"Welcome aboard the Daring, Miss Dust." A smartly-dressed mare called out as Desert Dust entered out of the labyrinth of corridors and engine rooms and onto the bridge, escorted by Roughneck. Computers bleeped quietly to themselves, and somewhat stern-looking engineers surveyed their workstations, hooves ready to pull levers and turn valves. The mare which had greeted her stood up from her seat. She was dressed in full uniform, a dark coat and tricorn hat to match. Both with icy-white trim."I am your Captain on this voyage, Miss. I trust you've met my Number One, Mr Roughneck here. A fine specimen you are, darling." She shot a smirk at Roughneck, who smiled bashfully and bowed. " I'm sure most will agree I'm up to the job, besides a few of these boys back here." She waved a hoof over her shoulder, and a few engineers chuckled heartily. "Anyhow, my ship is yours, and I'm at your beck and call." She smirked. Dust smiled warmly, taking the captain by the hoof in a good, strong shake. Dust noted the medals pinned to her coat and hat, gazing in wonderment at the glittering prizes.
"You must be very proud of those. How did you get them?" Dust asked curiously, motioning to the medals. The captain grinned, adjusting her tricorn a little bashfully.
"Oh, just working in the Air Force. Obviously, I've collected a few bits and pieces in our Celestia's service. But anyway.. You should get settled into your quarters. They're up on Deck 21. Corridor F, and door Number 43. In about an hour, you'll be called for and report to the bridge again. There, we'll set a course and get going." The Captain bowed, as Dust retreated past Roughneck, smiling brightly at him. He winked in return.
"Oh, Captain?" Dust called, turning slightly and stopping at the door.
"Aye?" She returned, looking back and raising an eyebrow in question.
"What's your name?" Dust asked with genuine curiosity. The Captain became irritable.
"My mother and father had the cruelty to call me.. They called me.." She sighed, rolling her eyes. "They called me Rhodedendrum." She finished, in a low, septic tone, but returned Dust's grin of silent mirth, waving a hoof as she exited the bridge.
After a wander through the dim, barely-lit corridors and tunnels of the airship, Dust found her room. She was just about to swing open the door when it slammed open, barely missing her by an inch. A grubby, wrinkled old mare wandered out, pulling behind her a bucket of water and a mop on a trolley. She regarded Dust with a grim nod.
"Cistern." The old, scruffy mare grunted out in a raspy voice.
"I beg your pardon?" Dust asked politely, raising an eyebrow. The old mare rolled her eyes.
"Cistern.. My name is Cistern. I'm the cleanin' mare around the ship. You got dust in the corners of your ceiling? I sweep it away. You spilled food on the floor? I mop that crud right up. You blocked your toiled with a bad case of-" Dust cut her off, chuckling.
"I think I got it. Anyway, my name's Desert Dust, pleased to meet you!" She smiled, putting out a hoof to shake. Cistern shook it weakly, then set back to work pulling her trolley down the hall.
"I cleaned up that room, so don't go messying it up." She called out, adding quietly, "I don't get paid enough for this.." Dust giggled, closing over the door and inspecting her quarters. Small, but comfortable. There was a small bathroom set into the back, a kitchen area, some storage space in a large cabinet, and a bunk which could be folded into the wall. Dust swung the bunk down, sitting on the edge and throwing down her saddlebags, along with the hat-box. She took out her mother's journal, flipping to the notes she had written up on the ancient ruin of Solum. The ruin was located within a desert region, but the main portion of the ruin was located beneath the surface. Besides the small section which protruded above-ground, the majority of the actual structure had been swallowed up by the desert due to the gradual erosion of nearby rock formations by the wind, and the subsequent influx of sand. Legends of the ancient civilisations spoke of the ruin being swallowed by the world in an attempt to save all life from the temptations of the Cask of Undeath, a mere story which had no real proof to back it up, only superstition. However, to the older civilisations, these sorts of myths were accepted and passed around as if they were fact. According to Daring Do's notes on the structure, other explorers on-site had mapped out the underground section to a limited extent. It was comprised of a huge octagonal building, with towers protruding outwards in the directions North, East, South and West respectively. It was thought that, before its later purpose of leading the way to the site of Tali, this structure served as both a waypoint and a giant compass to travellers. (Though research into the site had revealed at least two of the buried towers to have collapsed under the weight of the sand and the effects of erosion.) The interior of the central building was described by on-site archeologists to contain a large, age-worn statue of a pony, armoured in what was believed to be the armour of some lost civilisation. The armour's style had still not been encountered anywhere else in the world. All accounts of the site had concluded that there was no map to be found anywhere in the structure, and therefore that it could not contain any clue to the location of Tali. However, Daring Do had quite obviously believed without a doubt that the way to Tali could be found through this ruin, and that other explorers had missed the map; that it must be hidden somewhere inside.
