//------------------------------// // 1 - Opened Gate // Story: Daughters of Poseidon // by A Random Guy //------------------------------// Off in the distance, near where the cave ended in a pinprick of light, Daring Do could hear the waves of the Red Colt Sea crashing down on the rocky crags. The whooshing sound grew fainter as she trotted down through the cavern. The sound of her hoofsteps soon overtook the waves, echoing off the walls with a rhythmic click-clat. Her pith helmet didn’t protect her from the draft coming from the darkness. The breeze whipped through her black mane, wrapping around her golden neck like the gentle flow of an icy stream. Being a pegasus, she was built for the wind currents of the sky. This measly breeze was nothing compared to the typhoons she pushed through in years past. The draft felt like nothing to her, but it did mean something. She was trotting against the breeze, which flowed for the exit. Normal caves didn’t do that. The draft is supposed to go into the cave, not out of it. Something was deep inside, pushing air out of this cavern. Daring Do could feel it. The light behind the pegasus dimmed shortly after the sound of the ocean disappeared. She turned on the lantern she had attached to her vest, illuminating the cavern in a warm, yellow glow. Shadows danced behind rocks and crags as she moved down into the earth. The breeze still remained, whipping through her hair. Daring Do was looking for something in this cave, but she didn’t know what. A traveler she met in a tavern in Bullga told her about this place. He had grown up in a town on the coast of the Red Colt Sea, where caves such as this were plentiful. The traveler had played in these caves as a kid, taking preference for a crack in the cliffs with a mysterious carving. “It was a snake covered in thorns,” he said, “It coiled around a flower, which bloomed from the tip of its tail.” Going off the description, the carving wasn’t among the known symbols of ancient civilizations. This piqued her curiosity. Within a week, the pegasus had arrived at the shore the traveler claimed to have seen the carving. It was far down the coast from a small port town. The area itself was hard to get to if you weren’t adventurous enough. She had spent three days searching for the cave. On the third day, she found the etching, the flower with a thorny snake. Like she had predicted, it didn’t resemble anything from any known culture. She went back to town that night, coming back the next day with a full bag of supplies. Her pack contained food, water, blankets, rope, batteries, and her emergency teleport crystal. The last object was a souvenir from a trip in Marelasia, where one of her more profitable adventures occurred. The crystal teleported the user to a spot he or she designated earlier. It had come in handy once, though she lost a different priceless artifact in the process. Daring Do set the crystal’s location outside of town before she left. One small trot along a rocky beach later, and she was back at the cave. Now she was Celestia-knows how deep under the ground, with only her flashlight keeping her company. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but something in her gut told her it was big, very big. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> It was high noon in the city of Tottingham. Those working outside had the pleasure of enjoying the sun’s warmth, giving them a break from the bitter morning cold. Downtown, the city council was discussing which park to hold the starting position for the upcoming Running of the Leaves festival. In the residential district, things were heating up for one house. “A magic kit!” A mare yelled as she burst through a door. “You spent Celestia-knows how much on a freaking magic kit?!” The mint-green unicorn the mare was referring to jumped at the sudden intrusion. “What?! I didn’t do anything!” The mare chucked a box at the unicorn. The latter ducked out of the way, letting the box sail over her head and smash against the wall. “Lyra, take this seriously,” the mare continued. “You used whatever money you had to buy that piece of trash when you’re still behind on your half of the rent!” “It’s my money,” Lyra said. “I can do whatever I want with it.” “And it’s your half of the rent! How much did that thing cost you?” “Enough that you shouldn’t be tossing it around.” Lyra scurried over to the box, which sustained no damage on the outside. She opened it up to check if the interior was still intact. To her relief, everything inside was exactly the same from when she bought it. “Oh, that’s good. Nothing broke.” “Nothing broke, does that make you happy?” the mare said. “I hope that makes you happy, because you won’t be this happy once the landlord kicks us out!” “Take a chill pill, Bon Bon,” Lyra said. “There’s no need to get this angry.” “Angry? Angry?!” Bon Bon’s words seethed out from between her teeth. “I’m working hard, paying all the bills, buying the bargain brands because I can’t get the