“Magnificent, absolutely magnificent….”
Time Turner stood in awe, his mouth hanging slightly, as he walked through the archway. He took a moment to take everything that surrounded him. Intricate patterns carved in cold, gray stone, columns standing tall despite there being no roof left to hold up, still surprisingly intact arched windows. And vines. Lots and lots of vines.
“The Everfree really seems to have done a number on the place though. Wonder why no one ever bothered to try and find it,” he said to himself.
“Because not every pony thinks running off into the most dangerous parts of Equestria is a good idea Turny.”
The introduction of the new voice caused Time Turner to snap back to the reality around him. There were about a dozen other ponies scurrying about. Some were taking photos of all the things that he had just looked at it in awe. Others were mumbling to themselves as they were taking notes. But none of them were a unicorn with a light-blue coat staring at him with an expression of disappointment and rage that only foals that were in trouble with their mothers would normally see.
“Oh, Mi-Minuette, how lovely to see you. When did you get here? I love what you’ve done to the place. You’re in charge of this whole thing right?”
He gave a slight, toothy grin in hopes of defusing the situation, but unfortunately it seemed that his charm had no effect. Her eyes were still boring into his very soul, and that scowl remained completely unmoved.
“Your ‘vacation’ lasted over two weeks more than it should have. You didn’t send any letters or anything. The only reason we knew anything about you is because Derpy ran into you during her vacation.”
“Well I sort of got sidetracked and, well, you know me,” he replied, adding a slight shrug to his smile. Still no effect.
“Yes, I know. You helped that Trixie mare, and that was probably a good thing,” Minuette replied right before poking a hoof right into his chest, knocking him right onto his rump, “But that still doesn’t excuse what you did.”
“No, no it doesn’t I guess,” he said, nervously looking straight into the unicorn’s eye. By now his grin was plastered onto his face. He knew there was no point, but that smile was about the only thing he had to hang onto right now, “But I’m honestly not sure what else I can say…”
Minuette gave a slight smile, though it really didn’t improve anything about the situation.
“I think you know exactly what I want you to say,” she replied.
Time Turner thought for a few seconds, during which Minuette’s face turned from the creepy mix of a scowl and smile into one of confusion and disbelief.
“Oh, right! I get it,” he finally stated, scooting backwards a so Minuette was no longer pressing on him as he stood up. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes so he could say this clearly and without the fear-inducing look of an angry Minuette.
“Minuette….I’m sorry, and I will promise to never do that again.”
There was a moment of silence, but before he could open an eye to see what was going on he found himself wrapped up in a lung-crushing hug that forced both his eyes open.
“There, was that so hard?” Minuette said, letting off the pressure slightly so she could actually look at the now gasping for breath Turner.
“Look, I know you really want to help ponies, and that’s cool and all, but just write us a letter once in a while so we know you’re alright and haven’t been kidnapped or something.”
Time Turner rolled his eyes.
“You get kidnapped one time and…” he started to say before a glare from Minuette shut him up, “But I’ll make sure to let you all know before I go off on a random adventure.”
With the two of them now reconciled, Time Turner found himself freed from the hug just in time to see a gray-coated pegasus mare and a pale-purple coated unicorn filly making their way into the room.
“It looks like you two made up now, huh?” the pegasus said as she landed near Time Turner and Minuette, the foal joining a second later.
“Yes Derpy, everything is alright now…wait, were you watching the whole time?” Time Turner replied.
“Yep,” Derpy replied, smiling.
“Then why didn’t you intervene?”
“I sort of was on Minuette’s side,” she said with a shrug.
“Well, there won’t be a need to be on her side in the future because I promise that next time I go romping about Equestria with a random stranger I will send a letter first,” Time Turner responded, the grin that was once a shield now being an actual statement of humor.
“That’s all we’re asking for,” Minuette replied, finally showing a bit of a smile herself, “Anyway, enough of all this. I got a castle to show off.”
With that the whole group of them began to walk towards the center of the room. Now free to look around again, Time Turner took the moment to admire the statue in the middle of the room. It didn’t look all that impressive at first glance; giant stone ball on a platform with six spokes sticking out, with that entire structure one top of a platform-pyramid thing. But the majesty of it came from what it once held.
“I still can’t believe the Elements of Harmony were just sitting here the whole time,” Derpy said as one of her eyes focused on the statue, the other lazily drifting about.