"Miss Dust?" A voice came from outside her door, followed by a knock. Dust answered it, opening the door to reveal an officer. "You're requested on the bridge." He announced.
"I hope I'm not late.." Dust murmured, trotting onto the bridge. The Captain sat in her seat, stern and businesslike. She did manage give a curt nod and a smirk as Dust entered, however.
"Not at all, Miss Dust. Well, now that we're all present and accounted for, we can get this show on the road. Helmsman, we're ready for takeoff. Get this thing off the ground." The stallion at the helm nodded, pulling a lever and asjusting switches as he went.
"Aye, ma'am.. With pleasure." There was an almighty rumbling of engines, and looking out through the wide forward-facing windows, Dust watched the airship slowly begin to drift off the ground, picking up speed in its flight upwards. "Twenty feet.. Thirty feet.. Forty feet.." The helmsman read from a small dial, checking the computer screen beside it for other readings.
"All systems functional, Milady." Roughneck called from the other side of the bridge as he patrolled around, checking the settings and readouts on the various control stations across the bridge. "We're good." Dust relaxed, seeing that the airship was now safely high in the sky. The Captain nodded, contented.
"Straight ahead, then. Engines set to full." She ordered.
Engineers turned valves, yanked down on levers, and soon, pistons and gears and boilers began working at full pelt. The airship belched out steam and gas as it thundered ahead steadily through the clouds, toward the dust-beaten Tan region. The Captain, at ease now the journey was begun, stood from her chair and rejoined Dust and Roughneck, who had finished his patrol. "So, Miss Dust. We have the coordinates set out, and we're on our way. We'll alight at Sul-Menthar, and take a convoy of trucks and cars down to this site to begin the excavation. And talking of the site.." She raised an eyebrow. "What are we looking for when we get there? We roughly know the coordinates, but isn't this thing underground?"
"Actually, there's a small portion of the ruin above-ground." Dust explained, opening her mother's journal from her pocket and showing a sketch of the small, slanted and weather-beaten roof of the original structure poking out of the sand. "We'll have to be careful on entry though. Lower the team in on ropes or something, since we'll be coming in through the roof." The Captain nodded slowly.
"Right. We can arrange that, don't worry. But how far down does the ruin go? How far will a team need to be dropped?" She asked. Dust looked over the notes.
"From my mother's notes.. About a hundred feet. But the structure is slanted and unstable due to pressure from the surrounding sand, so we'll want to be careful getting in and back out again." The Captain looked on, nodding in agreement.
"Right. Well, get back to your quarters for now, and rest up. At this speed we should hit Sul-Menthar by morning, and I'll have you called to the hangar then. From there, we'll board transports and ride to the site." Dust nodded, and turned to leave for her room.
"Dust in the wind. Pitiful." A cold voice spoke out in the dark. Dust looked around, desperately trying to find the source of the voice. The last moment she could remember, she had set her head down on the pillow of her bunk. "She's going the way of your father." A howling wind accompanied the voice, swirling around and bringing with it the scent of long-settled stone dust. Ancient tombs, sealed for a hundred thousand years. Death, if there ever was a smell for it. Ceremonial drums began to beat, heavy and slow. They boomed dully in the back of her mind, making her feel weak and ill. Voices floated on the air, and chanting echoed around whatever huge hall she found herself. A dim light throbbed from somewhere before her, and she stared blankly at it as her eyes adjusted. "The Cask will be her undoing." The voice whispered again. Now, a deep, warped, undulating tone called out to her ears as the object before her came into focus. She had seen this object in her mother's journal, sketched over and over from ancient depictions in carvings, engravings, cave paintings. The Cask of Undeath. A medium-sized box, oblong and standing upright on carven legs. It had two doors set into its front, and in all depictions, it was sealed somehow. Chains, ropes, ceremonial candle wax, nails, even iron boards bolted over the doors. But now, it was unhindered by these. As Dust watched with a mixed sense of curiosity and dread, the doors slowly began to open. A sickening, icy-cold black fog spilled slowly out of the doors, drizzling to the floor like liquid smoke. It stank of decay and malice, and flashes of horrifying blue energy crackled around the dark interior of the cask like miniature lightning. Dust watched in terror as the interior of the unnatural box began to glow with that same bright blue energy. Suddenly, in the flashing of the box, she saw a vision right before her eyes; a split-second image, like a single frame of film. An image of her mother, dead and decayed, standing beside her long-dead father. The two deceased parents were staring at her with empty, eyeless sockets. "Join us." The cold, malicious voice uttered.