good stuff. I don’t want to get the cheap toilet paper, but it’s all I can get. Then there’s you, sitting at home doing jack squat and throwing bits at whatever you feel like. You’re a unicorn. What’s the point in even having a magic kit?” “I’m thinking of going into performing magic.” The unicorn pulled out a red ball from the box and held it out. “Alright, so this little diddy is called the”-- Bon Bon gave her flat-mate a deadpan look. “You play the lyre. You have a job with the Trottingham orchestra. You don’t need get into performing magic because you already have a job! It’s even magically tattooed on your butt!” Lyra glanced at her flank, on which she had her cutie mark, a golden lyre. “This old thing? I don’t know. It’s always felt a little confining to me. Why should I base my entire life on a single thing?” “Because that single thing is the one thing that makes you money!” The mare’s face flared into a burning, bright red. “You know what, forget it. If you want to live your life as a deadbeat magician, be my guest. But you’re either going to pay the rent or so help me I’ll frame you for murder just to get you out of here!” Before Lyra could say something, Bon Bon went out of the room and slammed the door behind her. The unicorn jumped at the noise, dropping the red ball on the floor. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> On the lovely side of Ponyville, in a lovely house, it was snack time. A gray filly poured tea into four cups on a kid-sized table. One cup went to her, one to Madam Moose, who accompanied her, one to Diamond Tiara, her new friend, and one to Mr. Giggles, who accompanied Diamond. “Oh, what a lovely day for a party,” the filly mused, “I can’t believe you’ve never had one of these before.” Diamond Tiara nodded, “Yeah… your name’s Silver Spoon, right?” Silver Spoon giggled. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were bad with names.” They were spending time afterschool at Diamond Tiara’s house, at Silver Spoon’s request. Diamond Tiara was hesitant about letting someone she barely knew into a home she was still moving into, but her new friend was insistent. Silver Spoon placed the tea kettle on the table. “So, what’s it like having Filthy Rich as a dad? I didn’t even know he had a kid.” “It’s okay, I guess.” Diamond Tiara picked up her cup and took a sip. “He lets me have whatever I want if I ask nicely. I never see him at home, though. It’s been work, work, work since I got here.” “Tell me about it.” Silver Spoon wrapped her foreleg around Madam Moose and hugged her tight. “Madam Moose is always busy counting up the millions of jillions of bits at the Equestrian bank. She never gets a break.” “That must be hard.” Diamond Tiara looked over at Mr. Giggles. The stuffed bear hadn’t touched his tea yet. He stared blankly at the wall, like he always did. “Mr. Giggles spends his time working in the gardens.” “Oh, is he a servant?” Silver Spoon asked. “The servants are the ones that work in my family’s gardens.” Diamond Tiara shook her head. “No, he does it for fun. He can grow some tasty veggies in his garden.” “For fun?” Silver Spoon’s face twisted in disgust. “It’s all dirty in the gardens. Who would ever want to work in the mud? It’s all gooey and icky, and there are worms.” The grey filly shuddered. “I have no clue how Applebloom’s family does it, doing stuff in the muck. I almost feel sorry for her.” “Yeah… Applebloom.” For some reason, the tea didn’t sit still in Diamond Tiara’s stomach. She looked down, catching a view of her own flank, a blank flank. “What you said to her earlier… wasn’t that a little mean?” “What, that she's a blank flank? It’s a joke. I give her a hard time and we laugh about it later.” The words had stuck with Diamond Tiara for most of the day. Silver Spoon said something demeaning about Applebloom’s lack of cutiemark. Diamond Tiara played along, just to make a friend, though it made her wonder how her friend thought about her own lack of a cutiemark. “It still seemed a bit mean.” Silver Spoon shrugged. “Is it? Oh, I forgot, we need spoons to stir the sugar. Where does your dad keep the spoons?” Diamond Tiara stood up from the table. “I think I have a box of in my closet,” she said, looking away so avoid Silver Spoon’s gaze. “I’ll go get it.” <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Daring Do leaned up against the rocky wall, taking a bite of an apple and enjoying the view she had on this cliff. The cavern she now sat in was adorned with specks of glowing rock that speckled the walls. Enough light came from the rock that they lit the the massive expanse of the cavern, including what stood at its center. She was deep underground, far from where Celestia’s sun could find her, yet she had found one of the brightest wonders lost to pony history. Off in the distance from the cliff, a giant sculpture of a white serpent jutted out from the rock. It coiled at the center of the cavern, constricting a pink flower that bloomed in the middle, similar to