Twilight Sparkle had never been so excited to see the sky and smell the grass. Galloping out of the tunnel she and Lyra had spent the last thirty-six hours walking through, she leapt face-first into the grass. Pushing her muzzle, into the dirt she let her front legs drag while pushing with her hinds and dragged her chest along the ground. After sufficiently soiling her coat, Twilight stretched her wings, and took off into the sky, and did a barrel roll. Rainbow Dash had taught her well. She laughed like a maniac the whole time.
Lyra was also excited about leaving what she called “The Mausoleum.” She knew it would end the two of them walking out safely into the sun, but Twilight was terrified. Lyra never realized how claustrophobic she could be. Then again they spent thirty-six hours walking through, essentially, a mine shaft.
Dropping to her belly, she rolled onto her back and looked up to the sky. The sun had already set behind the mountain they just hiked through and stars were popping out from the dark blue veil. Closing her eyes, she remembered their talk just before setting hoof into the tunnel.
“Did I call it, Twilight? Or did I call it?”
Twilight gasped. “No way, Lyra. I’m not going to do it. Not a chance in Tartarus.”
“You can trust me, Twilight. It’s safe. There’s no gas, no cave-ins, it’s one-way, so we won’t get lost.”
Twilight interjected, “But it still might be too long. We just ate our seventh day of food, one more day until we will have gone through half of it. If we don’t find more or leave then, we will starve. Can you guarantee this tunnel is less than a days walk?”
“We’ll make it through, Twilight. And there’s a grassland on the other side. More food than we could eat in our whole life! Now come on.”
** ** **
“I brought a glow stick. Shake it to make it light up.” Lyra pulled two out of her saddle pack and held one out for Twilight.
Twilight simply lit her horn up and smirked. Lyra shook her glow stick and place it around her neck as they walked on.
“So you seriously can’t do magic?” Twilight asked.
Lyra stopped dead in her tracks and put all her focus into her horn. Gritting her teeth for the humiliation to come, she tried to make something, anything happen. Not so much as a spark erupted from her horn, but she did feel drained as most unicorns do after performing a lot of magic. She looked to Twilight with pained eyes, hoping she would understand.
“I heard rumors, but I thought you just had a hard time…”
“The doctors think I’m missing some nerves attaching it to my brain. I can still feel with it, but I have little choice other than to live with it. Besides, it makes me unique. I have an appreciation for how Earth Ponies have it, something no ‘true’ unicorn can say.”
** ** **
The tunnel had turned left about two kilometers in, dropping Twilight and Lyra into complete darkness. Lyra had never really been afraid of the dark, but this was different. She started reciting a play in her head she read in high school so often she memorized it, and tried not to look around.
The ceiling was built in an arch, so whoever made it had a decent knowledge of construction and wanted it to last. Both mares kept quiet, knowing the wind didn't blow this far into the tunnel and they didn't want to use the little fresh air they had for passing the time.
That was another thing that concerned Lyra: there was zero ventilation to speak of. Locomotives in Equestria were powered by steam and could not pass through a tunnel this long. It would need to let off pressure now and then, but in a confined space, the passengers, or even the engineers, would be in danger of suffocation. So, how could a train be pulled through all this without killing anyone?
** ** **
Stumbling and hanging their heads low, all Lyra could think of was Nightmare Moon. She was trapped on the moon for a thousand years. It was eternal night there, with the sun still beating down on you, so maybe she and Celestia both got what they wanted.
Twilight told her how she managed to beat the Nightmare, but a few things still didn't add up in Lyra’s mind. What happened to Celestia? Why had Celestia left the Elements at her old castle when she might need them? Was there seriously no one who loved the night a thousand years ago? She had hoped to find answers by digging up the old castle, but she found nothing. No clues, no indication of why Luna did what she did, nothing except what Luna did.
And then there were her dreams. Nightmare Moon was guiding her to an old castle, similar but different to the one she was excavating. Very soon, she hoped to find what Nightmare was telling her about there, until she realized her adventure would begin in Appleoosa, and that dropped all interest in the castle from her mind.
** ** **
Eventually they did start talking, or rather singing. Lyra had long since stopped keeping track of time, and Twilight had long since reminded her that they just ate their ninth day of food. They had no choice but to keep going, which they did without worry.
“Lyra, how much further do we have to go?”
“I don’t know, Twilight. Do you?”
“I think I see light down there. Cover your light.” Twilight let her horn fade out while Lyra stuffed her glow stick in her saddle pack. Lyra thought she did indeed see something, which in itself was a miracle.
“Light! Lyra, we did it! We only have to run and we. Are. Out!” She took off cantering and Lyra was right behind her, racing to a prick of blue in the distance.
