Aurora cast one last look at the crystal steps that led back into the passage, then set off along the worn "road" that sank into the cavern floor. Smarty followed without hesitation.
As they got closer to the buildings of the town, the path widened briefly to accommodate a small stone pedestal in the center.
"It looks like you were right about those three scrapes, Mom," she said as she looked up at the tripod placed atop it.
Aurora tapped the pedestal with a hoof. "Never mind that. This pedestal is much more interesting. Can you see anything different about it?"
Smarty looked at her questioningly. "Um, it just looks like every pedestal in Canterlot. Nothing particularly interesting."
"This is made of granite, Smarty. Not crystal. Even the houses here are carved out of the crystal. Why would this be any different? No, this has a purpose of some sort."
Smarty put a hoof to her chin. "Well, maybe it wasn't part of the original plan? I mean, you can't uncarve something."
Aurora nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose that is a possibility. Still, it might be a clue." She put a hoof to the stone. "After all, it does seem to be a very good insulator. I can't feel a thing through it."
Smarty mimicked her, putting her hoof next to Aurora's. Huh. Do you think that's an enchantment, or a property of the stone itself?"
Aurora removed her hoof. "Well, even if it's intentional, I still think it's a property of the stone. Crystal is a lot easier to enchant, after all. Still, I haven't heard that granite was listed as an insulator in any of the books I read, but Earth pony magic does tend to work differently. I wouldn't be surprised.
Smarty nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." She looked up from the stone. "Hey, do you have your notebook with you? We should probably be writing all this down."
Aurora blinked. "Oh! Right. No use in trying to remember everything. That's a good idea." She swiveled her neck around, unlatching her saddlebags and bringing out her notebook and quill.
Suddenly, she paused, taking the book out of her mouth with a hoof. "Smarty?"
"Hmm?"
She pointed at her armor, which now flowed smoothly around her saddlebags, complete with small flaps at the top.
"Oh, yeah. That. I thought it would be easier, and a lot more comfortable than if you wore them over me. Besides, that would mean I wouldn't be able to deploy if you already had them on."
"But I thought that hurt you?"
Smarty shifted uncomfortably. "A little. Not that bad, though. It's not that big of a change, really. And it means that you're protected, so I don't really care."
Aurora opened her mouth, ready to protest. She raised a hoof, then dropped it, sighing. "I... I suppose that's your 'job,' isn't it? Still, it doesn't mean I like it."
Smarty put a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey, Mom, it's fine. Besides, this won't have to happen that often. From what I can understand, I'm only doing something akin to engraving new information on my gem. Once it's done, it's done."
"All right," Aurora said, taking a deep breath. "Let's just get back to work. I want to know what's going on here." She gestured at the houses around them. "A lot of ponies lived here once. I want to know what happened that made them all go away."
Smarty glanced at her wings, then back up at the cavern ceiling far above. She turned to Aurora. "Hey, do you think it would be a good idea to split up? We could cover a lot more ground that way."
Aurora looked at her uncertainly. "I don't know... This is a big place..."
"Well, we could always use that telepathy thing. And that huge tower at the center is visible from almost anywhere. We could use that as a meeting place."
"Hmm... all right. I can't argue with that logic. And it is the most efficient way to search."
Smarty nodded. "Okay. Let's meet there in about thirty minutes. We can compare findings then."
Aurora cocked her head. "Only thirty minutes?"
She smiled, spreading her wings and opening her hooves in a shrug. "No notebook. There's only so much I can remember at once."
"Oh, right." Aurora placed her notebook on the pedestal, picking up the quill with a hoof. "Well, you can start. I just have to write a few things down first."
Smarty nodded, then flew off scanning the crystal town from above. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed like most of the buildings were private residences. Far from having uniform designs, each house seemed to be unique, possibly even made by the families that lived in them. She was sure she could even see some of them with family crests proudly displayed over their doors, and it was hard to find a single one without some sort of personal affectation.
These certainly weren't temporary residences. Ponies lived in these. For a long time, too.
She debated going inside one of them, then stopped herself. No, she shouldn't waste time on that. She should be investigating other areas, like finding a library or something. A town hall, maybe. Some sort of building with files and information they could use. After all, she did have the air advantage over her companion.
Smarty resumed her flight, sighing. While the uniqueness of all the houses was highly interesting to look at, it made her job a lot harder. It didn't help that all the roofs were made of crystal. The only things that really stood out were the tower in the center and the odd, smaller copies of it at the edges of the town.
Wait, some of those are a bit bigger than the tripod we examined.