the symbol at the cave entrance. Thorns covered the entirety of its body, as if hundreds of talons punctured its skin and were trying to break out. The head reared up, poised to attack, barring rows of razor-sharp fangs. Despite its mountainous height, the head didn’t even come near the top of the cavern. The pegasus took another bite out of her apple, admiring the vast size of the sculpture. She could tell from this distance that the serpent was made out of solid marble, and the flower made out of a cloudy, pink amethyst. What she couldn’t tell was who, or what, made this. Although some ancient civilizations managed great architectural achievements, none of them had been documented to have built something like this. At the base of the serpent, a city sprawled out across the cavern floor. This wasn’t a traditional ancient city, with tightly-packed, single-floor buildings and a few taller structures scattered about. No, this city rivaled Manehatten in height, and certainly outdid it in urban-sprawl. Skyscrapers ranging ten to twenty stories high sprang up from the ground. They were grand and tall, but the skyline hardly reached the height of the serpent’s first coil. From the cliff, Daring Do saw the entirety of this architectural marvel, aside for the parts behind the sculpture. The city reached out from the snake for miles, at least. Light came out from the windows, but it didn’t take an archeologist to say no one was home. All the buildings seemed to have intricate designs decorating their exteriors, but the pegasus needed to get closer to see how complex things were. Fortunately, she had filled her backpack with only what she needed, and nothing more. This meant her pack was light enough that she could glide through the city without any trouble. And after seeing how massive this civilization built its cities, she was glad she had flight on her side. She took one final bite out of her apple, and put the apple core in a plastic bag she had tucked away in her pack. Take back with you what you bring in and don’t leave a trace, the sage advice all explorers lived by. Daring Do ran for the edge of the cliff, jumped off, opened her wings, and soared off above the city heights. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Red Bute Plaza was a long walk from Lyra’s apartment, which she could appreciate. A long walk gave you time to think, and her mind was flooding with thoughts. She had her lyre case strapped on her back, which although somewhat heavy, was precious enough to her to warrant carrying on these long travels. The plaza was clear today, as it usually was. It dipped in behind a hill, which blocked the view of pedestrians on the other side. The park was secluded enough that ponies didn’t wander into it often, and it was small enough that few ponies went out of their way to find it. Lyra walked along her favorite path, passing a sign that said, “Future Home of Fancypants Condominiums.” Her lyre case bounced on her back as she headed to a bench in the middle of the park. A jogger passed her, nodding before trotting off to wherever joggers go. She found her bench and sat down on it. The case on her back glowed in her green magic, pulling her instrument out. She placed the case on the ground, leaving it open so the “Tips” sign faced the pathway. She strummed a few strings, producing a soft melody. Lyra loved her lyre. She loved playing it in this Plaza, especially when she sat on this bench. It wasn’t the best spot to play, not a lot of foot traffic passed by to hand out tips, but the solidarity of the area gave her a piece of mind she couldn’t find anywhere else in the city. Satisfied with how her lyre sounded, the mint-green unicorn started plucking a somber, but quick, tune. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back over the back of the bench, slipping into a calmer mindset. “You believed,” she sang, “You believed in the moments not conceived. You believed in me.” After so many times playing this piece, the song had become a part of her. She could play it without any thought. It wasn’t the type of song she played for tips. Her happier pieces drew in more profit than her sober ones. But she didn’t feel like playing the money-makers this month. The solitude of her other music called out to her. “A passionate spirit, uncompromised.” You have play the lyre! You have a job with the Trottingham orchestra! Bon Bon’s words echoed through her mind, stinging wherever they touched. It was true, she did play the lyre, and she did have a job with the orchestra, once. It felt right to play the lyre, but there was something she couldn’t get out of it. “Boundless and open.” It’s even magically tattooed on your butt! So what if the lyre was her cutie mark? Why did it determine her life? Does it force her to do a single thing for the rest of her life? Lyra knew she could live a happy life playing the lyre. In fact, playing the lyre is what everyone told her to do. Despite what everyone says, couldn’t she have a choice? “A