Two months later

The wall had been completely Tran-scripted now, and it had yielded nothing more than more confusion and inconsistencies. A number of which were more confusing than the last. Like how the Alexandra was built in a day, using molts of light commanded by the gods will. How the first born of every home was taken, and ‘improved’, although how they were ‘improved’ was still un-known to them. How the city was protected by a wall of light that turned anything dangerous that attacked the city to dust.

All of these were interesting conundrums to be sure but the most interesting thing her group had found at this slight was a tomb. Now she had expected to find things of that nature but it is what was inside the crypt that was dumbfounding.

Inside the coffin was the body of an Alicorn.

There were two different types of Alicorns. Lower and High Alicorns, High Alicorns were as true as gods as one can get; infinity powerful, and immortal, but even they could die. There were only three that were known of; Celestia, the goddess of the sun; Luna, goddess of the moon; Nightmare Moon, goddess of darkness and the dream-world, and then you had the ‘Lower’ Alicorns; Lower Alicorns had comparable power levels to high Alicorns but were still much weaker(although they were still substance more powerful than unicorns). Lower Alicorns also had normal life spans and could die as ‘easily’ as any other mortal beings. Princess Cadence would be classified as a lower Alicorn.  

The body was Gaia’s; if the story is to be believed and Lyra thought that Gaia held all of the answers she would need. The presence of an Alicorn, even a lower one like this, would explain the strange stories of these ruins. In the old times Alicorns were often revered as gods and sometimes Alicorns would ‘show off’ their power in order to get their followers, and these stories even as strange as they are would be possible for an Alicorn. The only holes she could think of were, the bringing the dead back to life, and the construction of the city, but both could simply be an exaggeration. Also the star beings could be explained through mind effecting spells. Manipulation of potential followers was done before, not to this scale, but it had been done.

“Pffh, Star People, what a silly thought. Although I have to give Gaia credit, this was the most original and elaborate ruse that she had ever seen an Alicorn perform.” She thought.

Of course Alicorns did not do things like that now simply because the times have changed culturally from the old times. Now the majority of lower Alicorns had high level societal positions because of their powerful abilities. There were only about one hundred to one hundred and fifty lower Alicorns that were known about.

But this one would solve a lot of riddles about this place; like the ‘barrier of light’ could be a variant of the spell that defended canterlot. Now all she needed to do was wait for the translations of the various tombs that were found with the body.

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“Ma’am, here are the translations that you requested; although unfortunately most of the parts were too damaged to translate and you can see that with an ‘[illegible]’, but we will continue to work on it.” Said Tongue Tided.

‘Ahh good, thank you very much.’

He put the stack of parchment on the desk in front of Lyra and left the room.

She looked at the first page and began to read.

“I write this down in fear of my fleeting memories. I am known as Gaia. I am the first of the favored. The gods are gone from us now. The rest of the favored don’t remember anything, and even I only have snippets; small flashes of old memories that seem like dreams. Four years ago they were born from the stars; they came to us and changed our lives in even the most basic of ways. I write this down as I experience it so that the ones who come after may have a chance to bring them back to us. They left us for reasons unknown to us, maybe we did something wrong. Maybe we offended them like the ones of [illegible]. I just hope that you can avoid making the same mistakes that we did: that you do not anger them as we did.”

“This is a… message? This makes no sense; I just do not understand why.” Thought Lyra, “Maybe there are answers in the writing?”

“I write my time spent with them from my earliest memories to my latest. My first memories are seeing my mother and sister felled by a forest beast, but as I thought the beast would do the same to us, one of them saved us all using their dominion over light. Then as a price for saving us, they took me for their own purposes. The one who had saved us picked me up, and together we vanished in a cascade of light. After this my memories fails me, but I remember one thing: what ever happened in that time was incredibly painful. The pain was horrible, but it allowed me to understand what the gods want of us. They have deemed us worthy of their labor and time. They have seen glory in us, and the only thing they want in return is worship. In time they will lift us into godhood as they are, if only we make ourselves worthy of it. They teach us brotherhood, to see the world as they see it. My next memories are of the clearing. The gods had constructed a city using smaller beings that fly through the air. Whenever the small flying things launch a beam of light at the ground, a part of a building appears. I asked why they were doing that, and they said that they were teaching us all how to live: that savages were unworthy of worshiping them. They told me as a price for doing this, that they will take the first born of every house and do the same thing they did to me to them. I voiced my objection, and the only replay was 'You will do this, or you will all die.' then in a flash they vanished.”

“What the heck? The tablets are a biography, but they still talk about the star beings. Maybe there’s more to it.” Lyra thought.

“The city is complete, and keeping with what they said, the first born of every house was taken today. The town’s ponies had known this would happen, as I had told them beforehand, but that does not make this any less hard on them. The gods have assured me that the children will not be harmed, and will all be returned to their respective caretakers. They have appointed me high priestess, and my duty is to tell the ponies of the town what the gods tell me. I, of course, accepted this role with happiness. The other town’s ponies have accepted my role, as well and accepted my word as law. After the fourth night, the fillies had returned unharmed to us with the same changes that I have. The town has taken to calling them the 'favored'. The gods have said that the favored shall live in harmony with the rest of the town and be accepted without question. They said that 'If you cannot learn to live with others different then yourselves, then we have no use of you. Together, you will lift yourselves to godhood; alone you will fall into the abyss of extinction. Make your differences your strengths and you will go far.' Even though they shared this wisdom with us the townsfolk are still wary of us. At first, I thought that the gods would be angry with me as I had failed my mission, but they had reassured me, ' We would be disappointed if they accepted everything without question. We do not want mindless husks; we need you to be able to think for yourselves. They will come around in time. We are not malicious things that will destroy you the first time you show defiance Gaia. In fact, your race reminds me of us when we were young. It is.... humbling.' The god raised a hand and placed it on my forehead petting softly, 'we will never be mad at you.' I do not know what exactly what the god meant by how we reminded him of themselves when they were younger, but my worries were put to rest after that."

Lyra frowned when she looked at the rest of the translations the next couple of pages had nothing but [illegible] written all over it and the parts she could read were of no use to her so fair out of its context, but on the last page there was a tracing of something from the tablet; a map.

It was like the one that she had found at Indus but this one was more complete. It showed Indus and Alexandra but also to the west was a city that she had never seen before. Its crest was of a unicorn head with a pair of wings spread wide behind it: an Alicorn, and below that was a name 'Highmount'. She looked at the modern map of Equestria and looked back at the map from the tablet.

"No, no that can't be right." Lyra said aloud.

This says that Highmount is smack dab in the middle of the Dead Lands. The Dead Lands are a strange place. It is located in the middle of a tear drop shaped dessert. The Dead Lands themselves are a carpet of glass, hundreds of miles in circumference. Also, there was something there that killed any living thing that got near the area. It just made them sick with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, fevers, and even if they were to leave, almost immediately they would show other strange symptoms like hair loss. Everything that has ever gone there has died. Celestia had declared that nothing was to ever enter that area, but later on she had found a group of ponies working on a spell that would protect them. It worked, but it was vary taxing on them, and they could not keep it up. But this says that there is a city right in the middle of it. She grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote a letter to the princess. Even though the castle was still reeling from the changeling attack two weeks ago, she knew Celestia would help her. In this city could be the answer to every question she had and she was craving answers, besides it might be fun.

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Authors note: I'm f'ing done, that chapter was a bitch to write, writers block galore. Expect next in a couple of days, I got to figure out were to take this story.