//------------------------------// // Deeper Understanding // Story: Rites of Ascension // by CvBrony //------------------------------// “Got your magic back yet?”  Twilight squeezed her mane with a towel, ignoring Spike for just a moment while testing her horn. “Mostly. There's still a higher-than-acceptable failure rate, but it seems to be fading quickly. I should be back to normal in an hour or so.” Spike munched on a cookie while leaning back on Twilight’s bed back in Canterlot Castle. Luna had brought them back to the capital, but it took seven tries to get the exit point correct thanks to the disruption effect lingering on their bodies. “So what're we gonna do? Our best lead kinda exploded. I mean, yeah, it was incredible, but also a dead end.” “We're not out of options just yet. I want to look over our maps again. That portal definitely had something to do with Honesty. I could hear it speak to me when we were there.” Spike chuckled. “You gonna map-fu this problem like the rest?” “Never underestimate the power of a good map. And kinda. I don't know if it'll help this time. We're talking about a literal underground network as vast as entire Duchies and possibly disjointed from our dimension.  “That last part is important. We might be able to cross reference the geology or pollution profile of the city to find the areas most likely to have other entrances. If that doesn't work, the Duchy’s security forces are already swarming the point where the entrance was found. We can get prepped and go back in.” Spike sneezed. “Gah. More pollution. Fun.” “Well, we won't be the only ones to ever go down there. The contamination is severe enough that the Duchy has to intervene to prevent a future disaster.” “You think maybe that was the rebels’ plan? Start a disaster and blame the Duke?” “Nah. Nothing to take over if they do that. And anything that monstrous would mean Crown intervention, and they aren't looking to pick that kind of fight. Way easier to keep things low-level, poaching the city instead of deep-frying.  “Also, I don't know how they would be able to trigger something like that. A mana krene isn't something you can easily influence. Many have their own natural cycles, like the one in Stalliongrad, and artificially trying to make it more or less active would be extremely difficult. Like trying to use a blowtorch to shrink a glacier, the power differences are just too great.” Twilight pulled out her brush as a knock sounded at her door. “Enter!” Trixie pushed it open, carrying a bundle of papers in her mouth that she placed on front of Twilight. “Okay, we have confirmation via telegraph that Rainbow and Cloud have been updated. The police are stretched thin, but they still stationed twenty officers at that barn, and a military detachment from the Moscolt Army Base, including HAZMAT teams, is en route to lock it down.  “Princess Celestia will teleport us as far as she can once we're ready, but it's still going to take an hour or two on a Guard chariot. It's just too far from a leyline for a direct jump. She also asked me what you wanted to do about the disruption ore in that secret tunnel.” Twilight stopped mid-brush-stroke for a good grimace. “Getting it all out would be practically impossible. Let's have the workers focus on getting the exposed pieces out. Any that are completely sealed in the rock are less of a concern because mana can only go so fast through solid rock. Going through that much rock would be several orders of magnitude slower than going through air.”  Trixie coughed into her foreleg. “And what do we do about who we found?” “Leave that to me. It's going to require a more delicate touch. For now, let's gear back up and get to the chariot. There should be spare armor for you two in the armoury. Something tells me we might need it.” “Rainbow, I'm calling it: this isn't working. Head for the Duchy building.” Twilight flopped back in the seat in her chariot and kicked the scope to put it down. “Two hours and no sign of the magic from the Element yet. Map-fu failed this time, I think.” Trixie didn't look up from her scratch paper already filled with magic formulas. “So do you think it's in the labyrinth underground?” “Probably? It's hard to be certain. It could be a hundred kilometres away by now, or just twelve meters underground.” The chariot banked into a hard turn and dropped to line up for a landing. Spike, meanwhile, packed up all the papers and maps. “So we need a new lead.” “Basically, yes.” Twilight fought a wave of nausea in her core. Before this “Flicker” gets here. The chariot thumped as it hit the ground, rolling to a stop a moment later. Twilight wrapped her face with a scarf as she stepped outside, her guards just behind her. They all ducked inside the heated building as soon as they could. Though it was only mid-afternoon, in Stalliongrad during winter, that meant late sunset. It also meant plunging temperatures. In an hour it would be minus-thirty or worse, and that was before factoring in wind chill. The inside of the Duchy building, however, was a pleasant twenty-two degrees Centigrade with rich gold lighting and soft red carpets. There was also Twilight's overactive imagination, which told her that her mother would scold her if she dared drag mud and snow on said carpets. Thus she spent some extra time in the doorway wiping her hooves.  