Part Three: The Painting on the Wall
Pinkie Pie told Opalescence everything. About her dream, the legend Twilight had told her about, and her resolve to look for clues in the old Princess castle deep in the Everfree forest. Opal listened in silence for all the time it took Pinkie to tell her story, but when she finally finished he could not help letting out a laugh.
“Well, that was not exactly what I expected to hear from a pony. I honestly didn't know that old myth would have been remembered by anypony any longer, except perhaps for the Princesses, but I happen to have heard it. I was a student of Pony lore before I moved to Ponyville to serve the order. My master was (and still is, I would guess, if his still in business) one of the absolute top experts on pony lore in all of Equestria, and he told me many stories such as these. Of course, on the topic of which ones are true and which ones are made up, mine or even his guess is just as far-fetched as anyone's. Checking out the old castle ruins is a great idea though, who knows what hidden knowledge might have stayed hidden there in the last millennium; I will personally take a team of specialists and help you in you search.”
“That's awfully kind if you!” Pinkie said, trying not to get her excitement get too much of a hold of her. She had the impression that Opal was a very serious cat, and she was a bit worried that if she suddenly started floating or run up the trees or something like that she might find her self excluded from the search party. Instead she tried her best to seem responsible and calm. “But what about Rarity? Wont she be worried if you're suddenly gone for a full day or more?”
“Oh, don't worry about her,” the cat assured her. “I'm away for days at a time regularly. Rarity will think I'm out hunting or visiting Fluttershy or some other harmless activity.”
Pinkie bought that without comment, she wasn't trying to ruin her own plan after all, and there were no denying that she would need help should she be able to search through that big castle without really knowing exactly what she was looking for.
“Very well then, you just stay put while I gather the team. If we move at a reasonably pace we should reach the castle around daybreak.”
When Pinkie had no objections the cat started going around to all the cats still working on cleaning up after the battle earlier, apparently giving orders or instructions, although Pinkie could not make out a sound. It didn't take too long before he returned with four other cats that apparently was the team of specialists Pinkie was promised.
“All good then?” Opal said. “Allons-y! Isn't that what you ponies say?”
“No, I don't think anypony ever says that.”
“Oh,-- well, let’s go then.”
---
Going to the Everfree Forest at night would have been literally impossible without the light yellow eyes of the cats to guide her. She could not see the ground she stepped on and far less the trees and bushes surrounding her on all sides, but the cats kept a slow pace and made sure to show her the safest path between the vegetation. And Opalescence seemed to know the forest well, for just as he had predicted, the moment the first streaks of sunlight shoot up over the eastern horizon, the first thing they hit was the green copper roof of the old stone castle ruin.
“Well, here we are,” Opal announced. “Remember: we have no idea what we're looking for, so report in any book, scroll, tablet, wall painting; even graffiti, anything that has any chance of containing lore or information of any kind. Go together two and two, these old castles are dangerous. Pinkie, you'll go with me, if you please. Now get to it!”
And so the three pairs each entered the castle and started searching. Two cats went down to the basement; two went to the tower; Pinkie and Opal started looking through the main hall.
The last time Pinkie had visited the castle she had been in such a hurry that she had not realized how old and crumbly the place really was. Every step was a new risk of treading on a loose floor-tile and falling, and every bit of debris they moved to look for clues was threatening to unleash an avalanche of crumbled wall and roof. The cats, however, were experts on light and careful movement, and Pinkie made sure to follow their example, so no one got hurt or killed.
The search was all in all rather uneventful, at least for the cat and pony searching the main hall. All evidence suggested that this place had been emptied of all valuables when the castle was first abandoned. More than a little disappointed, but still hopeful of the other teams’ luck, pinkie sat down and sampled a view of the sunlight bathing the treetops as far as her eyes could see. It was a beautiful day, at least by Everfree-standards, and a warm summer breeze was blowing through the holes in the castle walls.
Pinkie was just about to get restless again when her attention was captured by the two cats searching the tower appearing in the stairway.
“There used to be a library in the tower,” one of then reported to Opal. “But all the scrolls are long since turned to dust and the books are ruined by rot. The roof went down probably centuries ago, and most of the walls are gone as well. There were a couple of statues still standing, but nothing of interest.”
“I feared as much,” Opal replied gravely. “Let’s go see if there’s any more luck in the basement.”
The so called ‘basement’ was really more of an underground palace. To get to it, the three cats and the Pony had to open a manhole-cover in a corner of the throne-room, uncovering a spiral staircase of wet, dark-grey stone. Opal lead the way, carrying an oil-lamp in his mouth. Pinkie Pie followed close behind, with the two other cats in the rear. The decent went slow and steady on the slippery steps. Pinkie tried to count them to get her mind off the moss on the walls and the eerie dripping sound that echoed through the tunnel, but she lost count when the number reached three digits; after that she tried to imagine what they might find on the bottom, but the darkness and the dripping and the sound of her hoof beats on the cold stone did not sway her imagination in a very good direction.
When the staircase finally ended the party found themselves in a huge hall of stone, illuminated partly in a warm, red glow by several blazers spread out and lit by the two cat-archeologists. Opal gave them a quick report on what they had found (or rather, what they hadn’t) in the rest of the castle, before they all joined in searching the immense cave-like room.
This part of the castle was in considerably better condition than the main stories, due to not being directly affected by the wind and rain, but a thousand years is still a long time, and the dampness in the hall had been enough to ruin both books and tapestries.