She hovered in midair, scanning the edges of town more closely. There seemed to be six of these larger tripod-tower things, and at least twice that number of smaller ones like the one that they had previously examined.
Huh. I wonder if there are any significant differences.
Angling herself, Smarty glided down to one of the small structures, flaring her wings to land gently beside it.
Now that she saw it up close, this "tripod" seemed a lot different than the one they had seen earlier. That one had seemed like a simple supporting device for the odd sort of crystal at the top. There was a rod that went straight down into the granite base, which is probably why Aurora thought it was so important that it was an insulator.
Anyway, if it hadn't been placed on a stone pedestal, it would have almost looked like a temporary arrangement.
This structure, on the other hoof, looked a lot more permanent. Everything was made of some sort of dark crystal... no, that wasn't right. More like some sort of volcanic glass.
Anyway, it seemed carved, just like the houses. This was a permanent fixture - a part of the town itself. Yet it was so similar to the smaller, more temporary tripod that seemed to make those markings in that cave. Despite the visual differences, though, it seemed functionally identical. It even had the same sort of rod that went into the ground below the device. This time, though, there was no granite pedestal...
No, wait.
Smarty walked closer, looking carefully at where the rod met the ground. Sure enough, there was a thin ring of granite stone around the rod, which she could identify as some sort of dark wood.
And I definitely remember Mom saying wood was some sort of conductor for Earth pony magic.
Smarty sat down, staring at the device. Conductors, insulators... this is sounding more and more like a circuit of some sort. The real question is: what is it supposed to do?
She turned her head, looking at the giant tower that overlooked the town. Well, if I'm going to get any clues, they'll probably be there.
Smarty stood, walking carefully out from underneath the mysterious device. Spreading her wings, she took off in the direction of the cavern's centerpiece.
This time, however, she didn't land. This tower was much larger than any of its smaller copies, and she had to fly almost all the way to the ceiling to see over the top of it.
As she flew upwards, the first thing she noticed was that there was no central rod. So this is either isolated from the circuit, or...
Or it's just going through one of the legs. I can't assume anything here.
Smarty looked at the tower again. She wasn't sure why, but it was... unsettling.
She reached the top, and was intrigued my the differences. Indeed, there was a gem at the top of the tower, but it seemed... small in comparison to the scale of the others. Still large, but only marginally larger than the others, or...
She paused, thinking of the compass. Or me. This is a bond-class gem, whether these ponies used it like that or not. Whoever these ponies were, they were well-funded.
Also, it didn't seem like the focal point, either. Instead of serving as the tower's apex, it was embedded in a sort of bronze "claw" that served as the tower's peak.
Whatever this is, it has a different function than the others. She looked warily at the sharp-looking points of the claw. But whatever it is, I don't think I would like it very much.
Still hovering above the contraption, Smarty's eye caught an odd reflection from the bronze.
Are those... engravings? They looked... quite similar to the ones on her own compass. Could those be..?
She slowed her wingbeats, landing on the metal for a closer look.
Suddenly, Smarty whipped her head around as a different sort of light hit the corner of her eyes. The central gem had flared in response to the contact.
Uh oh.
Smarty acted on instinct, taking to the air as quickly as possible. She looked at the device with some worry, but it didn't seem to do much of anything except glow.
Just as she was about to relax, though, something suddenly changed. Her heart dropped in her chest as she scanned the horizon. Everything was activated. The circuit was complete. And she had no idea how to stop it.
"Mom?" she projected in a panic. "I think we may have a problem!"
Aurora put the quill back in her pack, closing the journal and stowing it away. She looked down the street.
Now, to find some sort of town hall. Or library. Anything with information on the city.
She began trotting. I mean, it can't all be houses. With this many ponies, there needs to be some sort of infrastructure. Or at least a place to store all the records.
Most likely near the center, then.
Aurora renewed her pace, only giving the houses along the road fleeting glances. She didn't understand exactly why, but there was a strange kind of urgency pushing her forwards, not letting her mind drift to any so-called distractions.
It didn't really make any logical sense. This was, more than anything else, an archaeological expedition. She really should be able to take all the time she needed to look into each house; to analyze every detail. Instead, she was hurrying along, heart pounding, and looking left and right like she expected somepony to jump out at her from one of the narrow alleyways.
Aurora's mind drifted back to the cave, back where that tripod thing was moved. Why was it moved from there? Was that the same one that they saw at the entrance to the city? What did it do? And why was it moved in such a hurry? What caused all these ponies to give up everything and just leave? And was that reason... still here?