Their destination was one of the many meeting rooms the government building had. All manner of Duchy affairs were discussed behind those doors, and they would likely have to kick some ponies out since it wasn't four-thirty yet. “Lady Sparkle!” Twilight's right ear pointed at the voice, and then pulled her head along for the ride. The Duke himself was heading towards her, maintaining a purposeful stride. Fighting a yawn, she greeted him. “Tell me you have good news, Duke.” “I'm afraid I cannot say. Earlier, Generosity approached me, and gave me a scroll to give to you.” Twilight's eyes shot open. “Let me see it.” “Of course.” He pulled out a scroll locked with a magic seal bearing Rarity's cutie mark. The lines of magic holding it could be broken by anypony, but that wasn't the point. Nopony else could have made the seal, so nopony had put eyes on the content yet. At least, in practice that was true. Such enchantments could be falsified, but the effort was delicate, time-consuming, and almost never worth the hassle. Moreover, Rarity had likely enchanted it such that anypony too far removed from Twilight's rare magic profile would be unable to open it without triggering a self-destruct. Twilight took it from him and tore apart the seal, unfurling it.  Twilight, Let me just say I'm making a big risk doing this. I don't know if our “friend” can sense writing like it can speech. All my sources say our lady friend will be there by the time you get this. Her teleportation makes ours look like something from a toddler. It's instant and can't be blocked. Armor is useless. Shields are too, I'd imagine. But I know you're not going to give up on just my advice. You're like me: stubborn. Kindness couldn't even convince the agent at large to back off. She'd see it as a weakness. But I think she's a bully. If anypony can figure out her moves, it's you. Punch her in the nose and I bet she'll freak out. But be careful, she always brags about “having an exit strategy.” Sadly I'm not sure where exactly she's off to. Even so, I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of your mystery. Especially if you look carefully and deep. But remember, be careful! Stay sharp, Rarity Twilight stuffed the letter in her bag. “I need a secure room immediately.” The Duke nodded. “This way.” They were led into a bare-bones basement room made of cold, grey concrete. It had a shoddy table and cruddy bookshelf of rote census and other data.  Twilight sneezed at the chill in the air. “Good enough, though I wish the floor was painted Indigo. Pardon us, Duke. You can go back to your duties. And this letter never existed, clear?” “As crystal. By your leave, my lady.” After watching to make sure he left, Twilight put up privacy shields around all the walls, as well as the ceiling and floor. “Ok, I think we got a lead, but... Ugh, I can't say it all outright.” Cloud cleared his throat. “Why?” “Can't tell you anything beyond what I already said about our unexpected encounter below ground. And I never got this letter. This is Indigo Cosmic Magick stuff. Everypony, look at this and see if you see the same message I did.” The group crowded around and read through it.  Rainbow shrugged. “I don't see anything secret in there, but…” She blinked a few times, staring off at the wall. “Ah, I see?” Trixie smirked at that. “Then what is it?” “If you don't know, I won't say.” Rainbow stuck out her tongue. “Big pony pants time, guys.” Twilight sighed. “What do you see?” Spike and Cloud looked at each other. “Bottom of the lake,” they said in unison.  Trixie’s mouth opened a little. “Where'd you get that from?” Twilight tapped the page. “Check the first letters of each paragraph. Then check the last paragraph.” Trixie squeaked. “Oh. Well, don't I feel dumb now.” Rainbow chuckled. “Obvious when you think about it.” Twilight snorted back a chuckle. “Says the pony that used temporal shenanigans to figure it out. But still, this presents a problem.” Spike folded his arms. “Yeah. Lake Konnista, the big lake to the north? It's glacier-carved and deep. Like, three-thousand-meters deep.” Twilight sighed. “Which means nearly three hundred atmospheres of pressure. We don't have any equipment that can handle that.” “I think I can do it.” Twilight held up a hoof to interrupt her guards. “One moment. I think Aurora is awake.”  “I am. Mostly. That portal hurt. Most of the custom systems I made for you have been destroyed, but that also means I'm a bit of a blank slate. it would be very easy for me to optimize for an underwater journey, even up to extreme pressure. But that also means my ability to protect you in combat would be limited. You'll have to rely on shields.” That'll have to do. I'm glad you're okay. “Alright, ponies, we have a means of getting me to the bottom of the lake. The bad news is that I'll have to go alone.” Cloud raised an eyebrow. “Are you certain you want to do that? This could be extremely dangerous.” “I'm absolutely certain it'll be dangerous, but unless you know of a way to get other ponies safely to the bottom of an extremely deep lake, I don't see how we have much choice. If there's even a chance of Honesty being there, I have to go.” “I don't actually have to do this, right?” Twilight asked aloud while standing in the middle of frozen-over Lake Konnista. “Because I'm pretty sure this is an awful idea.” Spike gave her a tut-tut. “Twilight, you said you had to. Unless you figured out something else, which I'm sure we'd all be in favour of.” The others nodded their agreement, and Twilight groaned. She'd never been one for being on the ice. As a filly, she had multiple opportunities to go ice skating, but refused. Her mother's insistence that the ice would not break under her wasn't an especially warm reassurance given that wasn't what she worried about. Rather, it was the fact that the laws of nature had insisted that her sense of balance not function while she was on ice. Aurora’s supernaturally grippy boots were the only reason she wasn't flat on her back or belly already.  Regardless, there was a good reason to not desire a trip into the water beneath the ice. It took dedicated equipment for rescue ponies to swim in that cold, and the ice krene had the annoying habit of regenerating holes in the ice within moments. “Don't worry about getting sealed up.” Cloud trotted to the chariot and rummaged inside for a moment. “We restocked our fire shells when you were out. Trixie can crack them open and use the fire dust inside to keep a hole open. You just focus on breathing. And, uh, sinking.” “I can take care of the sinking. And making air. Just make sure your shields are set up to let the water pass through.” On it. Twilight lit her horn and started setting up her shield - with a few tweaks. “Okay, I'm going to be out of communication range within minutes. The signal won’t travel well in water. Much as I would love to stay in radio contact, that’s not going to be an option. We’re going to have to suffer in silence.” Rainbow got a cruel glimmer in her eye. “You mean pulling a Discord?” Twilight rolled her eyes, but the others shared a somewhat mean-spirited, if deserved, chuckle. With a breath, she looked up at the crystal-clear night sky. “You guys can hide out in the chariot if you want. I just need Trixie to pop out once in a while to keep my exit route open. Notify the Princesses if I’m not back in a couple of hours.” Spike outstretched his wings to cover the shivering Trixie from the wind. “Will Aurora be able to take that much pressure for that long?” “She told me she estimates being able to take four hours before her magic fails. But even if not, we should have the margin of safety needed to swim up in time. Any other questions?” The group paused before shaking their heads.  “Okay then. Trixie, start the spell.” Twilight finished her shields just as Trixie’s magic came together. The pink magic circle under Twilight took on a red hue and started eating into the ice. It looked like the red syrup on a snow cone from the fair, but there was no mistaking the heat coming from it. It wasn’t long before the magic spread inside the circle, scoring the ice into chunks. Blue water was visible through the ice under her hooves within minutes. “Here I go. See you guys in a bit!” Twilight tried to look as warm as possible to her obviously worried guards, despite the fact that they were on a frozen lake. She took in a breath, and jumped. The world was a lot colder a split second later, and divided into gradients with white ice above and black water below. She took a moment to think, observe, and be still. It was cold, but tolerable. She was dropping slowly into the deep, at maybe a few centimetres a second. Okay. So far, so good. The water pulled at her, welcoming her into the deep. Her heart pounded, and her lungs cried out. It was only then that she realized she was holding her breath. She screamed and gasped, instinct telling her she was about to inhale a few litres of lake water. Instead, she got warm air. Ugh. There's no way I’m ever getting used to this. Aurora giggled and somehow rolled eyes at her. “Just breathe. I'm using some electric magic to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen, and venting the former while cooling the latter with the ambient ice magic.” Twilight let out a breath full of her panic, letting her limbs settle down from flailing. Knowing the science… makes me feel better. “Naturally! Are you ready to dive?” She looked up at the fading ice, and the reddish hole in it as it shrank. Yeah. Let's do this. Some magic inside Aurora shifted, and they dropped. Instead of a few centimetres a second, they were plunging into the dark much faster than Twilight could estimate. The light couldn't reach very far under the ice and through the water, and