light in your eyes, then”-- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Diamond Tiara pulled at an ornate box from her closet. She opened the lid, revealing rows of polished silverware lying on a velvet cushion, neatly organized by size. There were knives, forks, and spoons, each with the design of a necklace etched into the handles. “Would some small spoons be fine?” she asked, holding up a spoon that seemed to be appropriate. “Small ones are perfect,” Silver Spoon said. “They’re the only ones that’ll fit in these cups.” Diamond Tiara grabbed four and carried them over. She placed a spoon by each of the guests’ plates. “I never used these before,” she said as she sat back down at her spot. “Mom told me that Dad gave these to her before I was born. She kept them in the attic for some reason.” “Why would your mom do that?” Silver Spoon held up one of the spoons up to the light. “This silverware is amazingly crafted! My dad made them, no doubt. It should be a crime not to use these.” She brought the spoon closer, holding the handle upright. “That’s a very complex necklace design. Is it your mom’s cutiemark?” “Yeah, it is.” Diamond Tiara looked down at her tea, half-heartedly pushing the around the spoon in her cup. “It doesn’t look as pretty as the real thing, though.” “I think they’re amazing,” Silver Spoon gawked. “It’s a shame she never used these. Good silverware like this should never be kept in a closet. They’ll tarnish without the proper polish.” She giggled at her unintentional rhyme. “You should keep better care of your mom’s things.” Diamond Tiara shrugged. “I forgot I had these. They were under so much other stuff Mom had.” Silver Spoon raised one of her eyebrows. “Why would you forget about these?” The filly scooted out of her seat and headed for the closet. “What could hide this amazing treasure away in your closet?” “Stuff, mostly.” Diamond Tiara got up and followed behind her friend. “Dad said he’d throw it all away if no one took it, so it’s all in there.” Silver Spoon threw open the closet door, revealing a towering stack of multicolored boxes, all neatly aligned and packed together. Each row of the tower shifted half-a-box to the side, so that any pony could pull a box out without having the entire pile come falling down. “Wow, that’s a lot of boxes. How did you even find the silverware?” “It’s all organized,” Diamond Tiara explained. “All of this has a system, like right here.” She pulled out a blue box from the pile and placed it on the floor. She lifted the lid to reveal some framed photos, all the same size and all placed neatly in the box in four stacks. “I arranged this box to contain all the four-by-five pictures from Mom’s house. I put them in here chronologically.” Silver Spoon looked at the top photos. They were all taken in a park, in which a mare played around with her kid. “When were those taken?” “The top ones?” Diamond Tiara pulled one of the photos out. “These were the last ones taken. They were right before… before”- Her voice stopped. She stared at the photo she held. A pink mare held a ball in her hooves while a pink filly ran towards the camera. She photo was clearly focused on the filly, but Diamond Tiara could only focus on the mare’s face. “Hey, are you alright?” Silver Spoon asked. “You look like you’re about to cry.” Diamond Tiara rubbed her eyes, ignoring what her friend just said. “This is from that school field day, before summer break,” she sniffed. “Mom said she would make it to all my school events…” Silver Spoon grabbed a tissue from the dresser and handed it to Diamond Tiara. “Dad said he would come to Family Appreciation Day this year,” she continued, rubbing her eyes with the tissue. “I like him, he’s fine… But I want to”-- - <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Deep within the ancient city, Daring Do swooped down and landed along a large road. The architecture in the city interior was even more spectacular up close. All the designs were based on triangles. The pillars that supported the building were triangles. The carvings that made the murals on the walls were triangles. The windows and doorways were triangles. The roads had triangle bricks. Triangles ruled this urban jungle. But the city was just as abandoned as it had been when she was on the cliff. The windows of all the buildings glowed, but nothing walked amongst the streets. Daring Do expected maybe a skeleton of some creature would pop up, but she didn’t bet her hopes on it. Everything here seemed clean as well. The streets were swept of dirt, the stone was finely polished, and the air didn’t smell terrible. The pegasus still couldn’t pinpoint what culture built all of this. The use of triangles with everything didn’t resemble any culture she knew of. Plus the sheer size of everything needed an incredibly advanced nation to build. Some type of records had to exist to document the infrastructure that went into creating this place. There was no way this city was built in a day. Now that