A week later
Twilight took a loot a her chalkboard, which she used to write down random ideas she had been having. Theory about aliens invading was... not looking so sane anymore. If they were after water, why invade? If the theories about space were true, there should be enough water to fill several planets. Not to mention the fact that creatures clearly had water on their own. Minerals? If so, where were the mining machines? Slaves? Nopony had been forced into slavery, in fact, these aliens had made sure that ponies would not go anywhere near their machines or any work they do.
She shook her head. She was starting to make even less sense than the conspiracy theorist. She returned to her papers and books, deciding to take another look at the "Return of Ancients" theory. So far, it was only one that had not created more problems than solved. Mainly because it had a one giant hole in it, "Who?". If she could find out who these creatures were, she could find a plausible reason for the return.
"Let's see..." She muttered to herself as the picked up Ancient Myths of Griffins and opened it from her bookmark.
And on the fourth year of reign of Holy Father Grimfeather, Lord of High Rock, Lord of Featherpeak, Lord of Mystic Forest, Protector of Four Valleys... She decided to skip the long list of tittles and King of All That Is, did The Demons of The Night rise from their slumber and haunt the nights of Free Folk. Thus, in His infinite wisdom, did The King say, "Thus shall Free Folk not fear, for the Night shall be devoted to the Rest, and the Rest shall be sacred. For such, it is King's duty to banish the demonkind." And lo and behold, did The King raise a mighty army of Palladins to challenge the demons.
The King and His Army flew to city of Demons, great towers of Iron and Rock and struck them down. As the demons fled before the power of Light, did The King proclaim: "And thus shall the day and night belong to Free Folk and may the Demons be banished into black sky", And so great was The Kings power, that massive ships raised from the ground to swallow the demons and took them into blackness of eternal night sky.
Problem with reading these texts was that she honestly could not tell what the writers had made up and what had really happened. She knew that "Holy Father Grimfeather", one of the first kings of Griffins and the founder of The First Empire of High Rock had zero magic in him. That much she knew from surviving writings of his enemies, who while vilifying him, made it clear that magic his army used came from court wizards, who were not Griffins. Grimfeathers own historic never mentioned these court magicians, always placing all glory on him. To point where his bloodline was considered holy until Alsian Slave Rebellions.
Still, there was small seed of plausibility in the story. Minotaurs had similar version, so did Catsmere. Diamond Dogs of Great Burrows also had similar stories, except in those they did not drive away "Greedy Demons" but rather stole their wealth. Still, it seemed that around certain time these was global appearance of "Night Demons" who appeared, fought with locals and left. Even the description of their cities, "Towers of Iron and Rock", was consistent.
She sighed and put down the book. She had been working on this too long, it was time to take a break. Maybe she should visit Wrecking Wrench, see if he had made any progress. Taking a turn to the newly constructed "The Vault", as the other had named it, she found herself looking down at the large underground hall.
While she agreed that the previous shelter had been rather cramped, this new one seemed... excessive. of course, that was only her opinion. Wrecking Wrench has put forth the suggestion and she had authorized it, not being sure what his team might actually need. She started walking towards his office, but saw him talking to a pegasis in the hallway in opposite direction.
"Sink that thing in lead or something. Ask unicorns, they know this stuff. I don't want any more casualties from this." Wrecking Wrench said, waving his hoof. The pegasis nodded and flew off to carry out the instructions.
"Something wrong?" Twilight asked as she walked to him.
"G'day mam. Yeah, remember that weird glowing thingy we found? Turns out everyone who had handled it are now sick and have started to develop tumors and other nasty things. Those who handled it most are in the worst condition." Wrecking Wrench said.
"Oh..." Twilight said. "Was it toxic?" She asked
"Darned if I know. Doctords said that the symptons are similar to those who venture into Great Empty without protective gear."
"Damn it. we already have too many casualties, especially after that ammo incident." Twilight said.
"Aye. We are keeping them in cool now, so no chance of them going off like that anymore." Wrecking wrench said. "Still, I am ordering that thingy quarantined." He continued "I don't know what it is and what it does, it's too dangerous to deal with. I am moving the entire First Engine away from Canterlot."
