started turning the Huguenot cross and when he turned it so the third arm connected with the dove at the bottom it too made a ca-thunk and lowered into the alter.

Arron stepped out of the way so his brother could turn the final symbol into place. Right when it lowered into the altar the whole building began to shudder, the front of the altar opened and a set of steps was revealed.

Arron, Dave and Rainbow Dash went over to the new opening. Dave turned to Arron and Rainbow. "So," he said. "who gets to go into the dark spooky tunnel first?"

Author's Note:

A bit shorter than my other chapters but I've been really busy working on my books. The first will be hitting store shelves next month and I've already got a signing scheduled for July. (I still don't have a firm date yet)

For those who don't know what the symbols look like I suggest googling them. There are a lot of pictures used by the big three out on the interwebs.

Comments

[CrimsonNight1]

Well that escalated quickly.