“Yeah, it’s pretty neat. Just wish I could have found this place before they got transformed into jewelry pieces and locked up in Canterlot,” Minuette said with a sigh before perking right back up, “But at least I still get to be in charge of excavating the site. Who knows what other things we’ll find lurking around here!”
“What I can’t believe is you actually got the job. How did you ever convince the Academy that excavating the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters fell under the jurisdiction of a ‘Ponyville historian’?” Time Turner replied.
Minuette looked at him with a smug smile.
“Easy enough. Five citizens of Ponyville found the place, and Twilight moved here so she counts as one as well. It’s also closer to Ponyville than anywhere else, and surprisingly there’s no ‘Everfree Forest historian’ position at the Academy…”
“Because no one but me is crazy enough to go in right?” Time Turner interrupted.
“You and Daring Do!” the foal added in.
Time Turner just laughed, “Right Dinky, just me and Daring Do. Speaking of which, did the new book come out while I was gone?”
Dinky looked down at the ground, “Yeah…but it’s been checked out every time mommy takes me to the library so I haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet.”
“Hey Dinky, I got an idea,” Minuette said, bending down just a little so she could talk to Dinky face to face, “Why don’t you go talk to the stallion over there by all those boxes. He’s in charge of all our stuff, and if you ask nicely he’ll give you your own archaeologist hat so you can be just like Daring Do.”
Dinky looked up at Minuette, eyes lit up bright, “Really!”
Minuette nodded, and off the little foal went to get her hat.
“Looks like I might have some competition in the future,” Minuette said, giving a small laugh.
“Yeah, she really likes those books, and she really wanted to come up here. She even convinced Miss Cheerilee to let her skip class today in return for a report. I was still a little hesitant though, but, well, look at her,”
The group of them looked over towards Dinky and the stallion, which had just finished placing a hat on the still beaming Dinky.
“Looks like she’s having a blast,” Time Turner said. Derpy smiled, but a slight sigh escaped her mouth as well.
“Yeah, which is why I decided ask you if I could bring her up here. She’s still having some trouble making friends at school, and a couple of the foals have been bullying her, so she deserves at least a few days like this.”
Minuette’s scowl slowly started to return.
“Bullying her? Does Miss Cheerilee know about this?”
Derpy nodded.
“Yeah, and she stops it when she can, but they just mess with her after school when Miss Cheerilee isn’t around. Dinky doesn’t act like it bothers her, but I’m still worried…”
Minuette was about to say something, but Time Turner interrupted.
“Well for now, let’s just give her a good time here and we can try and figure something out about that later, okay?”
Minuette glanced over at Dinky, who was now somehow in the possession of a magnifying glass and was looking at the base of a column. There was still a slight look of anger on Minuette, but at the sight of Dinky playing archaeologist she relented.
“Fine. I guess we can show her one of the newer rooms we’ve been exploring.”
Derpy gave Minuette a hug.
“Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
Letting go, Derpy called out to Dinky.
“Dinky, come on. Auntie Minuette is going to show us...uhm…”
She paused for a moment, looking at Minuette while Dinky ran up to the group.
“What room are we going to anyway?” Derpy asked, realizing she hadn’t gotten that information
“Yeah, where are we going Auntie Minuette?” Dinky added, looking eagerly up at the unicorn. Minuette returned the look with a smile of her own.
“We’re going up to the throne room, right up to where Nightmare Moon was defeated.”
After several minutes, the group of them had almost reached the throne room. Luckily, the walk was rather easy. The excavators had done a rather good job at restoring some of the walkways and bridges of the castle, or at least putting something walkable across the gaps. Yet, from the looks of the place, that was about all they had done so far. In fact, now that he thought about it, their little group was the only pony presence in this part of the castle at all. This oddity, Time Turner thought, obviously needed to be addressed.
“Minuette, if you don’t mind me asking, why aren’t there any teams exploring up here?”
The blue unicorn let out an exasperated sigh.
“Because everyone else feels uncomfortable up here, like there was something watching them. You know, silly superstition stuff like that.”
Time Turner arched an eyebrow at the explanation.
“Silly superstition stuff you say?”
Minuette returned the look with a roll of her eyes.
“There’s nothing going on up here, I checked. I did an entire scan of the room and there wasn’t anything magical or mysterious here. Probably just them freaking out over this being the room where Nightmare Moon was beaten.”
Minuette could tell by the slight twitch at the corner of Time Turner’s mouth that signaled his attempt to suppress a grin he wasn’t fully convinced, but she wasn’t going to try and persuade him any further. She could at least count on him to not run off at the first sense of uneasiness. In fact, he was usually running towards. An annoying trait at times, but at least now it would be useful.
