//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Shifting Sands 
// by Sphinx_Herald 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight looks up at the airship in awe. It’s not like most other airships found in Canterlot. This one is nearly twice the size of the average private airship owned by the higher classes of the city. It is painted a dull brown with blotches of dark green, that all blur together as the water drips off of it. From the look of the hull she doubts that even a dragon could bring the thing down once it gets into the air.
Lore simply chuckles and walks down the dock toward the ramp where several ponies are loading supplies onto the ship. Among the supplies are water, food, camping equipment, and quite a few tools for digging. Twilight shakes her head and comes back to reality and starts following him bringing her bags in tow. “I see why your father says it can go through a hurricane.”
Lore looks over his shoulder at her with a smile. “Well, it was built for something a bit scarier than a storm. It was originally called a ‘Dragon Hunter’.” 
Twilight takes a step back and gives him a shocked look. “Dragon Hunter!”
He just chuckles again. “I mean they were originally going to be called that. Never actually got there. This was the prototype, it was finalized then modified to hunt down pirates. No others were ever made.”
“Shouldn’t this be in a museum?”
“Where would you put it? It’s the size of a house, my father had nowhere to put it in his museum. Besides, she still has a good few years left in her, no point in retiring it yet.”
Twilight shakes her head and sighs. “But still, it seems irresponsible to be using a historical object.”
Lore shrugs and opens a door in the cargo bay, the door lead down a hall with door of either side. At the far end of the hall are a pair of stairs on either side, both leading up. “He only uses it for special projects, other than that it spends all its time on a field outside Trottingham. He thinks it’s better to give it some use rather than leaving it rot as he tries to find some way to preserve it.”
He starts down the hall, ignoring the doors on either side. “Quarters for the deck hooves, later addition for when they figured out they weren’t hunting dragons,” Lore says. He heads up the stairs, completely skips the second level and heads straight to the top.
They come to a larger room which both stairs connect to. There are only two doors, one toward the front of the ship, the bow as Twilight recalls from a few lessons. The other leads to the stern. A ladder is attached to the wall heading further up, supposedly the way to get to the balloon which allows it to fly. Without any hesitation Lore opens the door towards the bow.
The room is dominated by the window which allows the crew to steer the ship. A large wheel, much like those of sail ships, stands in the center of the room. Along the walls are control panels, of sorts, whose uses Twilight cannot even begin to guess. Standing in the bridge are two stallions and a mare. The mare is wearing a coat and what seems to be a captain’s hat.
They pause for a moment when Twilight and Lore enter, but mare’s eye grow wide once she see’s Twilight. She quickly bows, taking off her hat. “It’s an honor, princess.”
Twilight chuckles nervously as the two stallions follow suit. “No need to bow, I should be the one who is grateful.”
The mare stands back up and nods to the stallions and they leave the bridge. The mare is a light blue pegasus, her mane is a mess of dark purples and white. She puts her hat back on and glares at Lore. “Lore, it’s nice to see you, but you could have warned me you were going to be bringing a… guest.”
“I didn’t, she’s a friend, not a guest and not a princess, but a friend. Anyways, I didn’t see any reason to warn the great Star Chart,” Lore says with a smile.
“I told you to just call me Star,” she growls at him. She turns back to Twilight with another small bow. “I welcome you aboard my vessel--”
“When it’s not docked outside Trottingham. Or, when your friend isn’t hired to captain it.”
“Yes, when it’s not docked outside of Trottingham.” She glares at Lore again, “Happy?” She turns back without waiting for an answer. “I hope you enjoy your trip.”
“Thank you.”
“Maybe you would like to make yourselves comfortable as you wait? Your quarters are through the other door, second door to the right.” She grabs Lore before he can go out the door. “Speaking of Siren, I heard you sunk one of her boats, and part of her dock. And I can guarantee that she’ll know where you are if you keep pestering me, understood?”
Lore nods his head so fast it becomes a blur for a moment. Star nods and lets him go. Lore quickly runs out of the room and closes the door behind him. He goes over to the other door and it opens to another hallway. Twilight follows him in and open the door to her room.
