//------------------------------// // 2 Studying Togheter // Story: Forbidden Land // by Mane-Shaker //------------------------------// The next morning, instead of the usual breakfast, the table was filled with a pile of "borrowed" books and two mugs next to a jar of coffee. Mane walked in the living room on his shorts and a t-shirt with a tiny headache, from his normal night suffering a nightmare which he was getting even more used to. The smell of warm coffee woke him up even more, noticing Pinkamena sitting by the table preparing his mug with coffee. "Good morning." Said Pinkamena in a cold tone. "Sorry yesterday..." Sighed Mane rubbing his eyes. "I'll promise It won't happen again." "I'll forgive, but I won't forget. Just like you told me once." Pinka answered. "Good memory. *yawn* So, what are the books about?" Mane asked while stretching his arms. "Mostly history, and a bit about geography. At least that Twilight Sparkle's organization made the search easier before her pet dragon could notice me." Pinkamena grabbed one of the books and searched for anything related to the Undiscovered West. "Drink your coffee and come help me." "Hey... wait." Mane sat in the opposite side of the table and scratched his red and black hair while taking a sip of the coffee. "Why are you so determined to go there all the sudden? You're even doing research about It." "Your boss Thunder Fists told me something about those lands." She looked at him over the book. "Something pretty bad happened there in the ancient times." "So..?" Mane sighed. "So maybe It's the reason why nopony is permitted to go there, or why nopony dares to venture there." Pinkamena sounded a bit irritated. "Drink your damn coffee and grab a book." "Alright... settle down. Let me just go wash my face." Mane got up and headed to the bathroom. Later on, they had searched a third of the books Pinkamena brought. Most of them had no answers for their questions, but others had some interesting information. They had taken note in the mountains there was a sleeping volcano underground, which meant a lot of rocks, minerals, ores and gems were a huge possibility in that place. Also the numerous underground caves and the maze of connections between who could get any explorer lost and probably stuck there forever until they died of starvation and dehydration. The author of that data was unknown but seemed legit. In a history book, Mane found out something the other books didn't had, and something that blew his mind. "Hey, Pinka." He called. "Found something?" She asked eagerly. "Yeah, listen to this." Mane started reading. "Before the current civilizations and even before Ponyville was founded, and the Royal Sisters were both rulers before Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, there were a different race of ponies." "Really? Keep going!" "Dwarf ponies. An extinct race of cousins of the earth ponies, known for their lower height but mighty strength, their big beards and their undying thirst for alcohol. Living inside the mountains and mostly underground. Proud miners and blacksmiths with an extensive knowledge in mineralogy, metal crafting and engineering. They first originated in the cold lands of the Frozen North. It's said the last stand of their race was in the Undiscovered West." "The Crystal Empire!" Pinkamena smiled. "Maybe you have a bit of dwarf pony blood in you." "Haha, maybe." Mane laughed back. "No wonder we have the best blacksmiths in Equestria!" "Keep reading please." "According to the little data that survived, their lust for a legendary mineral is what ended with their race, and if It wasn't that, It was their own traps or simply greed among them. Tantrums were a rare thing among them but once something that caused them to do It, an effect called "Loyalty Cascade" would take action." "Do they explain that?" Pinkamena asked. "They do, let see..." Mane looked for the part. "Dwarf ponies were also known for their loyalty among their friends and family but also known for their bad temper if something would go wrong. The "Loyalty Cascade" can be explained like this. If a dwarf pony would snap for some reason, he could kill a foal in his uncontrollable rage, then the father of the foal would lose his mind and would kill a cow for example. And then the cow owner would go mad and could break something or kill somepony, then somepony close to the victim would kill the agressor and so on and so on until everypony would be rather dead or the tantrum spiral would stop at any point." "Woa..." Pinkamena seemed surprised just like Mane after what he just read. "What a chain of events. You read something about a mineral, didn't you?" "Yeah, a legendary mineral. I don't see anything about It here." Mane looked over the page of the index. "Maybe we can find in the geography book or the mineralogy one." Pinkamena picked one of them. "I'll get the mineralogy book." "Okay, I'll take the geography again then." After some time, Pinkamena found a section of rare minerals. Diamonds, zircons, titanite, she knew all of them from her childhood in the Rock Farm taught by her parents when she was very young. Until something caught her attention, an image of a cyan mineral encrusted between rocks. "Yo, look at this." Pinka turned her book to Mane, allowing him to check. "Adamantine." Mane read. "Yeah. I though It was just a myth." Pinkamena turned the book back to her. "Two hundred and fifty times more valuable than gold! WHAT?!" "DAAAMN! We could buy Canterlot's palace if we could get our hands in a mine of that!" Exclaimed Mane. "You betcha! But there's more." Pinkamena looked over the texts again. "This mineral was a legend among legends. Whoever could find would be considered a hero in their town due to It's value. This mineral according to legends had the weight of a feather, one hundred percent flexibility which could be weaved into threads and used to make super expensive clothing, or smelted again by the temperature of a live volcano in a magma forge, which was the only temperature capable of melting It, and used to make indestructible armor and weapons with an edge capable of cutting obsidian and diamonds!" "Holy shit, we should get some mining equipment!" Mane suggested excited. "It's not over, listen to this..." Pinkamena took her focus to a paragraph. "It was said adamantine was cursed and fated to be the end of a dwarf pony civilization due to their greed. It was said among miners that those who dug too deep and greedily just for the sake of the mineral, would meet their doomed fates if they weren't careful, along with their own demons." "Edgy..." Mane commented. "Anyway, I found out that the wild life there is... unusual..." "What do you mean?" "Have you ever seen an elephant?" Mane asked. "In a circus when I was little, and they live in jungles. Why?" "Apparently, according to this book, the vegetation there is like a normal forest, but then there are animals like elephants, mandrills, tigers... you get what I mean." "Weird..." Pinka commented with a confused expression. "No shit. Also, if we are gonna do some ancient ruin exploration, I guess we are gonna need a book about ancient languages, one with dwarven language by preference." Mane raised a finger. "Oh! I almost forgot. They knew how to write for what It seemed but most of time they kept their history engraved in the walls and floor of their fortresses." "Interesting. So It seems we settled our trip's objective." Pinkamena closed her book with a smile. "But according to Thunder Fists, he suggested we go armed and with precaution." "Why is that, if I may ask again." "Think about It, Mane. Why is there a place that is forbidden to go for what it looks like, and/or hasn't It been explored in this age?" "He has a fair point, we are going to unknown lands anyway. Something may jump on us." "I'm taking the flintlock pistols I brought from the Crystal Empire." Pinka concluded. "I have my magic. And we are gonna need some new stuff from the outside." "Like what?" "You entered in Twilight's library, so you may give these books back and find one about ancient languages. While me, I know Canterlot's palace very well and will not be my first time sneaking in there. I'll search their archives for any ancient map leading to any of these ruins. We shall wait for the night to do this." "It's..." Pinkamena checked the grandfather clock against a wall in a corner of the room. "Almost one in the evening. We still didn't eat lunch yet, I'm gonna cook something for us." "I had enough reading for one day. The last pieces for the forge arrived some days ago. I'm gonna finish It and start making some bullets for your pistols if you're taking them, and sharpen your knifes as an extra." "Thank you." Pinka smiled at him. "I'll start packing some stuff after I'm done with lunch. We still need to make a list so I request your help after lunch for some time." "Can do!" Mane gave her a thumb up with a smile while heading to the new brand workshop eager to debut It.