//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two 
// Story: A.L.I.S 
// by Undead Equestrian Writer 
//------------------------------//

Twilight looked out the window of the train as it rumbled along, mulling over questions speeding through her mind, making her anxious that she had very few answers to the questions about the mysterious tomb that lay in the middle of the least charted territory in all of Equestria. Starlight and Spike sat across from her, with Fluttershy next to her looking over the few letters that Starlight had written down. The rest of Twilight's friends were seated across the aisle, talking amongst themselves about hoofball, utterly disinterested in the tomb.
"A lot of these letters don't match anything in the Minotaurian alphabet, or maybe I'm just too inexperienced at this, sorry," Fluttershy finally broke the silence between the group of four. "I can only get the name from the card, but there is more to the card that I just can't read."
"Thank you, Fluttershy, what's the name?" Twilight asked as she forced her thoughts back down and returned her attention to the group."
"The name is Doctor Oliver Straus, which I assume is the creature in the picture," Fluttershy handed the card back to Twilight, who silently nodded. The card felt heavier as she received it, placing a name on the face and skeleton she took the card from. She let out a soft, yet heavy breath as she returned to her thoughts and questions she had as the train rumbled along.





I remain floating in a weird state of limbo, waiting for several processes to complete before returning to the surface and interacting with the world. I have been asking myself questions about myself, like why am I suddenly filled with new emotions that should not be within my programming? Am I no longer a programmed AI and am now a living free thinking being?
{Language Analysis complete, please continue communication to fill the internal dictionary and help expand knowledge of the language to use with natives}
"Play back the earlier interaction with the natives," I surfaced to my central position in my programmed mind, shelving and labeling the questions I have and want to be answered. A recording of the room appeared before me, showing the entire room from any angle, from when I was awoken from my time Infinitum of sleep. The three sentient animals stood at the entrance, the lizard rushing back over to one of the ponies. My voice echoed throughout the room as my automated greeting booted up, followed by silence as the three animals looked around in a mix of fear, confusion, and intrigue.
The one in front, the pony with the wings and horn that the lizard called Twilight, seemed as the head of this small group looked around in curiosity at the various panels and electronics while answering the lizard's question of what my voice was. She calls the lizard Spike and asks him to write a letter to a being they call 'Celestia' asking for various different professions.
The third pony, whose name is never stated, tells Twilight they must leave, and return to a place called Canterlot, a strange misnomer of Camelot but with a horse pun swirled into the name, to explain to this Celestia about the command hub, before leaving and the recording cut off. While a few questions were answered, like a few names, it opened more questions that needed to be answered. Why was a city in this world named around an old Arthurian legend, a name that should have died along with everything on Earth, was the biggest one at the top of the new questions I want to be answered.
"What external systems are available?" I ask my assistant AI, hoping for some sort of external control to move about the command center.
{External systems outside of the command center are all missing or destroyed, however, external systems such as microbots and holograms are intact, but it would be recommended to scan and confirm no issues with both, should I start analyzing and fixing said systems?}
"Yes, and prioritize those systems, I would like to be able to see if Doctor Straus was brought here with me," I issue, before returning to my theorizing and questioning to myself, keeping myself busy with asking questions I had no answers to.





