//------------------------------//
// Voyager's Arc: Fragments Of Exhibition 
// Story: Of Laurels & Lace 
// by WritingSpirit 
//------------------------------//

	Dresden raised his torch, the flames burning a brilliant red as they illuminated the dark, underground crevasse they were in, revealing the stone stairs cutting down into the gloom beyond.
Harmony followed closely behind along with Pinkie, whose sniffles have stopped midway throughout the journey, her depression flipping into curiosity with every step of their descent.

The crumbling stone passage finally gave way, the three eventually reaching the junction of a platform once more. The statue in the center glared at their entrance, his frozen stance a disapproving message for them to turn back; one they would never comply with.
"So," the stallion began, turning back to the mare, who was still glancing away with spite.
"Where did you say they went?"

There was a grumble, before she beckoned her head at the doorway on their right.
The three Voyagers crept towards it, with Dresden raising his torch, surprised to see a set of stairs glancing back at him.
"You sure they took this way?" he asked Harmony, who gave a justifying nod.

"The other two passages have been blocked by stones," she added.
"This is the only possible way that they could enter the ruins, if there are any."

Holding their breaths, the ponies slowly clambered up the stone steps, ignoring the little, menacing eyes staring from the crevices in the walls. They shivered in the cold, damp air, amplified by a hollow breeze blowing right into their faces, tangling each of their manes.
The clatter of their hooves were answered with a few squeaks of mice, which scurried across the floor. Harmony only wrinkled her snout in disgust, trying her best not to accidentally step on any of the rodents.

The stairs finally came to a halt as they stepped onto a landing, the groan of wood panels protesting under their hooves. Dust scattered with each step deeper into the desolate place, the ponies examining the wreck before them.
The tables were flipped over, the chairs sprawled around the floor. Papers and tearing books filled a corner, leaking out from the shattered bookcases lying on the floor.

A loud twang from under Dresden's hooves made him look down to see it tangled amidst white, fine strings connected towards a brass frame, which was intricately designed and shaped into one half of a heart.
His attention was suddenly focused at the floor behind the neat arrangement of strings; instead of the wooden panels, there was a circular, stone edifice, with the faded, discolored carvings of the sun and moon etched neatly onto it.
"No..." he muttered to himself. "It couldn't be..."

Harmony strode towards the side of the room, glancing at the dusty tapestry hanging on the wall. Something seemed familiar about it, though she couldn't figure out what.
Her hooves slid into a mound of paper, sweeping them off to reveal the stone head of a unicorn statue, its neck shattered apart. Its eyes seemed to glisten faintly underneath the cobwebs, which only stirred her need of cognition.
"Guys?" she called to the others.
"Is it me, or does everything somehow looks so darn familiar?"

The swinging creak of the door beckoned them to step out of the room, with Pinkie being the first.
She coughed a little, the lingering dust and mustiness of the cavern tingling in her throat, before gaping in disbelief at the scene before her.

Stretching at both ends, with the floor draped over by a tattering red carpet, was a derelict hallway, garnished with shattered glass and porcelain. Rusted suits of armor laid broken apart, with the banners hanging from the ceiling eaten away with age, the remainder of them already tainted by a thick layer of fungus.
The echoing drips of water were the only sounds they can hear, their steps already muffled by the severing carpet beneath their hooves. With each step across, the aching feeling in their heads only tingled even more, with Dresden the first to tend to it.
"This place... isn't it...?"

"Yes," Pinkie replied, being the first thanks to her ingenious memory. She had always seen it as something she could cherish, with Granny Pie being the first to notice it when she was only five months old.
There was a bluejay in the sky; one of the rare few that passed over the rock farm, and the pink pony decided to paint it out using blueberry jam onto the pantry floor, much to her mother's annoyance. It wasn't until after she got her Cutie Mark that she first used it as a glorious reminder, at that time to remember that she had finally made her family smile.
This time was no different.

