//------------------------------// // Catacombs // Story: Forgotten // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// When the scanning process was done, CanterLogic had templates for five poses of pegasus mannequins. Once they had the uniforms made and fitted, they'd send them down to the museum, and also send a complimentary uniform up to Zipp. Then as they headed out of the factory, Sunny told her friend about the phone call, and that she'd be coming back with her to Zephyr Heights. "Already found something else down there, have they?" Zipp asked as Sunny came out of Hitch's house with her saddlebags, packed with the low-light gear she had explored the castle with. "Apparently. Your mom asked if I wanted first look, and I jumped at the opportunity. It's odd; the memory gems and the journal; there's nothing in any of them about this structure." Sunny told her. "Maybe there's something down there that'll shed some light. Perhaps being under all that rubble helped preserve something," Zipp offered. "Here's hoping. Figure I'd crash in a hotel, and then get an early start in the morning," Sunny told her as they left the town limits of Maretime Bay. "Ha. No way. No friend of mine is paying for a hotel. Princess' orders. You'll get one of the guest suites at the castle. The trip down the mountain shouldn't take as long now, not with the paths being made to get even rough dirt roads built down there." A month ago, when Sunny made her journey down the mountain, it was truly a venture into the unknown. Even now, retracing her steps, starting at the top, the sprawling forest below looked exactly the same. It wasn't quite as solitary, with Zipp by her side, and making their way through the forest would be easier on several points; due to not having to rely on the marker on Sunny's GPS, they knew exactly where the castle was due to the large tree poking up above everything else in the canopy, as well as the dirt road that was now curving through the forest. "So, you think you'll try to reform the Wonderbolts team?" Sunny asked. "I've honestly been thinking about that. On one hoof, I'd love to re-ignite Equestria's glory days like that. But on the other hoof..." Zipp trailed off, pausing. "Yeah?" Sunny asked, encouraging her to continue. "Pegasi haven't flown in generations. You saw how awkward everything was coming back into town. Having our magic back hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, Sunny. We haven't even figured out civilian traffic flow. Hospital admittance has tripled due to midair collisions. Flying becomes riskier the faster you do it." "Well, true, it probably wouldn't be going right back to the glory days, but you have to start somewhere, right? Have to trot before you can gallop, right? If you can get a few ponies flying at the same speed at the same height, I'd say that's a great start." The two ponies greeted the group of pegasi and earth ponies that were working on the road at it's latest point, and then dug out their phones to look for Sunny's map ping. It was ten minutes on the path, and fifteen minutes on the forest floor before they spotted the ZH Royal Guard campsite in front of the castle. "Ah, Princess Zephyrina, Miss Starscout. Welcome back." Thunder said. Zipp's cheeks lit up at her legal name being spoken in front of her friend, but she didn't seem to notice or care, as her attention had been drawn to where the rock slide used to be. Something had been under all the boulders and rubble. Not much remained, but there were the cracked, broken foundations of crystal pillars. Some sections of broken stone walls, not even coming up to chest height. "Queen Haven said there was some kind of underground passage?" Sunny asked as she stepped over the stones to the other side of the river. "Over here in the western quadrant." Zoom Zephyrwing replied, leading her over the crystal tiles that strongly resembled the floors in the castle. She brought the earth pony over to an area that had been reasonably cleared, and stopped near a hole in the ground. What was odd about it was that it looked perfectly square. "That... Doesn't look natural," Sunny said, digging into her saddlebags and putting on her LED headband, switching it on and shining it down into the passage. "That was our thought. We know you and your friends explored the castle thoroughly, so if that passage didn't connect with anything in the castle, that you should have the first look, Miss Starscout," Zoom told her. With a nod, Sunny peered down into the hole. It wasn't quite a staircase, but it seemed to be a... zigzagging glowing root of some sort. "Alright, let me see how far down this goes," Sunny said, sliding down on the root. Before going down any farther, Thunder handed her a substantial coil of rope while keeping hold of the other end. "In case it starts to fork in there," Thunder said. Smiling in gratitude, Sunny turned back toward the passageway, and continued down, pulling the rope after her. After several moments of careful sliding, her hooves touched stone, and she found glowing crystals that lit up the area fairly decently. Starting forward, she noticed that as she continued down the dark path, the crystals lit up brighter the closer she got to them, as well as more crystals farther down the passage beginning to glow dimly. Were... Were they reacting to her? She shut off her LED headband, realizing that the crystals were more than sufficient illumination. The passage slowly bent to the left. It was a good thing she had been supplied the rope, because less than one hundred feet in, the passage forked, and she made another left as it slowly continued to descend underground. She had a fairly good sense of direction, and she was fairly certain that these catacombs were lower than the castle basement, and thus was the reason why they didn't find any of this when they had mapped it out last month. After another bend, she came to a slightly elevated archway. Something artificial? All the way down here? She stepped up to the arch, and gazed down, her eyes widening. It was a large crystal chamber, almost as large as the castle throne room. Six crystal pillars surrounded the center of the room. The outer walls looked artificial, and she saw a dimly glowing orb of light in the center of the chamber, in the middle of the six pillars. The passage curved to the right and descended the outer edge of the chamber in a flight of stairs. She turned and slowly took them down to the ground floor of the chamber, crystals lighting up as she went. As she came closer to the floor, she saw the orb's glow slowly increase in intensity. The stairs wrapped around a third of the chamber as they descended, before Sunny finally touched the floor, and the six pillars began to glow brighter. The spherical shape of the orb began to ebb and flow outward, expanding as it became brighter and brighter, and began to float ever so slowly towards the room's new occupant. Sunny stayed where she was, but brought her hoof up to shield her eyes from the almost-blinding light, and as soon as her line of sight was blocked, the light began to dim. As she lowered her hoof, the glowing orb shifted and shaped into the form of a pony... An earth pony that walked towards her as the light formed into hooves. Sunny's eyes widened and her breath left her as the orb's light continued to dim, and she saw an all too familiar figure slowly approach. The light dimmed almost entirely, leaving the illumination of the room to the six crystal pillars, and the light blue earth pony with a blue and purple mane gave her a gentle smile. "Hey there, Sunny Bunny." Sunny Starscout managed to barely draw in enough air to breathe, and enough of her voice came to her to let out a whisper. "D...Dad...?"