She drops her saddlebags onto the bed and takes in the room. It’s fairly small, a single bed sits against the opposite to the door. A desk stands against the same wall next to the window. A drawer is at the foot of the bed. She hears a thud as Lore drops his bags onto the floor of the room across the hall from her.
“So, what do you think?” he calls over.
“It’s, uh, quaint.”
“Really? I find it pretty small. I am used to having my own house after all.” He walks back into the hall. “Well, I’m off!”
“Where are you going?” Twilight asks.
“To help load the supplies.”
“Oh, can I help?”
Star clears her throat from further down the hall. “There’s no need for that, princess. The supplies are almost onboard and we should be ready to leave in a few minutes. As I had said, you two should get comfy, it’s not going to be a short trip.”
“Yes sir, captain,” Lore says with a mock salute.
“Keep it up and I’ll make sure you stay on this ship until Siren arrives.”
Lore sprints into his room and starts rummaging through his bag. “Oh, I almost completely forgot about the book I brought. A book that will keep my nicely distracted and out of your way for pretty well the whole trip.”
“Good thing you remembered.” She turns to Twilight, “If there is anything you need, just ask.” Star smiles and goes back to the bridge. Lore lets out an audible sigh of relief.
“What’s the story between you two?” Twilight asks.
“Uh, I kinda sunk her sister’s ship. They’re not really sisters though, just really good friends.”
Twilight nods and walks over to her own bed. She levitates a few books out of her bag. She starts to read as the engines of the ship roar to life.



Darkness, darkness is all that surrounds her. Where am I? She thinks as panic begins to build. Something wet and cold is covering her, not water something else. She takes a few steps back, looking around frantically for something, anything that she can see. Then she feels herself bump into a cold stone wall, a soft thud echoing through the air for a moment. 
Okay, calm down, she thinks as she starts to take deep slow breaths. The air around her is cool, damp, there’s an earthy tinge to the scent, nothing like the arid desert winds. After a couple of seconds her eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, and she find herself standing in a cavern.
The cave stretches well into the darkness, to the point at the ceiling is still impossible to see. Columns of stone jut out of the ground, towering all the way up into the darkness, presumably holding the ceiling up. Looking at the closest wall, it’s covered in holes going in any which direction. 
She looks down to see whats covering her, while she still can’t see colors it looks almost like slime. It’s stuck in her feather and fur. Slowly, she picks herself up, wiping off what slime she can. Where am I and how did I get here?



Twilight sighs, looking up at the ceiling of her room on the airship. Next to her is a book, closed with a bookmark in the last few pages. Across the hall Lore quietly enjoys his own book. Something tells her it would be completely silent if it weren’t for the hum of the engines and the wind rushing against the hull.
She’s used to long trips, certainly. With the trips between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire, and Manehattan, and other far flung towns in Equestria. But on those trips she had the girls to talk to and laugh with. Not this time though… It’s still going to be fun.
“Are you awake over there?” Lore asks from across the hall. She looks down at him as he packs his book away into his bag.
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Alright, just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss something. You might want to look out the window by the way.”
She sits up and turns to look out her window. Outside, far below dunes of golden sand ripple across the desert. In the distance the sun is beginning to set, turn the sky into shades of orange and purple, making it hard to tell where the sand ends and the sky begins. There is nothing on the horizon, no towns, no trees, no mountains, just a sea of golden waves as far as she can see. I guess this is why it’s called the Golden Sea.
“Like the view?” Lore asks.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Well, you’ve seen the ocean,” Lore says from her side.
Twilight pulls her gaze from the porthole. Lore has his bags slung over his back with a hooded-cloak draped over his shoulders. A canteen hangs around his neck. “Are we leaving already?” Twilight asks as she starts levitating things in and out of her bag. She puts the bag on and then pulls a cloak of her own out.
“Not quite yet, but soon.” He nudges his head toward the door. “How ‘bout we go to the bridge?” Without waiting for a response he heads out the door and down the hall.
Twilight tries to follow him the best she. She never really got used to walking on an airship, just the way it moves under her hooves. Sure her balloon doesn’t bother her, but her hot air balloon doesn’t move as fast as the airship or have enough space to walk around at all. She eventually makes it to the end of the hall, Lore leans against the door to the bridge with a smirk on his face. He chuckles at her then opens the door.