"I'll speak to Princess and have her set up some safe place for it. Maybe have separate group taking a look at with greater precautions."
"That would be the best."
"Wait." Twilight suddenly said. "The Great Empty? The massive glass desert? You mean that one? The one that has always been assumed to be failed attempt to cast a world altering spell?" Twilight asked, something clicking in her mind.
"Yeah, why so?"
"I think I just found the link I need..." She said and ran back to her office, leaving confused Wrecking Wrench behind.
Back at her office, Twilight wiped her original idea off from the chalkboard. She drew a line across the board, starting from the earlier records of world history and ending with founding of Equestria. Then she marked down each and every major disaster or conflict written down, as well as any time periods that mentioned possible Ancients. Sudden emergence of the first Zebra culture, which seemed to suddenly jump from "live in small tribes" to "build pyramids" overnight.
Soon, she could see it. Formation of The Great Empty. Griffins driving away Night Demons. Diamond Dogs stealing the wealth of Dark Ones. Sudden formation of First Kingdom of Catsmere out of numerous tribes without clear cause and effect, Sudden collapse of Ashlak civilization. It all happened within 50 year span. Something happened, but what? Ashlak left no clues. Catsmere text only mentioned "Lord Protector" uniting the tribes. So what had happened to suddenly bring this force of change into the world?
And more importantly, were these events truly connected to current events or was she grasping for straws?
She needed more information. Something, anything. She quickly started to pour over her books and reports again. There had to be something that would mention something. If even one of these cities of Iron and Rock had survived, even in ruins, maybe she could have someone study them? With luck, there could be clues in those cities. Of course, if they were considered to be demonic, they had been most likely been sealed away or destroyed. If they were sealed, they would most likely be forgotten.
She wondered why Equestria had curiously been saved from this strange assault on the world. She had found no traces of strange emergence or other events.
"Hmm... Only one with any sort of guess over whenever something happened would be someone who lived in the ancients times... and only ones alive would be Princesses." Twilight muttered. "Hmm..." She picked up a pen and paper and prepared to write down, before setting them down again. "I am an idiot. I am at Canterlot, I can just walk to them." Shaking her head, she stood up and headed to the throne room.
While originally located in the dungeon, the new research facilities had been build into the base of one of the towers, except for the Engineering Department which had been moved fully underground. The trip to the throne room didn't take long. As she was about to walk in, one of guards stopped her.
"I'm sorry, but Princesses is currently discussing the strategy with generals." The guard said, looking apologetic.
"That is okay. I can wait until they are ready."
"It should not take long, they are-" The guard was interrupted as the door opened and generals walked away, some giving her greetings and others ignoring her.
She had grown used to this already, some generals refused to believe that the study of aliens was waste of time, that "good old bashing" would solve the problem. As Wrecking Wrench has said after one of the doubting generals had visited, "Denial is strong with this one". In the end, however, if Princess told them to jump, they would merely ask "How far?"
"Well, looks it's over. You may go in." The guard said and stepped aside. Twilight thanked him and entered the room. She saw Luna and Celestia talking about the plans. She coughed to get their attention. Celestia turned to her.
"Hello, Twilight. You got something?" She asked.
"Yes. I wanted to ask you something, since there seems to little to no records of those times. About 2000 years ago, there was a chaotic era, during which many things happened. I wanted to ask about those. Did anything... strange or colossal happen in Equestria 2000 years ago?"
"Hmm, not on top my mind. Why do you ask?" Celestia said.
"Well, there seems to be have sudden appearance of 'demons' in the world and lots of other strange events. Like formation of The Great Empty, the glass desert that somehow kills all who enter it." She said, gaining a nod from Princesses "Collapse of Ashlak culture. All these happened in 50 years, all over the world, with numerous surviving cultures referring to 'demons' appearing or other creation myths starting to pop up around this time."
"Interesting, but how would it help us?" Luna asked.