in seconds, there was nothing but inky blackness. Twilight lit her horn, but it didn't do much good. Every now and then some fish, critter, or piece of garbage floated by her, and that was the only way she could tell how far her light was reaching. The time they took to reach the bottom wasn't real time as far as Twilight could tell. There was barely an up or down, and definitely no left, right, forward, or backwards. Something told her it wasn't that long a time, but for all she knew, she might as well have just spent an hour floating. It would have been peaceful if it wasn't existentially terrifying. Even her Sight saw nothing but the ambient blueberry soup of ice and water magic. When they did hit bottom, they found sticky mud. She had to swim up a little to get out of it, and chose to keep herself swimming just a tad above the bottom. She fired dozens of the brightest flares she'd ever made in all directions, illuminating a place that hadn't seen light in eons, if ever. Not that there was much to see — it was just mud all around her, along with a few very confused fish. Okay, time to start the search pattern. She lit her horn and fired a beam behind her. It didn't make much light, but that was because she went for efficiency over anything else, meaning the beam was almost pure kinetic force. Not a ton of it, as powerful blasts tended to be less efficient, and she wasn't looking for that. It was just enough to move her through the water at a nice glide, perhaps like Fluttershy moving through the air.  “What's that thing?” Twilight tilted her head towards where Aurora was mentally pointing her. It was an anomaly in her eyes at first, like trying to look directly at a star in the night sky. Her brain didn't have the information to fill in the gap. As they got closer, an obelisk of sorts came into view. It was made of mud, or perhaps just covered in it. The top was clearly broken off.  This has to be artificial, Twilight realized. As they approached, more became visible in the mud. Everywhere ahead of them had strange, unnatural shapes half-buried in the bottom of the lake. She grabbed onto the obelisk as they were about to zoom past, and wiped away the mud. A blue-grey, hard substance was underneath. It was like off-color ice, but with a rougher texture than it should have had for frozen water. She floated from spot to spot, uncovering piece after piece of the substance, along with metal, wood, and stone. After firing more flares, she found herself in a vast field of debris - one that hadn’t been noticed from the outside world in who knows how long.  “What is this place? There’s no record of any other cities in this area in the known archeological record.” I don’t know. I don’t even know what all this is made of. A little voice in her mental committee started jumping up and down, screaming, “Pre-Discordian ruins! Pre-Discordian ruins!” The rest were telling her to save it for when they weren’t a few kilometres underwater.  I need a better view, Twilight told Aurora. Can you raise us a bit? She swam up, buoyed by Aurora, firing flares to spread the light around as much as she could, making them as bright as could be maintained in the water. Though their range was still limited, she could see a good portion of the vast field, including where it ended. Some distance in, the ruins were replaced by a deep crater, easily several stories deep.  “Want to investigate the curiously placed crater?” Aurora asked. Who wouldn’t? Twilight chuckled. She made for the cavity, spending several moments just coasting with her magic as she flew over it. Like the rest of the lake, it was filled with mud, but no structure was left inside. Whatever had caused the crater, it left nothing standing inside it.  At least, that’s what she thought until she found a mound a bit off the center. It was maybe two stories tall and had a cave-like hole in it. “You know, caves have historically led us into big trouble. Want to go in?” Sure seems like a bad idea, which is probably my M.O. at this point. Let's go tickle a dragon or something, I guess. She swam down, and inside. Of course, it was completely dark. A few flares lit up the pathway, revealing a rough stone pathway just big enough for a large pony to swim through. This isn’t a natural tunnel. The stone has been dug out and hasn’t had a chance to get covered in mud. Who in their right mind would head down here, and how in Tartarus did they manage to get here without getting crushed like a soda can? The answers, if there were any, laid inside. She swam down, holding her breath again before Aurora gave her a little zap of a reminder to breathe. At one point she stopped to think, and found herself still moving forward. There's suction here, like an underground river. This may be a problem. The speed picked up, but it hit a maximum that was a comfortable pace. It was like a swift swim, guiding her down to whatever awaited her. It didn't take too long to run headlong into a barrier. It was a neutral-toned magical barrier pulsing with ripples of light. Little tendrils extended off it like sea anemones, reaching and grabbing for something… for her. The shivers in her back and legs had her wriggling and writhing like struck prey even before the tendrils touched her. The water pulled down into an abyss instead of forward into the barrier, but the tendrils had her and were pressing her against the magic field. She was about to tear things apart with her own magic when her ears popped and she found herself on the other side of the barrier. Inside it was more tunnel, but not one filled with water.  