Inside is more busy than when they were in there the first time. Star is standing at the helm, steering the ship to their destination. Asides from her four other ponies sit at the consoles along the walls. They chat amongst themselves, usually reporting the ship’s status to the captain.
“Morning, Star!” Lore says, after a second he starts laughing. “Ha, get it? Morning Star? Like the weapon thing.”
“Is that a joke at my expense?” Star asks without looking at him.
“No, no, I was only saying good morning. Then I thought about what I said.”
“Maybe it’s best you don’t think then… for your sake more than my own.”
Twilight manages to make it into the room. She props herself up against the doorframe. Looking out the window she sees a small tomb standing out against the dunes. Tents surround the tomb, with seemingly little organization to it.
“Is that it?” she almost squees.
“Princess!” Star quickly whips around to face Twilight. “Sorry, I-I didn’t know you were there.”
Twilight takes a nervous step back, Lore tries to hold back a chuckle. “It’s fine, I was just curious if that’s the dig site.”
Star looks back out the forward window. “Uh, Y-yeah that’s the site.” She grabs the helm again. “Sorry, about over-reacting, I’m not used to meeting a princess.”
“It’s fine, sorry I scared you.”
“I was not scared! Uh, I mean, I was only nervous.” She focuses back on the job at hoof. “We should be arriving in a few minutes.”
Lore jumps between the two of them, a grin spreading across his face. “Race you to the cargo bay! Last one there gives a book to the winner.” He sprints out of the room and down the stairs.
Twilight uneasily follows behind, being extra careful on the stairs as to not fall. She gets to the second level and thinks of exploring but skips it finding the idea of making friends with someone from a different race far more appealing.
She makes it to the cargo hold to find Lore happily chatting with one of the deck hooves. He see Twilight coming down the hall. “You owe me a book.”
“That was a little unfair.”
“How so?”
“I’m not used to walking on an airship.”
“Fair point, but I still won.” The deck hoof laughs beside him. The ship starts slowing down, Twilight silently thanks Celestia for the slower and more manageable speed. A resonating thud rings through the hull as the landing gear makes contact with the ground.
A button is pressed at the far end of the hold, a ramps lowers with a groan. Hot dry air rushes into the ship. Once the ramp touches the ground the deck hooves, and several ponies from outside start unloading the cargo. Lore smiles at Twilight and gestures toward the ramp. “Princesses first.”
Twilight sighs and walks out into the desert sun. She is immediately hit with a wall of sweltering heat, which threatens to steal her energy. The light of the sunset washes over the desert, turning it into it’s namesake. For a moment it gives a bit of a surreal experience. 
“Welcome to the King Trot excavation site!” a stallion says over the dying noise of the airship’s engines. He walks up from the larger grouping of tents. His coat, at least the parts that aren’t covered by his shirt, is a pale red almost pink. He has a blue mane with streaks of light purple. His eyes are hidden behind a pair of old aviator sunglasses. “Princess Twilight, and Lore I presume?”
“I presume you are correct!” Lore says shaking the stallion’s hoof.
“Glad you made it here alright. I am Fruit Paradise, but most call me Doc, I run the medical tent around here. You can consider me your impromptu guide.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Fruit Paradise,” Twilight says shaking his hoof. The doctor smiles at her.
“Well, allow me to give you a tour of the camp,” he says motioning to the tents. Lore and Twilight nod at the offer. Doc leads them between the tents. “I must say, Lore, you didn’t give me much forewarning that your guest was a princess.”
“Didn’t see why I should.”
“Well, we put you both in the same tent.”
“Oh, uh… it’ll be fine,” Twilight says.
Doc looks at her for a moment, at least she thinks he does, hard to tell with the glasses. “Very well then, that saves us the hassle of setting up another.” They stop in front of one of the larger tents. “This one is the medical tent, also the one where I’m staying. If you ever have any problems just come to see me.”
He continues down the line of tents. “These belong to the archeologists, the diggers, the guards, effectively everyone that’s here.” He stops at one, not too far from the medical tent. “This one is yours. You said you didn’t want anything special.”
“I don’t like being treated differently,” Lore says with a shrug.