"Well, you remember my Return of Ancients theory? I think I found possible link. Description of these demon cities is 'Towers of Iron and Rock'. Now, what do alien buildings in the occupied territories look like?"
"Mix of Steel and Concrete. Iron and Rock." Celestia said.
"It does seem to fit." Luna added.
"Yes, however, most likely these cities were either sealed away or destroyed. If we could find ruins of these cities, we could perhaps find some clues about these creatures." Twilight said.
"Hmm... I can't remember anything, really." Celestia said. "What about you, Luna?"
"No, neither do I. Not at least anything for sure. There was the myth of Glowing City, was there? But that happened long before us." Luna said.
"Yes, but we thought it was merely another name for Crystal Kingdom, right?" Celestia said, then a look of realization over her face. "No, wait... the original myth was that it was in north. Beyond glacier."
"Glowing City?" Twilight asked. Luna turned to Twilight.
"There was a myth of Glowing City, a city that defied the Dark and challenged it. That they defied even the Sky by reaching for it. Eventually, it was consumed by the Dark and unicorns, fearing for the Dark to expand from it, sealed it in ice. If I remember the myth correctly, it's supposed to be somewhere in the north, beyond Fortress Maximus." Luna told.
"Then if I may, I wish to launch an expedition to find this city. With luck, we could learn something from it."
1 week later
"Twilight... next time you suggest a trip, tell me where we are going." Applejack said, shaking in the cold snow. "If Ah had known we are going to White Glacier, Ah would have stayed home."
"Sorry Applejack, but you were only one that could come with me. I wanted someone I know I can trust to take care of all this other stuff." Twilight said apologetically.
Two of them had, alongside a small team, total of 24 ponies with a mix of unicorns, pegasis and earth ponies, ventured beyond Fortress Maximus, the northernmost outpost of Equestria. Nobody had really explored these regions and Twilight wondered if they had been too rash in their desire to act. 2000 years could easily hide any city in these areas, not to mention destroy it. However, they had to give it a shot. They were currently checking an area 300 kilometers from the Fortress, known as White Glacier due to it's white coloration.
"People who named this place must 'ave been really lacking in imagination, Ah mean, White Glacier? Everywhere is white here!" Applejack complained. "What's taking them flyboys so long?"
"They need to carry unicorns to see if there is anything under the ice. It's going to take some time. Though they should arrive soon." Twilight said.
"Ah just hope it ain't going to storm soon. Ya never know in these parts." Applejack said, while walking to the exit of the tent. "Well, here they come." Twilight and Applejack walked outside to meet the survey teams. 10 Pegasus/Unicorn pairs with Unicorns specializing in earth magic. They had been already been given a cup of hot chocolate.
"Anyone found anything?" Twilight asked. A chorus of negatives brought her hopes down, until one of the Unicorns spoke.
"Though we did find an entrance to cavern, cavern which seems to go deeper than our scanning spells can penetrate."
"Really?" Twilight said, receiving a nod.
"Yes. We saw something in the ice and investigated. It seemed like a some sort of tower, just the remains of the top side. We looked around and found the cave."
"What do you think Applejack." Twilight asked, turning to Applejack.
"Well, if ya story is true and Ah were trying to seal something away, Ah would tuck it somewhere deep." She said. "Ah say it's worth the shot."
"Alright, rest today, tomorrow we will head to this cavern." Twilight said, receiving a mixed chorus of hurrah and groan.
"Should be somewhere here..." An unicorn said, looking around. Above them, group of pegasis were flying, trying to see the entrance. Twilight wished they had been smart enough to give the survey teams something to mark their findings, flags or something.
"Over here!" One of the pegasis shouted, pointing underneath herself.
The group walked over there and found the remains that had been mentioned yesterday. It formed a four-sided pyramid, before stretching downwards. Twilight could not see how deep the structure went, expect that it was badly damaged in numerous locations. She guessed that another hundred years or so, they would be eroded to point where one would not be able to recognize them.