She shook her head. No, that's silly. If there was some kind of monster or something, we would have noticed by now. This is completely safe. We can take all the time we need here.
Despite her self-assurances, though, her hooves did not slow their pace.
Her attention was diverted, though, by a building next to her. Unlike the other houses, it didn't seem to have any sort of unique decorations or designs. It was only slightly larger than the other houses, but... could this be it?
She pushed open the door.
Yes! Of course they wouldn't need a huge library. They are a pretty small village, everything considered.
The room itself was quite cozy. Bookshelves lined every wall, and hoof-written scrolls were quite plentiful. And for the first time since she went underground, Aurora saw wood. Wooden shelves, wooden paneling, wooden floors... if it weren't for the obvious reading cushions, she might have thought she was back at her study.
Her previous worries forgotten, Aurora was instantly at the bookshelves, reading the titles eagerly.
Almost as suddenly, however, she stepped back. These weren't the books of magic that she had come to expect. These were... exactly the sorts of books she would expect to see in a small library like this one. These were the essentials. Children's stories, history books, and even a few reference volumes on a few technical sciences that had nothing to do with the magic she expected.
Still, if there is even one new book, this whole trip will be worth the trouble.
Her eyes drifted back to the shelves.
Maybe... the top shelves? Those books don't look as... frequently used.
She stood on her hind legs, her front hoof just barely reaching the top shelf and pulling one down.
Absentmindedly, she brushed off the dust to read the title...
Wait, dust?
Her eyes widened. Suddenly, the safety that she had started to feel dropped away.
All this time underground, she had felt that something was a bit off. If ponies had really live here so long ago, dust should have coated every surface of this dry, underground cavern. Instead, everything seemed pristine. New.
Recently lived in.
And recently abandoned.
Aurora put the book back on the shelf. It wasn't really an important one - just another history book.
Yet knowing that her time could be limited, or that the danger may return, Aurora changed her approach significantly. Her fears could no longer be dismissed as paranoia, so she had to find any useful information as fast as possible.
Now, think. The books with the magic should logically be the oldest ones, if the others I found are any indication. So, looking at the spines...
She scanned along the dusty titles, looking carefully for the telltale weathering that marked their age.
Suddenly, she stopped, her hoof resting on a rather unassuming book. It wasn't particularly weathered, and it didn't even have an interesting title. Normally, she would have passed over it instantly, even if it was in her own personal library.
But this one was different from the others right next to it. It was free of dust.
Whatever this book was, it was used quite often, despite its unassuming form and inconvenient location. No, this was something very important, no matter what it looked like.
Grabbing it by the base, Aurora pulled. It didn't budge.
Inching upwards to grab it at a different angle, she grabbed the top, pulling it back. The book started to tilt, then stopped suddenly with an audible "click."
Aurora let go in surprise, falling back onto the wooden floor, which was suddenly less solid than she expected.
She fell through the small trapdoor, hitting each step painfully before landing at the bottom of the small staircase.
"Oof!" She rolled off her back and onto her belly, slowly getting back on her hooves and squinting into the darkness.
What in Equestria?
The dark room suddenly let up, revealing a grand mess of a room. Books were lying open on the floor, or stacked haphazardly on the shelves with no semblance of organization. Papers filled the giant circular table, spilling onto the floor and even a few chairs. Calculations, notes, and even diagrams of what seemed to be the tower in the center of the city. They didn't seem like they were placed in any purposeful way, though. Upside down, sideways, wrinkled horribly... it almost looked like somepony had let loose a tornado in the small, enclosed space.
Or a bunch of ponies needed to leave in a hurry.
Aurora sighed. None of these pages are even yellowed. And these definitely don't have the sorts of enchantments they use to preserve books. She flipped over a few papers. What were you ponies even doing here?
She pulled the schematic towards her. What is this supposed to do? And why are there little copies of it all over town?
Aurora rustled through the mess, finally spotting what she wanted from the sea of papers.
Okay, so this is one of the smaller ones... Huh. It seems to be some sort of... storage device?
She let her head fall to the table with a thump. Why can't more ponies use comments in their technical schematics? All gems store magic!
Sighing, she just gathered up the papers. She could analyze this later, when they had more time. Folding the schematics neatly, she stuck them in between the pages of her notebook.
At least I got something useful from this place.
Suddenly, Aurora's mind was invaded by a foreign, yet all-too-familiar voice.
"Mom?"
She blinked in surprise, before realizing that she probably should respond.
"Yes?"