“So are you sure there aren’t any ghosts or anything Auntie Minuette?” the young foal companion said.
“Nope, nothing at all,” Minuette replied. Dinky simply let out a sad, little, “Awwww,” in response.
“But the good news is, since the supposed adults don’t want to come up here, you got the entire place to explore, untouched. I’m sure you’ll find something really cool if you look hard enough,” Minuette added, brightening Dinky right back up.
“Yeah, I’m going to find some lost treasure or, uhm…yeah, treasure!” Dinky said, racing forward up the last few steps and into the hall.
“Muffin, wait up!” Derpy responded, beginning to flap her wings when Minuette placed a hoof on her back.
“Relax, she’ll be fine. Like I said, I’ve already been up here and there wasn’t anything but an empty chair and some carved rocks. Although, let me tell you something about those rocks. You see….”
-----
As her mother was being lectured on the intricate design patterns of pre-Celestia Reign column carvings, Dinky was busy inspecting every inch of ground with the magnifying glass the nice stallion had given her. She was looking for any clues for treasure, or ancient secrets, or any of the other cool things she read about in her Daring Do books. Sure, she knew that there was more to being an archaeologist than exploring ruins; Auntie Minuette was glad to inform her of all the book reading and stuff. But since she was in a ruin, well, that meant there had to be some treasure or something right?
“Dinky Hooves, Equestria’s greatest explorer, continued to search for clues for the lost treasure of the Royal Pony Sisters,” she mumbled to herself as she took a close look at the throne located on the far end of the room, “But all she could find was some dirty old cloth.”
With no luck, Dinky Hooves sat down on the ground, wondering where else she could look. Other than her mamma talking with her friends, there really didn’t seem to be much else in the room. As she pondered what to do, her eyes suddenly started to twitch at what sounded like whispering.
“Is someone there?” Dinky said.
Come to the window my child…
“Why?” the foal said, looking around for the source of the voice.
You are searching for a lost treasure, and I can show you one.
“Uhm, okay then?”
Nervously she got up and began to walk towards the windows behind the throne. While she wasn’t sure about all of this, she remembered Auntie Minuette had said there was nothing strange or dangerous up here. Still, she was ready to run if something happened. Time Turner was a very good teacher about running from danger.
As she approached the windows, a sparkle on the ground caught her eye. Looking down, she found herself looking at a little crescent moon shaped necklace, fit just for her size. With her magnifying glass, she could even make out the intricate carvings that made it look just like the surface of the moon. There was even a slight glow to it that reminded her of the moon at night.
“Wow, pretty…” she said, picking up the necklace, “I bet Auntie Minuette is going to be real excited about this!”
But why do you want to give it her? You found it, you deserve to keep it right?
Dinky hesitated before responding.
“But Auntie Minuette would say something like belongs in a museum…”
Awww, come on now dear, why allow such beauty to be wasted in a display. Such a thing of beauty needs to worn and shared.
Dinky looked back at down at the necklace. It was really pretty, and it looked like it was just the perfect size for her. Even now she could imagine wearing it to school. All the other foals would stand oohing and awing, and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would be so jealous of her. Their jewelry didn’t even glow! But still, this was Auntie Minuette’s site, and if she took this without asking that would be like stealing right? And that would make not just Minuette sad but her mamma as well…
“Who are you anyway?” Dinky asked, hoping to get a few answers before she did anything.
Why a simple friend my dear. If you want, you can call me Starry Night
Having a name to the voice made Dinky feel a little better, but she still was still a little nervous about the whole thing. And why did the voice call her ‘friend’?
“Why can’t I see you then Starry Night?”
There was a slight pause before the voice picked up.
Because, my dear child, I’ve been alone for so long that I’m very shy. But when I saw you I wanted to try and reach out. Please, consider the necklace a gift if it makes you feel better. A gift from a new friend…
When put it that way, Dinky couldn’t just hand the necklace over. After all, you didn’t just give away a gift a friend gave you, right? And she felt sort of special after being told that this lonely, mysterious mare had reached out to her for a friend.
“Okay then, I’ll keep it,” Dinky said as she put the necklace underneath the archaeologist hat.
“So are we really friends now?” Dinky asked the voice, unsure to how truthful the claim was.
We shall be more than just friends, child. We are going to be the best of friends…forever.