//------------------------------// // The Ruins // Story: More than a Storybook // by balletdivagirl //------------------------------// It. Was. Cold. Story wore her heaviest coat and a scarf and a warm hat, but she could still feel the chill in the air. Stalliongrad winters were the worst. They hadn’t even planned to be here this long, but the expedition had been delayed by one thing after another. First finding a crew, then the weather, then Blaze caught a cold, then the Professor caught his cold, and now they were waiting for one last stallion to finish eating his lunch before they could continue. “Are we all quite ready now?” Professor Emeritus glared at one brown-red earth pony stallion, who grinned. “Sorry Comrade, Not as young as I used to be.” The stallion let out a deep laugh. This stallion was one of the original expedition crew to the ruins. He had introduced himself with a long Hooviet name, but then told everyone to call him Digger. He tossed the remains of his lunch into the woods. “Yes well, let’s get moving shall we?” The professor began walking, the light snow on the path crunching beneath his hooves. They had flown halfway to the ruins by hot air balloon, but the dense woods at the base of the mountain, where the entrance to the ruins lay, was too difficult for a balloon to land in. The only place colder than where they were now, had been up in the balloons. Story shivered as they started walking again. Blaze and Twilight had flown on a head with the few other pegasi in the group. They were hauling all the camping gear. Well, Blaze and the other stallions were, Twilight had mostly scrolls and quills. Rarity had volunteered to watch Spike, and he had rather happily returned to Ponyville with her, and four suitcases full of fabric. Story wished Blaze were here. She could walk next to him and they could share heat. He was always warm after he flew. It was something about the Pegasus magic that kept them warm while flying and doing cold-weather duty. Laughter came from ahead of her. The native Stalliongrad ponies did not seem at all bothered by the cold. Some seemed to be enjoying it. They were laughing about something in Hooviet. Probably her and Professor Emeritus’ large coats. The professor’s was bigger though, and bright green. Rarity would have had a fit. Story had a little fun imagining it for a while during the hike down the mountain. “So, Blue stallion, is your…” Digger appeared next to Story, with a few of the others gathered around too. His question drew her from a mental image of Rarity desperately searching Stalliongrad for a suitable winter coat. “Friend.” Answering made Story feel oddly sick to her stomach. That was no longer the answer she wanted to give. She wished she had plucked up the courage to talk to Blaze while they were preparing. She’d certainly thought about it. But it turned out it took all her courage just to give him the new scarf. Digger laughed deeply, and so did all the others around her. What was so funny? “Friend!” Digger said more in Hooviet and the laughter only got louder and more rancorous. “Zhat stallion is wanting more than friend, I zhink.” Digger winked at her. “Glasses must make blind see, not make more blind.” “I see just fine! And I think Blaze-“ She was cut off by more laughter. This was humiliating. Really humiliating. At least being surrounded by the group made it warmer. Or maybe that was just the blood rushing to her cheeks. “HA!” Digger waved a canteen around, “Tonight we give you both zhis! See how long is ‘just friends!’” Story did not want to know what was in that canteen. She’d heard about Stalliongradian alcohol, but she did not want to try it now. Maybe not ever. “No!” The Professor shouted, “I should take that away from the lot of you. Really. This is an expedition, for research, not a pleasure cruise.” His comments only got more laughter from the crew. Story tried to ignore the joking stallions around her. She concentrated on the steadily deepening woods around them. There were mostly evergreens here, but deeper into the valley there would likely be the bare trees that just a few weeks ago had the beautiful fall leaves. The running of the leaves didn’t traverse the mountains, so the leaves were left to fall on their own, once the weather turned cold. There were no birds, but Story wished at least a few could be heard so she wouldn’t have to listen to Digger and his crew. Something fluttered in the corner of her eye. She turned, but didn’t see anything. Maybe a bird or two had gotten left behind. Story got the shivers again, but not from the cold. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were now being watched. *** The master and his apprentice gazed both watched the magical images of the Lost One as she inched her way closer to the ruins. “Perfect, all according to plan.” The master chuckled. “Is everything ready?” “Yes, Dominus.” The apprentice nodded, “as soon as she is in the chamber, we can retrieve her.” “Good, good. Then will be the time to rid ourselves of that Pegasus.” “What shall we do about the others?” “The same.” “But Domius, one of them is an Alicorn. Surely the Equestrians will notice?” The apprentice wondered at the wisdom of this. “I hope so. Then the weak rulers will know our power.” The master grinned. *** Blaze paced around the campsite. It was taking for ever for the walking group to arrive. Thousands of terrible scenarios ran through his mind. Maybe they were lost, or Story’s crazy stalkers had kidnapped them, or that crazy unicorn could be back, just to name a few. “I’m flying back to check on them.” Blaze spread his wings. “Blaze, I know you’re worried, but they are fine.” Twilight looked up from the diary. She glanced at the sun. “They still have time before we are supposed to go looking for them.” “But if we wait till then-“ “They are fine.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Besides, Story is doing what they wanted her to do. Find them, remember, why would they hurt her now?” “We were searching for answers in the mine when we both nearly died.” Blaze glared at Twilight. “I’m not sure I really trust whoever it is that’s after Story.” “That’s probably wise, but I’m sure that she’s fine.” Twilight gave a short chuckle, “And I’m the one who freaks out over nothing.” Blaze grumbled but didn’t fly off. Twilight was probably right. Story was fine. Blaze devoted his energy to setting up the camp. He did keep a close watch on the sun, it seemed to crawl across the sky. Blaze and the two other pegasi built the camp around Twilight, who seemed to be engrossed in the journal. By the time the camp was finished, Twilight had made a large dent in the journal and it was nearly sunset. “Ok. Now I’m going after them.” Blaze opened his wings. “No need, my boy.” Professor Emeritus appeared from the trees. A group of very jolly ponies followed, and an exhausted looking Story was at the rear. Blaze walked up to her. “Are you alright?” Blaze looked her over. She seemed fine, only despondent, and tired. “Yeah, just don’t drink anything Digger gives you.” *** Twilight stretched and shook her wings. She was still sore from spending the night on the ground, after a very long flight. And an interesting evening, during which both Story and Blaze seemed to be avoiding each other, and Digger, who seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. Twilight didn’t even want to know. Now they were all gathered at the worn stone arch that was the entrance to the ruins. Twilight would have assumed it was just another cave, if it weren’t for the assurance of Professor Emeritus that this was indeed the entrance. Once they all went under the arch, the crew lit lanterns to see, and Twilight, Story, the Professor and the other unicorns lit their horns. The inside looked much more like something that was built. The hollowed out cavern had buttresses and the pillars with patterns of vines and flowers long extinct. It was impressive. Twilight noted the lode stones and the possible ways it was built. It seemed that there was only one way this could have been constructed: magic. The walls were covered with carvings of ponies, unicorns actually, but they were worn down and it was hard to tell what they were supposed to be doing. Twilight thought of Clover’s journal. She’d managed to tell the professor what she’d learned, but Story and Blaze had been too busy trying not to fall into Digger’s hooves for her to tell them. Apparently there had been a group of unicorns that broke off from the kingdom of unicorns just as they were making the initial trade agreements that would eventually fall apart and lead to the founding of Equestria. These unicorns thought that they could write spells to control the weather and grow food. They had left the land of the unicorns to find a place to prove themselves right. At least that’s what Starswirl told Clover before she left. The symbol that they had seen in the library, and on the tapestry might be the symbol of the group. Starswirl hadn’t actually divulged that piece of information. “This was clearly the main meeting hall.” Professor Emeritus was giving the grand tour at the moment. “My last excavation showed that there were a few ponies living in the mountain, but there were many more living just outside. There were several house mounds found.” He trotted into the next chamber. “Here we start to enter the corridors that lead to private chambers and further along there is another smaller meeting chamber.” The professor was moving at quite a clip. “Here you can also see a few of the places where carvings were blasted off.” There was a large patch of rough stone where the