She glanced out the window, with Harmony and Dresden following soon after, the two only managing to gasp at the sight before them.
Down below the crumbling plateau was a grand array of structures, some of them already beginning to topple, spanning the entire stretch of the cave. The paths between them crisscrossed throughout the cave, with debris such as fallen iron lampposts and wrecked carriages blocking some of the roads.
Pinkie held her breath, still trying to understand the existence of the place they were in.

"We're in Palgiot Palace."

A loud creak suddenly sounded from below, then a deafening snap as the floor suddenly gave way under them.
"Pinkie!" Dresden shouted, watching as the mare tumbled down with a loud whimper, her hooves reaching around before clutching tightly on a wooden beam, hanging in the air.

She glanced down below, seeing the beams and plates of armor shatter at the very bottom of the abyss, before biting her lips forcefully, her grip tightening.
"Hold on, Pinkie!" Harmony shouted, quickly tying up one of the torn banners on the floor with her horn.

Another loud rumble signaled; this time the ceiling came crashing down. Shards of metal and glass fell upon them, narrowly missing their bodies.
One of the white marble columns rolled towards Pinkie, who clenched her eyes shut as it slid in a circle, falling down into oblivion with its tip just scraping at the end of her tail. Dresden clenched his jaws onto the banner, quickly heaving her up as the other Voyager galloped back into the room.

The evident grinding of stone made Harmony look in shock, her attempts of pushing the sliding door back down in vain as the passage of stairs back from where they came slid shut with a loud bang.
In response, the cobweb-covered chandelier above her suddenly snapped, then fell towards her. At that instant, the unicorn immediately jumped out of the room, the cloud of dust fleeting out with glass shards whizzing past her mane.

"What happened?" Dresden asked, the stallion and Pinkie galloping up to the mare, who lifted herself from the floor.
She shook her mane free of the glass shards trapped within, before looking back at the derelict room, trying not to spit at the floor with annoyance.

"We've just lost our way back."

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The stone door slid downwards with a click, the two ponies quickly stepping out from the dark corridor.

Charter shook his body free of the dust, before preening his wings neatly, glancing about the room they were in.
Primrose soon stumbled into him with a honk, the mare letting out a sheepish laugh as the pegasus gave her a cold stare.

"Calormor..." he began, scanning through the room.
The jumble of books, all tattered and frayed, filled the floor, the majority covered by the bookcases, toppled over and lying against each other like gigantic, wooden dominoes. One of the bookcases was smashed inwards by a stone pillar, with droplets of water dripping from the bleak hole in the roof, the slate tiles all scattered about the floor.
"...is a ruined library?"

Primrose wanted to laugh, yet disappointment overwhelmed her before she could open her mouth.
"I thought we were expecting something much better," she commented with a sigh, her friend giving a nod in agreement.

"There might be something here that we could find."
The pegasus flapped his wings hastily, hovering above the caramel mare around the dilapidated room. His eyes soon glanced at a doorway up ahead, its door already hanging off the hinges.
"There's an exit up ahead," he called back to his friend, who was busy clambering over the collapsed bookshelves.
"Maybe there's more to the cavern than what we've already saw."

"Alright then."

The steady drips of water and hollow noise of the cavern rang in their ears as the two Voyagers marched down the ruined room. They could imagine how this place once was; a thriving, peaceful solace of books with ponies of all ages sitting on the now strewn chairs and toppled tables, delving deep into their vivid fantasies with every progress of the pages.
"Charter?" Primrose called to the pegasus, who turned his head back.

"What is it?"

"Is it me?" she began, hesitating on the words she was going to say, before continuing:
"Or does everything here looks like Foster Orphanage?"

"Come to think of it..."
Charter glanced around; the tearing wallpaper, the tumbled bookshelves...
"It does look like Foster Orphanage..."