As the group spread out to start the search Pinkie bounced over to a pile of rock and started digging. She wasn’t too sure what she expected to find under a pile of broken statue-pieces and stalagmites, but she wanted to look like she was being useful, and moving rocks was something she had lots of experience with.
It was impossible to tell time underground, but after what felt like an hour or two the cats started talking of giving up. The search had so far been utterly fruitless; the only event being when Pinkie jumped halfway across the hall, startled by a blind albino rat that lived under the pile of rocks she was digging. The cats was at first worried when she did not get back up, but only lay there shaking, until they realized she was laughing, not crying. Just as they were about to call it a day and go home though, Pinkie felt a strange feeling she could not explain, but she suddenly knew what she had to do.
“We need to take down that tapestry.” She said, more to herself than to anyone else.
Opal looked at her curiously, but before he could say anything one of the other cats shot in.
“And why in equestrian would we do that? The thing is faded beyond recognition! There’s no way it can have any value.”
“Exactly!” Pinkie exclaimed gleefully, and gave Opal a wink when she saw the look of comprehension in the cats face. “That means it has probably taken the worst wear and tear from whatever is hidden behind it!”
The cats seemed quite dubious to thinking something would be hidden behind a huge wall tapestry, and perhaps even more to why Pinkie seemed so sure it would be exactly this tapestry out of all the dozens spread all around the hall, but Opal was their leader and he seemed to trust Pinkie, so taking down the tapestry it was.
The thing itself was huge, at least twenty feet high and twice as wide, made of thick wool. Even though the colors were faded completely, the fabric was still largely intact. It took a lot of effort to get the tapestry off the wall, but when it was finally done it was obvious to all that it had been worth it. Painted directly on the stone wall was an image of a landscape consisting of a large, hilly plane with a range of tall mountains in the distance. In the midst of the mountains there was a city Pinkie did not recognize, and the sun was shining down on the city between two peaks. Around the painting there was written something in strange hieroglyphs that Pinkie had seen in a few very old books, but never learned much about at all, and certainly not how to read them.
For a full minute the room was bathed in complete silence as the entire party stood overcome with awe; Pinkie and Opal staring at the wall-painting and the other cats staring at Pinkie Pie. Pinkie noticed Opal’s mouth was moving as if he was reading, and she asked what it said.
“It’s a very old language, I can barely make it out,” he said and paused to concentrate on the reading before he summarized. “It appears that the pony who wrote this was some sort of massager. He was sent from the city in the drawing, he doesn’t say what it’s called, to bring an important message to the Princesses, but when he arrived the castle was already abandoned and the princesses were fighting each other. He left this message assuming it would be found by somepony after the fighting was over and that that somepony would go to the city to get the message in person, since it was too important to write down.”
The cat stopped talking for a while, looking at Pinkie and trying to read her expression, and then he smiled and said:
“You are seriously considering finding this city to retrieve a thousand year old message, aren’t you?”
“Yes sir, I am!” Pinkie said with a grin.
“You are aware, of course, that there is no proof that this pony ever returned to the city, or that anypony still knows that there ever was a message, or indeed that the city is still populated. Not to mention that there’s no reason to believe that this message had anything at all to do with your dream or that magic cave you’re looking for?”
Pinkie looked at Opal for a moment, considering, and then her expression lit up and her grin filled her entire face.
“So you know what city this is and where I can find it?”
She started bouncing and dancing of joy before the cat even had a chance to answer, he just stood there smiling with amusement.
When Pinkie finally calmed down she noticed the other cats had already left, and only she and Opal were left. They started ascending the staircase together and Pinkie asked Opal to tell her everything about the city.
“I cannot tell you everything,” the cat started. “But I’ll tell you what I can. The city in that picture is an ancient pony city, built in Equestria’s first years as a nation. It was a center of learning and education, and it was visited by scholars and traders from all over the world. Throughout the years however, Equestria was plagued by several conflicts and catastrophes, and for every catastrophe the guardians of the city got more and more afraid that the city would fall victim to one, and in the end they decided to close the city for all outsiders.
“It was around that time that my order was founded. Our job was to spread out all over the world to gather and protect knowledge wherever we could find it. But once we left the city we were not allowed back in, and for centuries now even the location of the city has been kept hidden from all but the Masters of the order.”
“But-, but you’re not a master, are you?” Pinkie asked, disappointed. “So you don’t know where the city is?”
“I didn’t, until I saw the map” Opal answered with a smirk. “The picture was clearly drawn from somepony’s memory, but unless that pony has really bad memory it should be fairly accurate. Did you notice the possession of the sun?”
“It was going down beyond the mountains behind the city, wasn’t it?” Pinkie said.
“Well, you’re right about the position,” Opal noted. “But I think you’re wrong about the direction. I think the picture portrays the view of the city at sunrise, and if I’m right it should not be too hard to find. There is a mountain range just outside the Everfree forest, on the opposite side from Ponyville, in that range there is a plateau that used to be quite famous for the fantastic view from the top. It was said that on a clear day you could spot every major city in Equestria from up there. My guess is that the artist of that picture painted the view to the city from this plateau, but the fact that the whereabouts of the city has been hidden this long makes me suspect that it is only visible from the plateau when the sun is in the right position.”
Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chin, thinking.
“So I need to be on this plateau early in the morning? Do you think you could show me the way?”
“My mission from the order is to scout Ponyville and the Everfree forest, I cannot leave,” Opal said. “But I can follow you to the edge of the forest, from there I should be able to point out the way for you.”
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou” Pinkie exclaimed and hugged the cat in her hooves. She then threw the cat upon her back and finished the ascent in a fast trot. “Just tell me where to go, there's no time to lose!”