It was dry, or at most a bit damp, and there was a machine about the size of a dishwasher next to her. It was painted yellow and was illuminated by a floodlight hooked up to it. In the top was a hole with a rod of solidified magic sticking out, and facing the barrier was a large core crystal. So this machine is keeping the barrier up by feeding it power from the magic rod. Down the tunnel, she saw a barrel of more rods, enough to keep the barrier going for some time, as long as ponies were around to put in fresh rods. “Okay, so, this is kinda just banged together. It’ll work thanks to where it is in the tunnel and how the water is being diverted rather than being held up. I’m actually a little impressed — when you have very little resources, you make do.” “This seems consistent with the bare-bones nature of the tools back in that factory.” “Yeah. No idea how they made the tunnel, though. Let's go find out what's on the other end that they're so interested in.” The tunnel continued its twisting, turning ways for maybe five minutes. The stone was damp and had occasional bits of slippery mud on it. Light-blue ice mana glowed along the ground, both floating in the air and ingrained into the stone. The drops of magic looked like glow-in-the-dark spray paint. Each step brought more magic to the air, and the ground soon had a layer of the blue-white building substance she'd found in the rubble outside. Moments later, and the whole tunnel was lined with it, turning it square instead of rounded. Lines of ice mana ran through it like veins, pulsing slowly with power.  It was eventually bright enough that she didn’t need to light the way with her horn. The tunnel led to some steps—normal-sized instead of dragon-sized—that led upwards. “Holy…” Twilight gulped as she reached the top.  Before her was a massive underground city. It was easily the size of Manehatten, and probably larger. All of the buildings and even the streets were made of that blue-grey-white substance from the ruins. The ice-mana veins ran through the street and into the bottoms of the buildings, and up into what were probably once streetlights.  The structures near her were smaller, but there were skyscrapers in the distance easily larger than any she’d seen before, and the center had a castle that made Canterlot’s look like a dollhouse. The streets were arranged in a radial fashion, all leading to or circling the obvious center of power. Her hoofsteps shimmered as she trotted, making a twinkling sound that scratched, nay, directly tickled her auditory cortex. Many of the buildings’ windows were broken and scattered around with other rubble. The basic structures were all still intact, but a lot of walls were broken. Strange items were everywhere, from random small spheres on the ground to odd rectangular metal boxes at some street corners.  Above the city was a crystalline cavern, a dome of mana-infused ice. It was so high it would have been invisible if not for both the ice mana running through it and a powerful searchlight shining into it from one side of the city. Need to pick up the pace. Twilight lit her horn and shot herself into the air and down the street with a teleport, magic-hopping downtown to the castle. Her eye caught something in front of the main entrance, and she let herself come to a stop. Ears back, she took tiny steps forward towards the grandiose staircase and what was in front of it. She sat on the cold ground, ears back and head down, gazing up at a statue. It depicted a draft stallion of massive proportions, with thick muscles like wrapped iron. His wings were spread wide, and their type was made for maximum power. If his true height could be reasonably assumed by starting with Celestia and scaling up proportionally from mare to stallion, his horn would be as long as Twilight was tall, and she could probably walk under him like he was some kind of bridge.  His tail was relatively simple in shape, and his mane was short and was shaped kind of like the top of an iceberg, coming to a tip on the back of his head. His beard was less a beard and more a piece of a glacier attached to his steel jaw. His gaze was proud, determined, defiant… yet somehow, also hopeful. Though the statue was weathered, it was clearly a masterwork of some legendary sculptor. There was a plaque on the base, and though the writing was long since gone, she didn't need it. She knew exactly who this was a statue of. “Lord Glacien.” Twilight whispered. “The Alicorn of Ice and Winter.”