As soon as they stepped out of the building, everything became clear to them.
The barren wasteland before them, with a few dead trees still standing firmly, untouched by the swarming nests of termites, smelled of decay and death, the slate tiles all chiseled up and broken.
A rotting sign rested on the floor, snapped at its neck with the board scarred by feral claws and bites. The fading ink was still legible, however, the ponies making out:


Standard & Dale


"I don't think Calormor was only Foster Orphanage," Charter concluded, gazing at the grand expanse of the cavern and at the derelict structures still standing all around.
"I think Calormor is the whole of Pendant Lakes."

"But... b-but that's impossible!" Primrose protested.
"Pendant Lakes is still intact and right above our heads! How can this whole ruin here be Pendant Lakes?"

A loud, deafening boom interrupted their conversation, the two ponies whirling around and gazing at the far distance.
There, from the more regal ruin standing on a tabletop mountain, rock, wood and glass collapsed in a cloud of dust, scattering deep into the darkness below. A few seconds later, it crumbled once more, the crashing of the structure echoing throughout the whole cavern.
The Voyagers watched as a swarm of bats screeched overhead, flapping their wings hastily away from the palace, before glancing at each other with doubt.

"So," Charter began with a question.

"If Pendant Lakes is above us, then what in Equestria is this place?"

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If there's an entrance, Dresden had always told himself, there's always an exit.

That is, unless the entrance is the exit.

With a wary glance around the crumbling structure, the cyan stallion hastily trotted down the fractured hallways of the palace (or what seems to be the palace), before reaching a set of stairs.
Like its modern counterpart, it was horseshoe shaped; the two lanes of steps stretching out in a convex fashion, before meeting the marble floor below. However, a large stone column has slammed into one of them, deeming it broken.

Harmony looked up at the tattered banners over their heads, watching as they hung from their supports, waiting to fall at any moment. Rocks and mud covered the carpeted floor, with small, unknown chirps in the darkness only adding to her curiosity, which beckoned her to ask:
"What is this place?"

"Other than some copycat ruin of Palgiot Palace," the stallion replied, brushing off the small shards of wood and glass off his mane from their previous ordeal.
"Beats me."

Pinkie remained unusually silent throughout the journey. Her face of worry and fear only made the atmosphere uneasy for the remaining ponies, which tried not to tense under the pressure.
A small shuffling noise caught each of their attention, their gaze immediately focusing behind.
"Did you hear that?" the pink mare asked.

Dresden unsheathed his double-edged rapier; the one he had kept for an occasion such as this. He had used it a few times throughout their journey, the most usually fighting off a few timber wolves.
This time, however, he had no idea what he would be up against.

"Hello?" he called out, peering into the darkness with Harmony and Pinkie behind him.
There was no response.

"Strange..."

With a metallic clink, Dresden slid his blade back in, yet his gaze remained focused at the darkness, waiting for something to just pounce out onto them.
"Let's go," he said to the others, the three immediately stepping out of the once-grand double doors.

They stepped onto the barren plateau, the trees and plants that once grew around the glorious courtyard all withering in decay, the sweet smell of nectar now replaced with the gurgling scent of rot. The marble fountain in the center of it all had been shattered apart, with the gates leading outside twisted and wrecked; a pointless obstacle for them to cross.
It was a moment during their venture down the spiral path of the plateau that they saw the grand extent of the ruins. Like its current equivalent, the derelict, baroque structures took the grand expanse of the cavern, with some parts collapsed entirely and others still standing firmly.

The darkness enveloping beyond would've been overwhelming if not for the clusters of luminescent mushrooms, all glowing a pale blue around the broken roads and crumbling walls. The cyan pony blew out his torch in response, continuing their underground journey through the subterranean city.
The shattered windows of the houses glared on menacingly down at them, which only made Pinkie shiver at the sight. The small shuffling of shadows only added to it, but relief swept over as they're revealed to be black rodents, their eyes red as the blood that runs in their veins.

"Which way..." Dresden muttered himself, before the Voyagers stumbled upon a collapsed mound of bricks, completely obstructing their way forward.
He snarled with annoyance at that, before concluding:
"We'll have to use the alleys."