With the landmark now found, the group quickly moved towards the location of the cavern entrance, soon finding it. Unicorns cast light spells to allow them to see and the group began to descend into the cave. The cave was not very wide, only allowing two ponies side by side, but it was high enough to allow them to walk upright.
Icicles dotted the cave, which Twilight found weird. These areas should be cold enough through out the year, not allowing enough time for ice to melt and form them. There had to be something in the cave that still produced occasional wave of warm air. Unless, of course, these icicles were extremely old.
Twilight also wondered why the cave was still accessible. It should have been buried under all the ice and snow, closed up. Unless the magical wards were made to allow pilgrimage or unicorns to return to strengthen the wards? She couldn't say, not before she could confirm that this tunnel did really lead to Glowing City and Glowing City was, indeed, an Ancient city.
The tunnel was not the most straight one, though it did slowly travel downwards. There were many sharp turns, cross roads, branching tunnels. Still,strangely enough, these tunnels all seemed to lead towards the same center point. Twilight noticed that they had traveled a quite long distance downward and began to wonder exactly how long the tower had been.
In the end, after two hours of walking, they came across a sure sign that this was what they had been looking for: A half-functioning magical shield ward.
"Well, Ah think that confirms that this place has something to hide." Applejack said. "So, uh, what now?"
"Well, the spell is barely working anymore." Twilight said. "Must have taken entire month of non-stop casting to allow it to survive this far. I bet it would not even hold if someone walked against it. It does keep the tunnel open, barely, though burst of heat." She said, walking towards the shield. She placed her hoof against it and just as she had expected, shield collapsed in a flash.
"Well, that was anti-climatic." Someone said. Twilight didn't say anything, though she did agree. She had expected more. Then again, this was a 2000 year old ward. Even the best magics would deteriorate over time. Luna's prison was a testament to it. The fact that this ward had been up for 2000 years spoke greatly of those who set it up. The group continued their way. After two turns, they knew that their trip had not been in vain. They stood over a ledge looking over their target.
The Glowing City was in front of them.
Well, more specifically, what was left of it. Parts of it had collapsed, icicles had fallen over it, snow everywhere, but it was a city. A city of Iron and Rock. On closer look, it was should have been Steel and Concrete, but Twilight didn't hold ancient ponies at fault for not knowing the difference. Large buildings rose and were cut off. Highest one was still higher Canterlot castle and even that had been cut off at some point in time, with rest of it being in ruins next to it. Interestingly, none of of the towers reached the cavern ceiling, but Twilight could make out outlines of structures, frozen in the ice inside the cavern ceiling. The spell must have not reached all the way to the top of the structures for ice to form.
"Well Ah be." Applejack muttered. "So, shall we go and take look?"
"Yes, right, of course." Twilight said, breaking off from her awe.
Trip down to the ground level too little bit more time, as the pegasis flew non-fliers one by one, with Twilight and other unicorns teleporting those they could. Approaching the city, it was soon clear that text would not have survived well. The few posters that were still up were washed out and could not be read.
"Buck it, I had hoped for more." Twilight said.Applejack gave her a nudge and pointed towards a plaza.
"Take a look at that." She said. Twilight turned around and saw a monument. Then she hugged Applejack with all her might.
"Applejack you are awesome!"
It was rather simple, just a stone slap. However, it had text on it. Next to it was a smaller stone slap with some text, with another protective ward protecting two monuments. However, what made Twilight hug her friend, was a simple picture on the larger slab.
It was a picture of a pony... holding it's hoof against a hand of an alien.
"I believe this confirms the Return of the Ancients theory." One of the unicorns said. "Also, miss Sparkle, I am no doctor but I believe your friend requires some air. She is starting to turn blue." Twilight released Applejack, which earned her both laughs from others and a stern 'think next time' look from Applejack.
"Let's take a look at it." Twilight said. The group walked to the monument. Twilight studied the text. "Hmm, definitely the language of the aliens. Grammar has clearly shifted, as well as language... but I can recognize most of the words." She said after a while. "Though I still do not understand it." She walked to other side and gasped.