"I think we may have a problem." The worry in Smarty's voice was more than enough to push her already frayed nerves into a panic.
"Smarty! What happened? Are you hurt? Something happened to make all these ponies leave, and really recently, too, and there's this thing-"
"Yes, I know! The tower thing in the center! I touched it accidentally, and now it's doing something!"
The chair Aurora was sitting on crashed into the opposite wall as she ran headlong for the door.
She practically flew up the stairs, paying no heed as she crashed into the bookshelves at the top. Quite a number of them fell on top of her, but she shook them off, running outside and searching the central square wildly for any sign of Smarty.
To her relief, Smarty didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, hovering overhead and perfectly safe. The tower, however, was a different matter. Overhead, barely visible against the dark cavern ceiling, were six black threads, all converging on the central spire like spokes on a wagon wheel. And atop that tower, a ball of dark energy slowly grew.
Aurora's eyes widened. No...
"Smarty! Get down from there!"
Smarty dropped between the threads of magic, landing next to her. She looked apprehensively at the tower. "What is that?"
Aurora shuddered. "Remember when I was showing Celestia the different kinds of magic?"
"Uh... kinda? I don't think I was really paying attention at the time."
Aurora put a hoof to her face. "Never mind. Remember when I showed you, then?"
Smarty nodded. "Yeah, of course...." She froze, her eyes widening. "Oh... oh no. That kind of magic."
"Yeah, and so much of it, too. How did they gather that much in the first place?" She shook her head, remembering the other towers, the smaller tripods. "No, this was obviously collected, collected over a large period of time. That's the only way they could get this much of it. The only other time I've seen so much magic was..."
She sat down, hard, her hooves shaking slightly. "Um... Smarty? About where under Canterlot would you say we are right now?"
"Uh... the castle, I guess? I mean, I can't tell for certain, since the compass stuff doesn't all work down here, but based on how far we went, and in which directions..." Smarty tore her eyes away from the ball of magic and looked at her. "Why?"
Aurora paled. "I... I think i just figured out their plan."
Smarty tilted her head in confusion, then gasped, her eyes widening. "Do you really think...?"
Aurora nodded. "I can't think of any other use for such a thing."
"We have to stop it."
"I know. I need to get up there."
"I know. Hold on."
Grabbing Aurora around the middle, Smarty flew back up again, landing at the top. At this point, the sphere of magic was larger than the platform itself, floating barely more than a pony's length above the bronze surface.
Smarty looked at her companion. "Can we turn this off?"
Aurora looked down near her hooves, examining the engravings in the metal. "I... I don't know for sure... these symbols are familiar, but I haven't worked with something this advanced. I'd need a few hours to figure out what it does."
"But we don't have a few hours."
"I know. Still, just be how this thing is behaving... and what I think it's supposed to do... I don't think these ponies would leave a way to turn it off."
Smarty started to pace nervously. "Then what are we supposed to do? Can you... I dunno... block it or something? Redirect it from Canterlot?"
"I... I don't think I can. It's just... it's just too big for that. I don't even know if redirecting Earth pony magic even works like that."
"Maybe... maybe you could counter it! Make an equally big ball of life magic! You said they were opposites."
Aurora started tapping a hoof rapidly on the metal. "Are you crazy? That's enough magic to kill an alicorn. Maybe even all three. I can't just make that much magic, just like that!"
Smarty hung her head."...Sorry."
Aurora took a deep breath, sighing. "No, it's okay, Smarty. You were just trying to help...
"Wait."
Smarty looked up hopefully. "What? Did you find a way to stop it?"
Aurora gestured vaguely with a hoof. "Well... maybe. I don't think I can completely nullify it, but maybe I can reduce it enough to help. Remember when I said I couldn't make enough magic to stop it?"
"Uh, yeah? Did that change or something?"
"No, but I might be able to convert enough magic to help!"
Smarty looked at her blankly. "Uhh..."
Aurora grinned. "Think back to the time i showed you all the different types of magic. I didn't dispel and recreate the balls of magic each time I showed them to you. I just changed the emotion behind them! I converted the energy instead of having to make it again each time."
Smarty mirrored her grin. "Nice. So you think you can convert all of it?"
Aurora laughed. "Tartarus no. But there's a chance I will. And there's an even greater chance that I'll do enough to stop it from killing one of the Princesses. Besides, Equestria wouldn't even react to my death. Celestia hasn't even announced that I'm her student yet. There's only rumors. But one of them... it would take decades to recover, or even worse."