Dust sat up in her bunk, staring blindly around her dark quarters as her heart rate returned to normal after its thunderous, terrified beating. Just a nightmare. And a horrible one, at that. Her sheets, as she realised, were soaked with sweat and tears. Sniffling, she slinked out of bed and threw on a simple shirt, and dried her eyes before leaving the room to take a walk. She trotted quietly through the empty metal halls, checking the time on a clock as she passed. Two o'clock in the morning. Dust wandered the halls, taking in the cool, humid air of the ship's corridors as the steam hissed a calming melody through the pipes.
"Nice time for a walk." Came a raspy little voice from somewhere to her left. Dust jumped, her eyes darting to meet the speaker. It was Cistern, sitting in a cramped little broom-closet on a bench, mop in its bucket to her side. Apparently, this closet was her room, as a lot of personal belongings lined the shelf space along the walls. She raised a wrinkled eyebrow slightly, then dropped it again. Too much effort on her part. "Well, what are you doin' up at this hour, huh?" She quizzed, coughing loudly and clearing her throat.
"I, um.. I had a nightmare." Dust explained quietly, still standing in the hall.
"C'mon in, sweetie. Take a seat." Cistern muttered, shuffling aside and patting the now-empty bench space to the side of her. Dust obliged, sitting softly down. "I used to have a lil' filly that would get nightmares real bad. Annoying little foal, she'd never stop cryin'.. But I'd always manage to calm her down." Cistern explained in her dry, grating voice. "She'd smile again if I made my special cocoa." Dust smiled, her cheeks warming.
"Special?" She questioned, kicking her hooves around gently under the bench.
"Oh yeah. Family recipe." Cistern turned to her slowly. "You want some?" Dust looked down at the floor, a big smile on her face, and replied quietly,
"Yes please, Ma'am." Cistern hobbled to her feet, fiddling with a kettle in the corner.
"It's just Cistern. No 'Ma'am' here, just me." She wheezed. Dust giggled softly to herself. Within a few minutes, the little cleaning-mare had brewed some cocoa, and she served it to Dust in a battered old mug. "Careful. Hot." Dust sipped at the warm cocoa, and felt her troubles melt away like ice in a volcanic lake.
"This is.. This is wonderful." She smiled broadly, drinking down the mug in one go.
"Glad someone likes it beside me. My little filly grew up and moved away from home."
"Don't you see her sometimes?" Dust asked, looking over at the old mare.
"Eh.. She wrote to me once. Never again. I guess she found someone more interesting than me. More important." Cistern cackled quietly. "More wealthy." Dust looked down at the empty mug, deep in thought.
"It must be horrible to think that your family don't want to be with you." Cistern stared into space, her eyes dead-looking. Her pursed lips drooped in a permanent frown.
"You get used to it. Besides.. Look at me, kid. No-one wants some old bag like me in their life. I live in the frickin' broom closet here." She sighed heavily.
"Well.. I think you're a lovely person to be around." Dust murmured. Cistern turned slowly to face her again, raising an eyebrow once more. Dust smiled, handing back the empty mug to the aged mare. "Thanks for the cocoa. It really helped me calm down."
"I knew it'd work. It always did for her." Cistern nodded solemnly, taking the mug and sliding it onto an empty spot on the shelf. She looked down at her withered hooves. "So, you think I'm worth something. Guess that makes a change." Dust nodded, smiling again.
"You're a great person. Ponies just don't know it because they don't get to know you."
"I guess that's the curse of bein' at the bottom of the staff food chain." She chuckled. For the first time, Dust saw Cistern smile. "Thanks, kid. You damn well cheered me up." Dust nodded gently. "Anyway, you'd better get back to bed. You're up in a few hours, I overheard from some officers. Diggin' in the sand for some old thing or other." Dust giggled.
"It's a ruin, Cistern." She corrected. Cistern shrugged, still smiling.
"Eh.. Just old things to me. And that's sayin' something." Dust shook her head, still giggling as she went out into the hall. "Oh, and sweetie? Come back anytime you like. Cocoa's on the house." Cistern called. Dust nodded silently, smiling and giving the cleaning mare a wave as she trotted back to her room. The old mare shook her head, sitting alone in the broom closet. "Well I'll be damned." She uttered. "First person to talk to me kindly on this rust-bucket."