"Just stick close to each other," he ordered.
"I went through the alleys in Pendant Lakes before, and they're by far the most confusing network of them I've ever seen. No doubt the ruins down here would be the same."

The two mares behind him nodded, following him into the back lanes. It was a labyrinth on its own; the towering ruins squeezing the paths so tightly that it would murder a claustrophobic pony, yet the exhausting turns they had to make only added to the frustration.
Harmony's head suddenly pained, her migraine stirring up again. Her vision blurred with echoing voices, watching as Pinkie and Dresden turned around the corner.
"W-Wait up!" she managed to cry, lifting herself from the floor.

The unicorn trotted around the corner, still clutching her head, only to spot the empty lanes, with no pony in sight.
"Dres?" she called out, her voice resonating off the walls.
"Pinkie?"

Her worries grew as she took a random turn, only to meet more of the branching roads.
She bit her lip with uncertainty. Why must her darn headache always act up at the worst possible times?
A few more turns, and the mare slumped onto the floor. There's no way she's going to find her way out like this, not when she's wandering aimlessly without anypony else to help her.

"Harmony Peridot..."

The mare tensed, whirling around immediately.
"Who's there?" she called out nervously.

"Your greatest dreams..."

She stepped back at the creak of the wooden walls, hearing a faint hiss from the cracks.
"Just... just leave me alone!"

"Whatever for? Don't you want to see...?"

Harmony galloped down one of the paths, frantically turning and swerving past the corners, yet the voices seemed to chase her from behind, now accompanied by cackling shadows.
Her chest heaved, her body covered in cold sweat with the sound of her heartbeat thumping loudly in her ears, though her hooves sped onward without care.

"Harmony...."

"Leave me alone!!"
At that instant, she tripped, her face grinding against the cold stone floor, her headache searing powerfully whilst her horn flared radiantly with magic.
She coughed a few drops of blood, clutching her chest as she started to crawl forwards, the shadows getting closer and closer as she clenched her eyes...

"Harmony!"
Dresden's shout made her turn, watching the stallion and Pinkie's faces of worry. The cyan pony lifted her up from the floor, immediately tending to the bruises on her cheek.
"Where have you been? Are you alright?"

"I-" she stammered, wiping the blood off her lips.
"I'm fine..."

"Well, we have to go," he immediately said.
"And we have to get out of here fast."

Dresden took off first, with Pinkie and Harmony following closely behind.
"You okay, Harmony?" the pink mare asked the unicorn.

There was a soft whimper, which was enough to show her hesitation.
"I... I dunno..."

"It's just... I don't think we're the only ones down here..."

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"What do you think we would find down here, Charter?"

Primrose's question was only answered with a shrug from the pegasus, the two ponies trotting down the desolate avenue warily, their eyes gazing in all directions.
The two ponies trudged above a carriage, the vehicle having crashed into one of the shops with bricks smashed into its wooden framework, its wheels lying on the ground in despair.

"Watch your step," Charter warned with a flap of his wings, hovering over a dark pothole of splintered wood. The mare behind him skipped over it, though her landing made the wood creak and groan.
There was a relieved sigh as the two finally stepped onto the barren ground, once again facing the bleak, abandoned town. Passing by the decrepit buildings, the cold chill of the buried town tingling in a state of neglect, the Voyagers marched onward slowly, scanning about the forsaken town.

A cold fog started to develop around their hooves, embracing them in its intangible grip.
"The moisture from the caves are condensing from the cold air outside," the pegasus explained to Primrose, seeing her confused look at the wisps of clouds below her.
"From where the fog is forming, it seems to be coming from below us."

"Okay..." the caramel mare could only respond, making him chuckle.
"Where did you learn all of this?"

"Meteorology class, chapter five," he replied with a wink.
"Though I have to admit I'm not the most attentive when it comes to weather topics."

Both of them laughed quietly under their breath, which started to form like smoke from their mouths.
Primrose could feel the heat rising from their bodies, replaced only by the wintry, subterranean chill. The sweat crawling down on the body only added to it, making her shiver.