Before she ran into the open air, she smelled it: fresh, clean, cool air. Nothing had energized her more than that first breath.
She leapt out from under the last of the mountain--
“Lyra, wake up,” Twilight’s voice snapped her out of her daydreaming and she rolled onto her belly. Looking up she saw the sky had faded from blue to orange. They must have fallen asleep. Twilight Sparkle stood before her, already laden with her saddle packs looking refreshed.
“C’mon! We’re burning daylight! Let’s find this castle of yours!”
Clambering to her hooves, Lyra peered through her sleep-encrusted eyes for her own packs and saw them nearby. Guzzling down both of her canteens of water, she strapped her packs on and taunted Twilight. “Why the change of heart? Don’t wanna go back now?”
“You were right all along, Lyra! Plus, I had some of the grass for breakfast. It is delicious beyond words! You try.” She gestured at the dewy blades beneath their hooves.
Leaning down, Lyra took a bite of the softest, most pure, most filling grass she had eaten in her life. One bite seemed enough to satisfy her, but she took more than one bite. After five minutes of Lyra eating and Twilight smirking at her she leaned back up and wiped her mouth.
“I’m telling you, Lyra, this is magic. This grass, I would swear there’s more to it than what we can see. I wanna grab extra grass on the way back for a nutritionist to check out.” Grinning from ear to ear, Twilight said, “Well, lead the way! I’m so excited.”
** ** **
After several hours of walking, the two mares came across a pile of stone to their left. At which point Lyra stopped and stared at it. Scowling for a moment, she dropped her head and started to chuckle. Her chuckle then became a full, mirthless laugh when she started walking east again. Twilight was getting worried. “Lyra, what’s wrong?”
Through her mad laugh, Lyra told her, “Hehehe. I don’t know, Twilight. It’s just…it’s gone! Whatever was there is gone, and I get the feeling it should be. Hahahe. I always looked at it with contempt in my dreams, and seeing it in person, well, I don’t understand why, but it makes sense.”
“So, how long until we reach the castle?”
“It shouldn't be too much further. I do remember there being a pretty wild river running along the side.”
“Lyra, what do you expect to find there? We have come all this way, but what are you expecting?”
“I have cameras, trowels, a screen mesh, plenty of notebooks for categorization, translation books; the castle is intact, so I expect a few artifacts intact. I didn't mention it, but I was hoping you know a Duplication Spell so we could copy special items and bring them back. To answer your question, I don’t know what to expect. Nightmare Moon guided me out here, and she wants something dug up and known. I said I’m putting my trust in her, and I’m not going to change until she gives me a reason not to.”
** ** **
The sun had reached its peak when Twilight heard the sound of rushing water. Without saying a word, she took flight and looked around. “Lyra! Over the hill to your left. We found your castle!”
Blinking and shaking her head, Lyra Heartstrings turned and galloped to the crest of the hill Twilight pointed out, which ended with a cliff. Looking up, see saw a calm, wide river, and, beyond that, a towering building. Not quite the castle she dreamed of, but it looked similar. The sun was in her eyes blocking most of her view, turning the building into a shade of shadow.
Twilight wrapped her in her aura of purple magic and carried her on her flight across the river. They landed a few steps in front of a gate with lettering in an arch over the entrance.
Midnight Castle
Twilight looked at the arch questioningly. “Is that…Old Equestrian Script?”
“It looks like it. Do you think Equestrian Ponies ever set foot here?” Lyra asked.
“I don’t know. But this place must be old. Celestia told me the Merchant Guild developed Script a short while before Nightmare’s Eclipse. It was made to be a universal alphabet based on phonetics, adaptable to most languages. Before, we were doing hieroglyphics, and there was very little consistency, so writing wasn't common. Script made trade much easier with foreigners, and they adapted the alphabet to their own languages. That’s why much of the world can trace its literacy roots to Equestria. And few races have used writing like that in a long time,” Twilight explained.
Lyra sighed. “After all this time…Let’s go in Twilight. I doubt anyone’s waiting for us.” She expected the iron gate to be rusted shut, but all it took was a gentle push to open to the courtyard. Grass was growing here too, though it looked groomed and thicker than what they encountered earlier.
Both ponies looked around as they approached the main entrance. The court was a simple grass lawn with various trees scattered here and there. Twilight felt she was in a dream; this place had the feeling of being abandoned, but everything was too well-cared for. She stopped dead in her tracks.
“Lyra, go on ahead. I’m going to do something.” Lighting her horn, she searched for the ley lines surrounding her, reaching out for the magic embedded in the environment. The moment she Opened herself, she encountered an explosion of passive magic, shocking her to the point she fell face-down. It was like what she expected from the Elements of Harmony if she Opened herself up to experience them like that.