"Old Tongue, come over here." She said. The earth pony walked over to the other side. "It's old Equestria, isn't it? you know how to translate it, right?"
"Yes, seems like dialect spoken by pegasis... Let's see... Apologies if this sounds weird, but I am translating on fly." The earth pony said.
"Here met the Chieftain Sky Ranger and Chieftain Laina, chieftain of the Glowing City, cometh they from the Dark, forth step by... no that's wrong... to meet in peace and co-operation, for they cometh not here, yet still call it home, friend exist offer Sun damn it why couldn't these guys write in sensible sentences?" The earth pony said, shaking his head.
"In this place, Friendship offered and accepted. To celebrate, this stone stand proud.. That's the general gist of it. There seems to some more, but we should copy this all down and fully translate it."
"Hmm, if it' supposed to symbolize friendship... then perhaps the text on the other side is the same, but in alien technology?" Twilight wondered. "Makes sense. What about the smaller one?"
"Let's see,,, For friend, now gone, thy city not lost shall, protect till thy promised return. That's it. Seems like original inhabitants left but promised to return."
"Well, this was a jackpot." Applejack said. "Kinda convenient too."
"Yes, but I am not looking at gift turtle in the mouth." Twilight said. "Old Tongue, copy these text as they are, we translate them later. Make sure you get them exactly as they are. Danger Rover, you stay and here and help him. Everyone else, let's take a look around. Return here in, let's say, an hour."
Group nodded and Twilight joined Applejack as they set off to explore the city.
"So, what do you guess this place was?" Applejack asked. They had entered a building that had a strange symbol next to it, a sort of shield.
"I don't know. Let's look around." Twilight responded.
Two entered a large lobby. As with everywhere else, it was empty apart from few furnishes here and there. Snow covered one of the windows completely and one of rooms had caved in. Since there was nothing particular of interest, two continued further into the building. After several turns, they across a hallway blocked by steel bars.
"Bars? Here?" Applejack asked. "Must be something they wanted to protect in here." She tried the gate and it opened. "Can't be anything left, the door is not locked." Two continued further. They found a rows of obvious cells.
"Cells? A sort of dungeon?" Twilight wondered aloud.
"Could be. Though kinda flimsy. Look at those windows, only some weak net over them." Applejack responded.
"They might have once had glass over them and that net seems like it was once well maintained steel." Twilight looked more around, noticing something in the corner. "Hmm, what's that?"
"Ah dunno, looks like a camera. Though nothing Ah hav' ever seen. Why is it suspended like that?"
"To keep eye on the prisoners?"
"Maybe. Ah would not know."
Two returned back to hallway they had come through and took another turn. They found a large room with numerous desks and what seemed to very broken down machines.
"Incredible. Even 2000 years ago they had technology we could not imagine." Twilight said, looking over one of the boxes that had it's wiring exposed.
"Well, it hasn't aged well. Most of these are pretty obviously broken beyond repair." Applejack commented, slightly tapping one of the boxes and making it fall over and breaking into several pieces. "Yeah, Ah reckon these things have had better days."
"Well, they are 2000 year old." Twilight said, trying to open one of the closets in the room. However, she found that it was locked. "Huh. Applejack, wanna give it a try?"
"Sure thing." A quick kick to the frame and the closet opened, revealing several weapons clearly alien origin. "Well Ah be."
"These look... I don't know, both more advanced, yet at the same time less advanced that those carrier aliens these days." Twilight said, picking one of the sleek, almost cylindrical guns. "I wonder if it works..." She muttered.
She placed the gun on a table, holding it in place with her magic and trying to operate the trigger with her hoof. Applejack moved behind her and watched her attempts to get the gun work. After few tries, she managed to get her hoof in good enough position to operate the trigger. However, the trigger refused to move.
"Stuck. Should have guessed." Twilight said, leaving the gun. "Well, I guess this was some sort of outpost. Maybe militia headquarters?"
"Or maybe this is police station. Ah mean, they got cells and all." Applejack suggested.
"Why would they need these sort of weapons?" Twilight asked.
"Good point. Let's look somewhere else."