"Wait," Charter snapped suddenly, raising his hoof.
His ears started to strain, his eyes squinting into the mist, before widening in surprise.

"There's somepony here."

Sure enough, the mist started to glow an ethereal yellow before them, with two silhouettes heading towards their directions, one of their hooves raised up to hold a swinging iron lamp.
"Quickly," he hissed quietly, the two darting into the alleyways just as they emerged from the mist.

They seem to be oblivious of the Voyagers' presence, as their muffled conversation became clearer and clearer, beckoning the other ponies to listen.

"I can't believe they're still preserved after so long."

"Nopony would've thought of it. This is something out of the ordinary, I believe."
There was a pause, before the same pony continued:
"Have they decided where we will meet yet?"

Charter peered out from the walls, spotting the two ponies in the distance.
One of them was a unicorn, who tapped his hooves with a glance around the crippled buildings. The other looked more of the criminals he caught back in Cloudsdale (minus the wings) with his scarred face and grizzly chin.
"They sure take quite a long while, don't they?"

"Just be patient, Sidus," the unicorn spoke, unintentionally revealing his friend's name.
"They'll be down shortly."

"I assume you mean we'll be down right now."

Three other ponies suddenly surfaced from the thick fog, with the leading one carrying a lamp of his own.
"Caduceus," he spoke with a deep, venerable tone.
"It's finally good to see you."

"The same, Stellar."

The two tried to hide their surprise; that was the butler that lead them to their room!

"We're just about to start excavating the town," the one they called Sidus spoke up.
"I assume things are fine in town?"

"Apparently, there's been a problem, as of late."
Charter tried not to scowl. Sure enough, it was the unmistakable voice of the Patriarch.
"We're not alone down here."

"What do you mean?"

A female voice piped in, only making the two Voyagers look at each other in panic and realization.
"Two of Gypsum's friends have entered the ruins before us. They could be hearing us right at this moment."

"Isn't that Persimmon?" Primrose asked.
"The one that invited us into the orphanage?"

The pegasus could only nod, his ears perking as the conversation continued, this time by Winter:
"We'll find them later, as I doubt they would know of the exits out of these ruins."

"I'm still slightly surprised," Stellar quipped with interest.
"That we're still standing in the original Pendant Lakes."

"The very first, hoof-designed by Ravine Palgiot himself."

That explains its queer similarities, Charter told himself, glancing around at the buildings once more.
Yet he still doesn't understand. Why was this place called Calormor, or Tempus Fractura, for that matter? Why can't the Palgiots just call this place something much more suitable?

A loud creak made each of the ponies turn, the Patriarch suddenly bellowed with his head glancing beyond:
"Harmony?!"

The two Voyagers hastily peered out, watching as their friend was pulled back by Dresden, who took out a gun.

"Everypony get down!"

*BANG*
*BANG*

The five ponies scattered as Dresden and Harmony galloped away from them, with a pink mare following closely behind, the two still-hiding Voyagers recognizing her immediately.
"Pinkie Pie," they identified in unison.

Another loud gunshot snapped through the air, this time by Sidus himself.
"You're lucky I brought guns."

"Don't let them get away!!" the Patriarch demanded, earning nods from the remaining four, the Sidus pony quickly handing each of them a few weapons and cartridges.
As the Voyagers watched them quickly galloping off into the mist, their hooves clattering in a chase around the desolate ruin, Primrose started to rise, before the pegasus pulled her back down.

"Here," he said, handing her a pistol, which she only glanced at it with trepidation.
"Just in case."

"W-What do you want me to do with this?" she asked, slightly horrified.

Charter's expression was emotionless, a loud click signaled from his hooves as he reloaded his own weapon.
"Like how everypony uses it," he stopped with a sigh, before finishing:

"When things get pretty ugly."