Daring Do was in the depths of the city, the serpent sculpture seemed even more immense. No matter where she went, the majority of the serpent could be seen. The tallest buildings in the city had trouble blocking its view. Its head reared up way above the metropolis, looking beyond what lay below it. Although she knew it was just a stature, Daring Do found it daunting to look anywhere near its general vicinity. She walked into a building’s triangle door, half to escape the statue’s shadow, half curious of what was inside. The interior wasn’t much different from the outside, which meant triangles dominated everything. The room had three walls, which came together at the top to form a pyramid. A fountain sat in the middle, though no water came out of it. The pegasus pulled out a water bottle from her sack. Despite the differences of the city compared to other abandoned civilizations, it shared one irritating trait, dry air. Normally, she could go a while without drinking, even in deserts. But the air had a pasty quality to it that sucked the moisture out of her mouth. Two water bottles were already in her plastic trash bag, and her current bottle was halfway there. As she took a swig from her bottle, Daring Do heard a strange noise coming from behind her. She looked out the doorway, where she found a stream of glowing shapes floating above the road. The pegasus ran outside to get a better look. The stream contained a single line of shapes, gently swaying in the air. They gave of a bright blue light that illuminated the street. As Daring Do came closer, she recognized the individual shapes. They were letters of an ancient alphabet. She ran through her head all the possible ancient races that used a written word. Not the Ponysians, they had more curves. Hayans had written vertically, so it wasn’t them. It wasn’t the Turese, this language had too many triangles to be those guys. Then Daring Do remembered a stone tablet someone found south of Stalliongrad. The tablet dated back to the first known civilization on the planet, the Sumerians! Little was known about the Sumerians, only that they laid the groundwork for all societies after them. So this was the Sumerian alphabet Daring Do was looking at. That meant that the city had to be Sumerian as well. “The ancient Sumerians, long forgotten,” she gasped, taking another look at the grand architecture. “So this is what their cities looked like, and I’m the first to see them in over ten thousand years! I think I smell another best-selling book around the corner.” The letters were flowing down the street, towards the snake. Since she couldn’t read the words, she might as well see where they’re going. Daring Do leapt into the air and followed the magical word stream. They went deeper into the city, taking only a few turns along the street. The pegasus glided above the buildings, following the illuminated path made from the blue light. She couldn’t guess why the letters appeared then, nor could she guess where they were going, but following them seemed like a better idea than wondering the city aimlessly. After several minutes of flight, the word stream entered into a large building that sat against the serpent’s base. A large, marble thorn wrapped itself along the slant of the buildin’s roof. The pegasus landed at the building’s grand archway, following the letters inside. The first thing Daring Do noticed was the giant wall made out of marble. She guessed that this was part of the serpent. The word stream weaved itself along the wall, forming glowing, blue paragraphs. None of it could be deciphered. Daring Do walked up to the wall and placed a hoof against it. All the letters darted away, frightened by her touch. All that remained were three words. These three words were eye-level with the pegasus, an easy place for them to be read. To her surprise, these words were composed of letters of her own language. These were words that she knew. “Tasked to three,” she read- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> -“Bring her,” Diamond Tiara sniffed, wiping her eyes with a tissue- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> -“Immobilized,” Lyra sang, strumming her lyre to the song. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Daring Do stared at the glowing blue words. “Tasked to three… what?” she asked herself. “What’s tasked to three?” Prophecies, although vague, have more detail than this. Incantations were unbelievably wordy, so it wasn’t that either. Maybe it’s a code phrase for- The world shuddered under the pegasus’s hooves. Out of instinct she jumped in the air and hovered above the ground, but Daring Do could still feel the shaking. The last three words on the wall spiraled out and vanished, leaving blank marble behind. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> “What’s going on?” Diamond Tiara asked with panic. She crouched down and held the photo frame in a tight embrace. “Does Ponyville get earthquakes?” Silver Spoon raised one of her eyebrows. “Are you sure you’re alright. You’re acting a bit weird.” Daimond Tiara could feel her tiara shaking off her head. She threw a hoof on it to keep it from falling off. “It’s an earthquake! Don’t you feel it?” “No…” Silver Spoon shook her head. “Is it a small one? I felt small ones before in Canterlot.” “How can you not feel it?” There was no mistaking it. The world was shaking like crazy. Diamond Tiara failed to see how anypony could ignore such an event, yet her friend remained completely unphased. “We got to get out of here!” <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> The unicorn dropped her lyre and dashed under the bench. She did what all those earthquake safety classes in primary school told her to do, but she didn’t feel any safer. The world went mad. Lyra could feel her teeth chatter from all the vibrations. She pulled the lyre under the bench and held it tight. She looked around as much as she could from under the bench. With an earthquake of this magnitude, buildings would start collapsing at any moment. Fortunately for her, she was in an open spot in the park, far from any likely place a building would collapse on. She curled up into the fetal position, unsure of what else to do. She tucked her head in, hoping the disaster would end soon. She didn’t notice the jogger passing by, who gave her a weird look. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Daring Do had trouble staying in the air with all her body shaking this violently. This wasn’t a normal earthquake. Normal ones don’t shake things in the air. No, there was something shaking everything. Maybe it was magical, she didn’t know. She only knew that she was getting tossed around in the air. A ripping sound cut through the air. The pegasus looked up to see a vertical slit in the marble wall. The slit started expanding out, revealing a dark and swirling emptiness inside of it. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> “What is that?” Diamond Tiara screamed. The slit appeared along the wall of boxes in her closet. She would have pointed at it, but she still had a grip on the photo and her tiara. The shaking did not relent. Silver Spoon took a step backwards. “This isn’t funny,” she said. “It’s getting a bit freaky now.” “Don’t you see that?” Diamond Tiara asked, “In my closet! What the heck is that?” “There just boxes.” Silver Spoon started backing up towards the door, keeping her eye on her friend. “I’m going to get your dad.” <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> The slit continued to open up, but Lyra didn’t notice it. She remained tightly balled up under the bench, keeping her lyre tight against her body, unaware of what was happening around her. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Daring Do could feel a breeze start to pick up. The slit had expanded enough that a pony could slide on through. She flew against the current, but it grew into a gale-force wind. The portal wanted to take her. It was a losing battle. Inch by inch, she came closer and closer to the hole in the wall. The shaking only made it harder to fly away and escape. Nothing relented. The hole became too strong to fight against. Daring Do felt her wings snap back before somersaulting through the air. She threw out a hoof and grabbed the rim of the hole. Now that she was inside, she could see the vortex that was sucking her in. Darkness swirled around her, strengthening its pull as time went on. Her mane whipped behind her in the storm. She wasn’t strong enough to open her wings out against the air. Then she lost the battle. Her hoof slipped from the edge. The pegasus screamed as she plummeted through the void and away from the hole of light. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> “Silver Spoon! Help,” Diamond Tiara yelled, kicking against the floor as she was pulled toward the hole. Silver Spoon panicked as her friend slid along the floor. “Hold on!” she yelled, running over to help! Diamond Tiara let go of her tiara, letting it fly into the void behind her. Silver Spoon grabbed her now-free hoof and pulled as hard as she could. “Don’t let go!” Diamond Tiara yelled. “I’m trying!” Silver Spoon yelled back. Diamond Tiara lifted up into the air. Her hind legs dangled towards the center of the hole. Silver Spoon was having a hard time pulling back against it, and having an even harder time fighting against the shaking. Nothing relented. Silver Spoon’s eyes filled with panic. “What’s going”-- Before she could finish, her grip failed. Diamond Tiara went flying into the hole, screaming and kicking as hard as she could. She could hardly hear what her friend said before the hole closed off. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Lyra felt the wind pick up, but ignored it. “It’s nothing,” she muttered to herself. “It’ll all go away soon.” She didn’t expect the gale-force winds to pull her out from under the bench. The unicorn yelped as she plummeted into the void, completely confused on what the heck was going on.