So much magic pouring out from many directions, all of it waiting for something to happen, waiting for something to affect. There were a number of ley lines that affected other lines themselves, throwing more confusion into the storm. And if a situation of object were to be affected by this hurricane of magic, one object could be changed two ways. And on top of all this, many lines were unfamiliar to her. Not just with how they affected objects, but they that were not unicorn magic to begin with. She had Opened herself to four ram-crafted Sound Stones Zecora had shown her. Rarity was more familiar with them. And she felt herself forced Open when she received her wings.
Climbing to her hooves she looked around and saw nothing had changed, but this place was clearly a mess of magic. Perhaps it was Discord’s home. She never asked where he had come from, and with this much magical confusion, it might explain why he was so chaotic.
“Twilight, you okay?” Lyra reached out a hoof to pull her up.
Shaking her head, she confessed what she had done. “I-I don’t know what’s going on here. There’s too much happening. It’s like trying to hold a conversation in a crowd, but everypony insists on talking to you. It’s...something’s different here.”
“The door's right up there. Mind reaching for my flashlight? We will need to see the walls and I need more light than that glowstick. I got a magnet-powered one.” Twilight fished it out and placed it in Lyra’s open hoof as they climbed the steps.
Opening the doors much too big for them, Twilight saw an entrance hall like in Canterlot Castle, but this was much smaller, and far less grand. The stained-glass windows filled the hall with colored lights, and the first thing the two mares noticed was a painting at the end of the hall. Walking towards it, Lyra shown her flashlight and Twilight lit her horn and pointed it to a tapestry and other portraits on the wall. They displayed beings standing upright, covered with clothing. Some had landscapes full of animals, crops, even what looked like the construction of the castle.
“Holy Tartarus this place is old!” Twilight’s voice broke the silence.
“What?” Lyra turned to look at the painting Twilight was focused on. It had more of the beings standing before two ponies about the same size as them. One was white with a pink mane and tail, one was jet-black with a blue mane and tail. “What do you see?”
Twilight was nearly breathless. “That’s Princess Celestia! Before she took over raising the moon. And right next to her is Luna. This scene is at LEAST one-thousand=and-three years old. The painting may not be, but…I don’t know.”
“I saw Luna in two other paintings on my side. Right over there.” Lyra pointed her flashlight in the direction she saw them. Both had a jet black alicorn standing close to one of the beings. Twilight stepped over to examine them. When she was satisfied, they kept looking at the walls, seeing more beings, and more of Celestia and Luna. The Entrance Hall ended with a wall and another hall going either way forming a T. On the wall hung a portrait of another two beings in a pair of chairs. One had fair brown hair, the other had red. They looked like husband and wife to Lyra from the way they rested their “hooves” on each other.
Twilight stared at it before turning right into a staircase. Lyra went the other way into a room with a piano and another painting on the wall. Something about the painting drew her to focus on the beings in this one too and how they looked at Luna and Celestia. She heard Twilight enter behind her after a while, and something clicked in her mind.
“My gosh! I think they're humans!”
“Humans? Lyra, I know it’s just us, but let’s keep this academic.”
“No. Twilight, seriously, I think we are seeing human beings. They might have even lived in this castle! C’mon, I’ll show you what I mean!”
Running out into the Entrance Hall again, she stopped in front of the picture where Twilight first recognized Celestia and Luna. “Look at them. They are exactly what the fairy tales describe. Standing upright, they all wear clothes all the time,” she said, pointing at the portrait at the end of the hall. “They have five digits on their forelimbs,” Lyra explained, looking Twilight in the eye. “But most telling of all, none of them are bowing to Celestia and Luna. Not. One.”
Twilight looked at the paintings she had seen and thought it over. “N-no. No, Lyra. Whatever they are, they do bow to Princess Celestia and Luna. They're just not showing it in their pictures.”
“Twilight Sparkle, humans never bow to anything. Every fairytale about them says that. Nothing. They are standing in front of the Princesses of the Moon and Sun, and they stand just as tall and proud as they do.”
“Well, there you go. They are arrogant and think they are equal to the Princesses. Nothing like that exists. So they can’t be humans.” Twilight reasoned.
“Twilight, if humans did exist here, this rewrites all the fairytales I heard growing up. This might be what Nightmare Moon sent me here to find. I--we have to search this place more. You’re right, this is academic. We can figure out exactly what they are later. Come on, Twilight! Let’s search!”
Lyra reached into her saddlepack and drew out two cameras, giving one to Twilight as she bounded down the hall to take pictures of the outside. Twilight hung her head.
She already said she trusted Lyra, and this was part of the ride. Human beings! This…this was going to be big!