Stopping at another tent, this one is larger than most but still smaller than the medical one. “Mess hall of sorts. Where the cooks prepare the meals for everyone.” He gestures over to the tomb with a sweep of his arm. “And that over there is the tomb we’re excavating.”
The tomb is roughly in the center of the site, though most of it is still buried. All she can see of it is the pointed top, and the head of what seems to have been a large statue. Scaffolding twists around the structures, letting the ponies to get to the higher points. A few ponies dot the ground around it, digging away at the sand.
“Wow, it’s bigger than I thought it wa going to be,” Twilight says.
Doc chuckles then fixes his gaze back onto her. “Well, there’ more to it than what you see, most of it is still underground.”
“How much more?” Lore asks.
“No clue, I’m not one of the archeologists, I’m only here to make sure no one splits their head open. Anyways, that’s about it if you have any question just come find me. You have more or less free reign of the site, just don’t bug the archeologists and don’t break anything.”
Twilight looks around at the camp and dig site. After a few seconds see looks back at Doc. “Actually, I have a question, I don’t see any sphinxes working here, is there some sort of problem?”
There’s a sigh from Doc before he replies. “Right, that… Well, they’re not too happy that we’re here. From what I know they see us as outsiders trespassing on their land.”
“Wait, we were given permission to do this excavation right? We’re not really trespassing are we?”
“Don’t worry, we were given permission.”
“Well, if they see us as trespassing why were we given permission to start with?”
“No clue, maybe someone in Equestria did some pretty good diplomacy. But, some of the other say that it’s simply because no one really cares about this particular tomb. Apparently the sphinxes erased Trot’s name from the history books or something like that.”
“Oh, well that’s odd,” Twilight says trying to think of a reason why anyone would do that.
Lore raises his hoof like a foal wanting to ask a question to the teacher. “I have one! Where is the nearest town?”
Doc points southward then takes a moment to think and points a little to the west. “About a couple hour walk somewhere over that way. It’s called Bēti-Khonus, it’s supposed to mean ‘House of Khonus’ or something along those lines, again not my job to know. If you plan on going you might want to wait, you probably don’t want to be walking out there at night.”
“Isn’t it better to walk in a desert at night, because that way the sun isn't beating down on you?”
“True,” Doc says with a quick nod. “But, you’re just as likely to be attacked as you are a pony. You’d probably be killed by a bandit, or a guard. I’ll tell you what, I’ll look into getting a guide and some of the others for a quick trip out that way, but that’ll have to wait til tomorrow at least. Until then, check out the site, get yourselves set up. I’m should head back now, by now someone should have sprained their ankle.” He gives a quick bow to Twilight then heads off toward the medical tent.
The two look back down at the tomb and the ponies studying it. Twilight’s bag glows with a purple magic aura as a notebook and pencil float out. “Going to chat with the archeologists?” Lore asks noticing the magic.
“That and take as many notes as I can on the tomb itself. Once we get back to Equestria I want to tell the girls about every detail,” Twilight says starting off toward the dig. She briefly turns around to ask Lore if he’s going to come, but instead finds him already talking to some ponies. She decides not to bother him as it seems he has his own plans. 
After a minute or so of walking she arrives at the current base of the structure. It is made of large stone blocks, some almost as large as her. The blocks are well cut and rather smooth for their size. There are no carvings or decorations on any of them.
She turns her attention to the statue. It certainly seems to be the statue of a pony, though most of it is still buried. From what she can see the head carries the look of authority and importance. Guess you’re King Trot, I wonder what mysteries are hidden in there.



Darkness, forward and back is nothing but darkness. She sprints through the dark winding corridors, trying to avoid running into the walls. Behind the sounds of her pursuers continues to grow louder, chittering, screeching, and shouting. 
At the last moment she sees the corridor fork into two paths. Her claws try to dig into the rock to slow her down. Which way? She takes a moment to listen and see if she can hear anything from either tunnel. But all she hears is labored breathing, beating heart, and the echoing sound behind her. Damn it, I don’t have time.
As if on cue she hears a shout from behind, “There she is!”
Once again her claws try to dig into the rock as she sprints for the right tunnel. Suddenly the cave flashes green for a moment. A sharp pain jabs through her hindleg and her vision swims. But, she pushes through it. She’s going to get out, she’s not going to die here.