“Um… Thank you for that Alex.” Daring said, finishing copying down the last detail. “Now, if you don’t mind, I want to ask you one last thing.”
“Ask away.”
“You said that both we and Star Swirl came in here by the back entrance. If that’s true, where’s the other entrance?”
“It is the next room to your left.”
“Madame,” Crawl Space piped up. “You are going to have to tell other ponies about this, are you?”
“Me? What about you? You helped me discover this.”
“I know, but if my name becomes public, there is a chance that I might risk becoming arrested. And Madame, if I may suggest that as soon as you announce to the world about the paintings and this place, you leave Prance as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll see what I can come up with.” Daring turned back to the machine, “Alex, I will do everything I can to make sure to get someone to come back down here. You have been incredibly helpful.”
“Thank you Daring Do. And Monsieur Space,” Crawl Space turned to the machine. “Merci de bien vouloir tourner sur Monsieur Espace. Il devenait plutôt ennuyeux sans avoir certains à parler.”
“Soyez le bienvenu.” Crawl Space said. “Come along Madame, let’s get out of here.”
In the next room, the only thing in the room was the latter leading only upwards. Tightening the bags and the paintings onto their backs, the made the long dark climb up the latter. They climbed up, and up, and up what seemed almost endless, a line of gray rails that lead into nothing for about ten minutes. At the end of the dark tunnel, there was a hatch with a wheel.
“Hey Crawl, help me out with this,” Daring said, grabbing the wheel, trying to turn it open. Crawl Space’s horn glowed, and little by little, the wheel turned. There was a loud “CLANG!” That echoed over and over in the narrow tunnel. Daring tried to push it open, Space helped with his horn pushing it upwards. They were forced to open it slowly since the earth was falling in on them.
Soon, other things were falling in other than rocks, they were potato plants. And then, looking up, they saw something that they haven’t seen in the past several hours. The light of the sky at sunrise.
Crawling out of the hole, Daring Do and Crawl Space looked around to find that they were on the edge of a potato farm outside of Paris.
Crawl Space sighed, “It looks like we have some walking to do.”
_*_
To the nation of Prance,
In light that I, Daring Do, have just broken a law not only in your country but in your capital that prohibits anypony to go into the catacombs. Yes, I have hired a guide to go into the dark maze of the dead, but I did so to find these thirty missing paintings that have disappeared during the Second Great Party. I hope you may find these as an apology for doing so.
Also, I have another gift to the ponies of Prance; it is located on a potato farm outside of the city. When you find the deep hole in the ground, be sure to have some of your best scholars, scientists, archeologists and perhaps a reverse engineer to go down there.
By the time you read this note, I will be long gone from the country, until further notice, I, Daring Do, am banishing myself from your country.
Signed,
-Daring Do.
_*_
“So Professor,” Daring asked Professor Word Play at Canterlot’s University. “Anything new with translating the manuscript?”
“I’m not done yet, but I think I might have a good idea what this piece of music might be about.”
“And what’s that?”
“Ms. Do, I have looked through this manuscript and I must say, wherever you found this, must be the most complicated pieces of music I have ever laid eyes on. And that the manuscript isn’t even Prench. It’s actually Istallion. Really old high Istallion.”
“Okay, so what is the music about?”
“And the good news is I have translated the title.” Professor Word Play levitated the piece of paper over to Daring. “Apparently, alongside the music, the translation is really an epic poem, but I still haven’t fully translated it all yet.”
Daring looked at the piece of paper she was presented. It read: “The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi.”