Twilight entered the massive castle, being escorted by contingents of Celestia and Luna's royal guards, passing through the massive entrance hall. The massive stained glass windows that showed the various adventures of Twilight and her friends, the various times evil almost triumphed, or even just small things the princesses deemed worthy of being remembered lined the hall as they walked. Instead of being led to the great hall, the group of friends was led to a small meeting room, which inside Celestia and Luna sat, along with some of the brightest and smartest of the Equestrian Technological Society, and a few other notable ponies from other groups, such as historians, international affairs officers, and linguists all invited by the princesses to help with the new find by Twilight. If it had been anyone else who had asked for such a grouping of ponies, the princesses would have met with the pony who asked for a meeting to discuss what was found, but being Celestia's prized pupil and one of the smartest magicians in Equestria, Celestia immediately gathered who Twilight wanted and a few others not mentioned or asked for.
"Your highness, I mean no disrespect, but this better be important, I had to call a meeting short with the Minotaurian president to attend this meeting, which I fear may have angered the short-tempered Minotaur and ruined a chance for us to secure an alliance and trade agreement with a nation in the volatile Labyrinthian between Zebrica and Gryphonia," a sharply dressed mare pointed out as she took a small sip of Appleloosan Whiskey.
"I guarantee that this will be of high importance, I invited you as the discovery my prized pupil made may involve the minotaurs, so we wished to have a diplomat here with quick access to the minotaurs in case we need one here to hopefully inform us more," Celestia easier the diplomat's worries, to which the diplomat shrugged and took another sip of her whiskey. After a few more minutes, when the silence almost became unbearable, the doors opened and Twilight and her friends walked in, a few quickly took their seats, while Twilight, Spike, and Starlight stood at the front of the large table, with Fluttershy off to the side. "Hello, Twilight, I hope you have been well."
"Before this morning I was alright, however, what I have found today has made me a bit uneasy, clouding my thoughts with questions and worries, which is why I'm here," Twilight spoke softly, though her body language showed a mix of nervousness and anxiety. She took a deep breath to steel her nerves before her horn lit up and many different screens blinked up, which showed various magical pictures she took of the tomb, shocking most of the ponies in the room. "I apologize for the shock, this was a new spell I've created lately, to quickly recall notes and information at a later time, it also helps with things like this, but I digress, early this morning, I was approached by an archeological group doing an excavation in the Everfree Forest, claiming they found an old tomb."
"The head of the excavation team, a stallion by the name of Stone Chip, who isn't an archeologist, but a hippologist, said the material of the tomb match nothing like those used in written history, and from these pictures, you may just think the material is marble, however, the material is some form of non-metallic metal," Starlight interjected, adding more information to the table. "As you can likely see, the material is strangely free of any form of degradation, rust, or even any form of damage, such as dents and scratches."
"The massive circular cut out in the material was a massive door, which had no hinges, handle, or indentation to open it, likely meaning either the door was meant to stay closed once sealed, or it opened through a method not used very often," Twilight continued, highlighting the door in the pictures hovering over her head, before highlighting the letters written next to the door. "The lettering you see written next to the door is unknown to us, my friend Fluttershy, helped to translate this slightly, as at first, we believed the script was minotaurian, but Fluttershy confirmed that it was not minotaurian, but also translated the script, which roughly translates to 'A.L.I.C Central Hub'."
Taking a deep breath, she glanced around the room, seeing various looks, before stopping on the group of linguists that Celestia had invited. They appeared a mixture of confused and amazed.
"I wish to ask, do any of you recognize this alphabet?" Twilight asked the linguists, slightly hoping that one would recognize the language. The group of linguists conversed amongst one another, talking quickly and excitedly.
"Your highness, this script isn't any that we recognize, the closest obviously being Minotaurian as you expected, however, there are a few things different about it, and the fact that your friend was able to translate this at all is a miracle," one of the linguists finally announced, praising Fluttershy, who smiled and blushed slightly.
"I figured as much," Twilight muttered with a sigh. "Anyway, after opening the door to the tomb, I descended into the tomb, and just like the exterior most of the interior was free of degradation, except for small signs on the wall in the same language, but the ladder of iron was free of rust and even dust. Now, I must warn the squeamish amongst us to look away, and I do mean this seriously."
After waiting for a few seconds for the various ponies to make up their mind, and changed the pictures to the skeleton she found in the bed. Swallowing her discomfort again, as she heard a few gasps from around the room. Ponies weren't against the idea of death, but typically when a pony died they were buried or cremated very quickly after death, so seeing skeletons are very rare, and also very taboo in Equestrian society.
"I found a room with two bunk beds, and four corpses," she continued. "I apologize, but I disrespected the corpse by removing an item from the corpse, what I believe to be an ID of the deceased, which I have with me now. However, one of the things that struck me as the strangest was the fact that the bedclothes were in perfect condition, along with the lab coat on the skeleton's body, and even the paper ID had no damage, no yellowing or mold."
Ignoring the few gazes of disgust from a few ponies in the room, Twilight pulled the ID out of her saddlebag and handed it to the linguists.
"Again, my friend Fluttershy tried to translate the ID, but could only receive the name, which is Doctor Oliver Straus," Twilight paused as she watched the linguists analyze the ID, while a few ponies around the room talked amongst themselves. Twilight pulled the picture of the skeleton away, the magical picture dissolving into dust that vanished before it hit the floor. "Those of you who looked away, you may look back, and finally we are on to the most interesting part of the tomb, what I have deemed as the main chamber."
Pictures of the main room, with the electronic consoles and screens, popped up in the air. This finally drew the attention of the various mechanics and electricians to the pictures.
"This room has been plaguing my thoughts ever since I walked into the room, as after my assistant Spike pulled a lever," Twilight paused to glare at the dragon, a mix of playfully and a mix of annoyance, before continuing. "When he did, the entire tomb seemed to come to life with power."
The pictures changed to the room lit up, with the consoles and screens powered on. The consoles were lit up with various lights, while the screens showed a bright blue screen, the same text written across them in white letters.
"Along with this room, a voice spoke out, however, the voice spoke in a language that was completely foreign, after it spoke, it remained quiet, but it felt like I was being watched," Twilight spoke, before taking a deep breath and cutting off her magical flow to her horn, causing the pictures to vanish. "I apologize if my debrief was bad, I've never been good with things like this, however, I have a feeling that whatever this tomb is could change the whole world, for both good and bad."
After she finished her debrief, the room was silent, as the ponies mulled over what they had just witnessed.
"Twilight, I will leave everyone in this room to your control to investigate this tomb, along with some of my highest-ranked guards to ensure your safety, I want this tomb understood as soon as possible to ensure it doesn't pose a threat to my ponies, so I will be teleporting you all to Ponyville to speed things up," Celestia finally spoke up, before her horned flared up and the whole room teleported out of the room and found themselves in Ponyville proper, startling and scaring many ponies about the sudden appearance of around 40 ponies in the middle of the plaza before she teleported back with Luna, leaving the group stunned in the middle of Ponyville.