She looked at the ceiling. "It wouldn't even matter if it succeeded in killing them at this point. It's more than enough to weaken them significantly, and if these ponies planned something like this for so long, I doubt this is the only step in their plan."
Smarty opened her mouth to speak, but failed to find anything to say. Mom... you don't have to...
Aurora moved to the center of the device, anchoring herself on both her rear hooves as she raised her front ones into the air, reaching to touch the dark sphere.
"Mom..."
A flicker of green appeared near her hooves, but just as quickly, it vanished as the blackness moved down, moving up her forelegs.
Aurora panicked, frantically trying to push it back, but the force was overpowering...
Aurora opened her eyes, jumping in shock as she found herself surrounded. Classmates she hadn't seen in years were suddenly right in front of her, laughing at her lack of magic. Standing in the back of the crowd, staring at her with confused eyes.
"Why are you even here? You have no magic."
"No!" she shouted back. "I have magic! Lots of magic! Why can't you see?"
Her teachers appeared from among them, their faces and words friendly, but their eyes clod and unforgiving.
"Ha! What are you going to do? Grow me to death?"
Aurora spun around, snarling at the smug, grey face. "I could, you know!"
But she was ignored.
More figures appeared over the crowd. Professors, administrators, officials... all of them larger than life, and all of them regarding her with a cold glare.
She cringed, slowly backing up.
Her flanks brushed up against something, and she whipped around, sighing with relief as she saw the three Princesses smiling back at her.
They'll save me, she thought. They will make everything all right.
But her relieved grin faded almost instantly. No... there's something off about those smiles.
Celestia's grin grew wide and unsettling. "How would you like to be my personal student, Aurora? Don't worry, you won't have to actually learn anything."
Luna stepped uncomfortably close. "You need to learn to defend yourself, Aurora... You need to learn to kill."
She jumped as a hoof touched her side. A pegasus lay fatally wounded beside her, its armor shattered and blood leaking from the wound in its chest. "How... how could you?"
Aurora stepped back in panic. "No... I didn't know! I didn't mean to..."
Luna smiled, putting a hoof on her back in a way that gave her no comfort. "Don't worry, Aurora.
"It was only a golem."
Aurora spun around, teeth bared, a tear running down her cheek.
"No! Stop it!" she shouted at them. "Why must you take everything away from us?"
Aurora suddenly froze. Wait, what?
"...Mom...?"
She felt a familiar weight on her back, and she relaxed, smiling fondly. The tiny foal looked back at her with questioning eyes.
Where's Grandma and Grandpa?
The question took her off-guard. She looked around herself, and was surprised to see them, there in the crowd.
Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?
She made eye contact, moving towards them hopefully, but they cringed, looking away.
Aurora paused, confused. Why are you so afraid?
She looked to the side, searching in vain for the source of their fear. Was it her?
Suddenly, she noticed Meadowlark, also among the crowd. Aurora moved forward once again, but as before, Meadowlark also looked away in fear, as if eye contact would put her in danger.
No! You're my friend! Why would I ever hurt... you...
Aurora looked above her head, and her heart dropped in her chest. There, still in her hooves, was the ball of magic.
No...
She knew now. This wasn't an assassination attempt. This wasn't meant for the Princesses. This would have killed them all. And she was about to just let it happen.
No, she was about to do it herself.
She felt a comforting wing drape over her back, and she looked up to see Celestia once more, but her eyes were empty of the malice that had been there before. That was all gone. There was only love.
The only expression she had ever seen on her face. The love Celestia felt for her. The love she felt towards everypony.
Suddenly, a warmth of a different sort built up in her core. She smiled, and looked around her. Her classmates still jeered, still looked at her in confusion and apprehension. The teachers, administrators and officials still looked at her with that cold stare. Nothing had really changed.
And tears ran down her face. Not tears of anger, though. They were not tears of submission, or tears of defeat. Nor were they tears of joy, as she had nothing to celebrate. Yes, they were tears of sadness. But they were no longer for herself. They were for all those ponies, so unsure of their own worth that they felt that they had to degrade others. Yes, these were tears of sadness, but they were also tears of love.
The warmth spread upwards, pausing at the tips of her hooves, then bursting outwards into the dark sphere.
Briefly, the two kinds of magic swirled angrily, fighting their opposites before the sphere turned a soft, serene, yet intense shade of green.
Aurora smiled, sitting down on the cold metal as she closed her eyes.
She had done it... The dark magic was gone...
Her ponies were safe...
She lifted her head groggily. Wait... is Smarty... safe...?
Her head fell back on her forelegs. No... she's fine... sleep first...
Sleep...