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Present Day





The grinding sounds of stone dominated the hallways, the doors ever sliding down the walls as Stellar and the Princesses, which had reverted back to their usual, regal form.
The younger alicorn gazed at the shifting doors, the amazement evident on her face.
"This is some powerful magic, isn't it Tia?"

The alabaster mare nodded, following her sister's gaze. The Patriarch had certainly outdone himself the last time they had met, remembering his brashness all those years ago.
She sighed. The chaos of the town still stirred, and it only seemed to have worsened at their arrival.

"Stellar," she called to the butler, who gave a venerable bow.
"Are you certain that this is enough for the safety of my student and her friends?"

"Students, I believe."

Princess Celestia blinked her eyes.
"I beg your pardon?"

"Students. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie."
His response made her look in surprise, the butler trying to hide his chuckle.
"I know you've only tutored one student in your whole life; the gifted prodigy of Canterlot. No doubt she has learned many things from you, yes?"

"Of course."

"Pinkie has as well," he continued without hesitation.
"To have brought up a stray pink mare and teach her of the lessons of friendship and destiny... this isn't just an ordinary mare you had asked to join a mission; this is a mare that steps beyond the boundaries of knowledge herself. She has something special within her, and all of us know that. You chose her to be the Element of Laughter, not the remaining, living Voyagers, cause you already knew she was perfect."

The white alicorn stood there, trying to absorb what Stellar had just said.
"I guess you might be right, my faithful subject."

"Miss Rarity, as well, would've said the same thing."
The butler sighed, continuing their small walk down the travelling hallways.
"That white mare was also one of a kind. Already three of the Elements of Harmony are special, so what are the odds that the remaining three are as well?"

The alabaster mare just smiled as he continued:
"You knew these six would be the perfect bearers. You knew they were incredible in their talents and exceptional in their habits, not to mention their powerful bonds of friendship. You wanted them to be the Elements of Harmony."

Princess Luna could only gape, turning from the butler to her sister, who only grinned in response.
"Is this true, Tia? That you meant for this to happen?"

"Against the laws of time, yes."
The white alicorn could only sigh, yet her heart still tingled with guilt.
"Though it was for the better of them. Even if it was against nature's will, it was for their good."

"And somepony's using the same methods to earn his own gains."

"Right," she replied Stellar, before the cerulean mare nudged her sister in curiosity.

"What does he mean?"

"Somepony realized of these events to happen," Celestia explained:
"Pinkie's parents, Fluttershy's father and, consecutively, mother, Harmony's sudden change of behavior..."
She bit her lip, forcing out the conclusion gurgling in her throat.
"Somepony's playing with time to make sure everything sees to his or her needs."

Stellar only nodded, before his eyes suddenly widened.
With a quick jolt, he grabbed a gun from his pocket, the barrel seemingly directed towards them, only making the princesses step back in bewilderment, their horns flaring in self-defense.
"Stellar?!" the older alicorn exclaimed, nearly stumbling backwards.
"What is the meaning of-"

*BANG*

The alicorn gasped, her shoulders tensed, before her sister's tap on her shoulder made her turn.

Right behind them, with blades already raised, was a pony, blood spluttering from his chest.
He let out a loud cough, before the stallion collapsed, sprawled onto the floor, which beckoned the three of them to approach him.

Stellar grimaced at the sight of the mask covering his face, even more so at the stitches on the lips.
"Silent and quick," he muttered, picking out the words from memory.
"That was the main rule of..."

The butler looked up, along with the two princesses, who were already gritting their teeth.
Right in front of them, rushing towards them from all sides, even from the ceiling, was a black swarm of cloaked ponies, each wearing different masks, with the only similar feature being the stitches on the lips.

Stellar grumbled, quickly cocking his gun back up, his hooves sliding back in a fighting stance.
With a raise of his hoof, the revolver pointed at one of the assassins, his trigger clicking just in time as the horns of the alicorn sisters shot out a bright ray, nearly engulfing the corridor in its radiant light as the butler grumbled:

"Here we go again..."