//------------------------------// // Chapter One // Story: Twilight Sparkle and the Tomb of the Sun // by UhOh //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle watched in awe as the great barrier that had stymied her at every turn for the last eight months slowly faded from existence. She pranced in place, nearly beside herself with joy. Everything was finally coming together! She had devoted seven years of her life to solving this mystery, and at long last she would be able to return home and prove the naysayers wrong. While the notion of scholastic superiority was a sweet one, it would be even better to go home and see her family again. All that was left was to take the first step. The unicorn swallowed nervously as the weight of the moment hit her all at once. After all, not many ponies got to say they reached the pinnacle of their life’s work before they turned twenty-seven. With a shaking hoof and no small amount of trepidation, Twilight stepped out of the dank, oppressive, pest-infested forest and through the gates into the silent sepulcher of knowledge. The adventurer walked into the structure, head held high, bathed in a gentle, rose light from her horn. Each step was carefully made to keep from disturbing any of the archaeological wonders she was certain to set eyes on shortly. Many legends spoke of The Repository, a book that contained the sum of all mortal knowledge past, present, and future. Most serious academics considered this to be nothing more than a myth or a fairy tale scholars told each other of an impossible dream, but Twilight Sparkle thought otherwise. After all, hadn’t those same stuffy, close-minded, pseudo-intellectuals believed the Library of Lipizzanria to be lost forever? Hadn’t she ultimately proved them wrong on that front as well? Scores of seasoned adventurers had scoured the globe for centuries searching for The Repository, and it was the lucky ones that had returned with nothing to show for it. Twilight knew well the tales of their failure as she had studied every account of every venture they had mounted looking for clues and anything other ponies might have missed. Of course, Twilight had several advantages which none of her predecessors had, which had aided her in her search. First, she was lucky enough to be born into a noble family, high-born and wealthy enough to have both money and influence at her disposal—where one couldn’t open a door, the other never failed to. Second, she was, without exaggeration, the most magically-gifted unicorn in the whole of written history. This wealth of power allowed Twilight to remain in the field as long as she pleased regardless of the amount of supplies she carried. The third and most important advantage Twilight possessed was the journal. The journal had been the luckiest of Twilight’s finds. It was a first-hoof account of The Cataclysm: the event that resulted in the death of the Ancient Equestrian Diarchy and set Equestria spiraling into a bloody upheaval lasting centuries. She had been tremendously fortunate to come across it in her earliest years adventuring in the Everfree Forest amidst the ruins of a derelict castle. As the journal told it, The Repository had been hidden in the last days before the cataclysm to keep it from falling into the wrong hooves. For the good of all, The Repository had been moved to the ends of the earth, to a nexus between the mortal plane of existence and whatever went beyond that. It was placed in the charge of a timeless guardian: a being the text referred to only as an “Allrhaurn.” From the context of the writings Twilight was given the distinct impression that the earlier, and perhaps less erudite, ponies revered this Allrhaurn to be an immortal and all-powerful ruler of some sort. While it was fanciful details like this that caused others so much skepticism and to dismiss the accounts entirely, Twilight knew that all legends had a foundation in fact. After all, it was the journal that had provided the information that had started her on this journey to the ends of the earth: to an impossibly-complex ward containing a thousand thousand moving parts within a locking mechanism so elegant, so complex, that it had moved Twilight to tears when she first laid eyes on it. For eight months, Twilight had resided in an unnatural forest that served as a waypoint between this realm and another. She spent these eight months analyzing and deconstructing the ward piecemeal until she’d mapped the magical marvel well enough to even attempt to dismantle the ancient structure. And now she was finally about to reap the fruit of her labor. The mare trembled in excitement as she turned yet another corner in the featureless, dark corridor and saw a faint glimmer of light eking through the gap of a door at the end of the hall. With quick, precise steps Twilight stood before the massive door in minutes. “Okay, this is it, Twilight. Just keep it together.” The unicorn took a deep breath and pushed the imposing door open. Wide, purple eyes raced around the newly-revealed room in wonder. White. Everything was white, almost blindingly so. Twilight Sparkle stood in the doorway which was somehow placed in the corner of a perfectly round, windowless room. Devoid of color, of ornamentation, and of life, the only thing of note—besides the general bizarreness of the room itself—was a white pedestal on which rested an unassuming book of average size. Twilight’s tail flicked anxiously as her ears lay back in confusion. “This is The Repository?” She asked incredulously of no one in particular. The question didn’t sound any better when echoed back to her. The purple mare approached the book cautiously, half expecting the floor to be booby-trapped. Since the large room was completely bare of reference points, Twilight was surprised to find as she approached the pedestal that it was significantly taller than she was. In order to comfortably use it, a pony would be required to stand on their hind legs. Reluctant to sully anything in the immaculate room, Twilight once again cast a cleaning spell to rid herself of any contaminants from the forest and reared up to examine the book. Despite its obvious age, the book was in marvelous shape which was a point in favor of it being a magical artifact. Her horn lit up and a field of energy flipped the book open. Twilight blinked in consternation as she found herself unable to read a word on the page. “Hmm, this predates any text I’ve ever seen before. Pre-ancient Equestrian, that’s for sure,” she mused quietly to herself. “Still, any artifact worth its salt-lick is user friendly…” Twilight cleared her throat and in a clear, polite voice she made her request. “Please translate to Modern Equestrian.” The book glowed for a moment, a lovely gold color, and Twilight leaned in anxiously only to pull her muzzle away quickly as the book snapped shut abruptly. “Who are you and what are you doing with my diary?” _____ Thanks to The Proofreader Group I was able to connect with a proofreader to help improve my story. Thank you, CartsBeforeHorses, for taking the time to edit this story and work to make it better. To my readers I suggest you go and take a look at his stories--he's prolific!