rest of the wall was relatively smooth. Blaze leaned in closer. “These weren’t blasted, at least not with magic. I’d say they were taken off with a pick, or maybe even just smashed a bunch of times.” “What in Equestria would lead you to that conclusion?” The professor looked up at Blaze indignantly. Blaze shook his head. “Magic blasts leave a circular crater, with the crack line radiating out from the center. These don’t follow that pattern. They seem to be all over the place.” Twilight looked again. Blaze was right. This was done by something besides magic. The real question was why. “Well then. I’ll consider that later.” The professor started walking again. “The chamber where I found Storybook is quite deep in the mountain.” The professor moved at a quick pace, forcing the others to move quickly. Blaze rolled his eyes, but followed the professor. They moved deeper into the caves, Professor Emeritus pointing out odd bits of knowledge here and there, usually aimed in Blaze’s direction. Twilight kept her mouth shut, lest the professor try to prove he was smarter than her. That might not end well. Story on the other hand was mostly unaware of the professor’s bruised ego. She still felt like she was being watched, and in this place, she didn’t think that was a good thing. She inspected every detail of the path they were on, hoping for a good enough clue to get them out of here. Caves were one of her least favorite places. This one at least was spacious. She didn’t feel quite so claustrophobic here, but every step brought them farther from getting out quickly. But every step might bring them closer to the answers. Story pushed her self forward, and she made her horn light a little brighter. “BOO!” “EEEK!” Story jumped, and turned around to see Digger behind her. He was having a very good, deep laugh, “You scared me.” “Filly is jumpy today. Good thing big, strong, blue stallion here. Save you from monsters, yes?” Digger walked passed her, laughing. She hoped there would be no saving today. Just exploring. She continued as she realized that she was behind everypony else. Even Blaze hadn’t come looking for her yet. She saw the Digger enter a tunnel and started to follow him. “Aiieeeughhh!” She heard Digger’s voice come from the cavern, and then heard shouts and screams form the others. Digger must have snuck up on them like he had her a few minutes ago. She smiled kept trotting towards the tunnel. The opening wasn’t large, and a blue light flickered inside. “AHHHGGGGHHHH!” That was Blaze, and he did not sound surprised. He sounded like he was in pain. Story raced to the tunnel, entering she found that it wasn’t a tunnel, it was a small cavern. And worse, her friends and crew were being attacked by a group of helmeted unicorns. There was one in the back, hooded, who seemed to be the leader. He shouted orders in Ancient unicorn. Several of the crew were unconscious, or worse, and the ones still standing were being blasted by unicorn magic. Twilight was fending off three of them with her unicorn magic, but as another member of the crew fell a fourth joined the ones against Twilight. Blaze was still standing, but he looked like he could fall any second. The unicorn aiming at him had a look that asked for blood. Blaze caught sight of her, “Run! Story go!” Blaze fell to his knees. Story took a few steps back. The center unicorn looked at her and spoke. “You cannot escape this time Lost One.” He aimed a beam of magic at her. She prepared for impact but instead found herself floating towards the leader. She used her magic and interrupted his spell. Story fell back down to the cavern floor. Her body stung at the impact but she forced herself back to her feet. She looked back over at Blaze, he was on the ground, but trying to get back up. It was happening again, she couldn’t- Blaze, Twilight, Professor Emeritus, even Digger and the crew were all going to die if she didn’t- “STOP!” She shouted then added in ancient unicorn, “I’ll go with you!” The unicorn’s paused their firing and Twilight collapsed with exhaustion. Story couldn’t see any other option where they survived. “Story…” Blaze was trying to stand, “Don’t you da-“ he fell again. “You will come with us?” The leader took a step closer to her. “Yes, but only if you spare them.” Story hadn’t noticed her tears until just now, as they hit the cave floor. “Otherwise I’ll stay here and you’ll have to kill me too.” “Story…don’t” Blaze was only able to lift his head. She turned back to him, “I love you. I can’t lose you again.” She looked back at the leader. He nodded and spoke to the others. They surrounded her and walked her over to the leader. Blaze pushed himself to his feet, “Don’t! Story!” He cried as a wave of magic surrounded the group. It grew very bright and then they were gone. “Story…” Blaze collapsed.