By the time Daring returned with Aaron, Sunny had returned to unconsciousness.
"You're certain she was awake?" Aaron inquired as he checked the sleeping canine's vitals.
"I wouldn't have flown around looking for you if I wasn’t."
"Of course, my apologies. I assume her current state is probably due to her fatigue catching up to her from these last few days. Once she's fully rested, Sunny'll be back to her old self."
"You're sure? How could she still be tired after all of that sleep you've ordered her to get?"
"Well, for starters, It's likely that that wasn't true sleep, no dreams and the like. Besides, she was able to answer my orders even from that restful state, so the argument could be made that she wasn't fully asleep to begin with."
Daring contemplated that for a moment. She was used to getting limited amounts of sleep every so often, but those were usually done on her own terms. Even though, she doubted that anyone could go without restful sleep for too long. “Well, as long as she's no longer under your Influence, or whatever, I suppose she can have a nap. What are our plans in the meantime?"
"We'll need some direction. Do you know if Sunny finished the antenna?"
Looking towards the area where she'd recovered the dog in question, Daring failed to see anything, "Um, what antenna? I don't see anything."
"Actually, that's kind of the point. If you could see it, it wouldn't work."
"I don't follow?"
"Unlike the antennas that you may know, the ones that transmit signals through the atmosphere, our signals are transmitted through the earth itself, ergo, the antenna is buried. Good thing too, since anything above ground would give away the den's position."
"So what do you need it for?"
Aaron started digging around his pack before pulling out a small cube-shaped device. "Here, hold this for a second, while I check Sunny's work."
Catching the small machine with her wings, Daring nearly dropped it when she noticed that the case was constructed with that creepy steelstone stuff that the Canis were so fond of. The rounded pinkish cube had a small gauge on the front, a button on either side, and a connector of some sort on the bottom. Setting it between her shoulders Daring followed Aaron to the center of a circular divet that Sunny had carved out of the rocky soil.
"Looks solid to me," Aaron said as he wiped away some dirt from a small steelstone disk embedded in the ground. "Can I get the cube, please?"
"Sure, what is this thing anyway?"
"A compass mostly. Set it on the dais like so, and, there we go!" Aaron said excitedly as the dial on the device began to move on its own accord, eventually settling on a single orientation.
"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your compass doesn't point North." Daring stated flatly after double checking her sense of direction.
"I suppose if I wanted it to point North, we'd have to be south of the Star now, wouldn't we?"
"Wait, this thing is telling us which way the Star is compared to our position?" Daring said as she followed the needle's indication and looked off in the distance. It didn't exactly point towards town, but it was fairly close. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you guys were cheating."
"Yes, well. so long as the Star doesn't move, we'll be able to find it."
"And if it moves?"
"Then we either come back here and resync, dig out another antenna, or hope we spot it as it's rolling downhill or whatever. Either way, we have to wait for Sunny to recover, then we'll top this scouter off before heading out."
"Can't wait, " Daring started before letting out a yawn, "but I gotta say, I think Sunny's got the right idea this time.”
~~~~~
Daring Do, double checked the group’s position from her bird's-eye view. Much to the pegasus's relief, their course did not have them passing through town. If their previous interactions were any indication, any further meetings between random ponies and her entourage should be done under more controlled conditions, or at least kept to a minimum. Now, safely beyond the city limits of Dodge, they were making decent headway towards the marker, even though the landscape from here on out seemed to be of the barren wasteland variety.
Noticing that her ground-bound companions were waving her down, Daring pulled into a dive, flaring her wings at the precise moment she needed to bring herself to a controlled hover in front of the duo. "What's up?"
"We're here."
Looking left, then right, Daring only saw the dried desert clay with maybe a hint of flora attempting to push its way through the cracked earth. "Here where? I don't see anything." She said seeing no sign of anything remotely like an artifact.
"It's below us, obviously." Sunny quipped.
"Well then, I guess it's a good thing you two are here to, and I quote, 'Help pony dig!'" Daring said in jest, while patting Aaron on the head. "How deep is it?"
"Just a moment." Aaron replied, brushing aside Daring's forehooves and setting his compass so that it’s face was at an angle perpendicular to the ground. He stepped a few measured paces away, and repeated his measurement, before double checking his angles. A quick few scratches on the ground later, and he had his answer. "It looks like the star is buried somewhere between 60 and 80 meters down."
"What!? That's insane. How the hay did it get so deep?"
"And how, exactly, would we know?" Sunny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I- you know what, who cares? Just start digging already?"
Sunny gave Aaron a questioning glance. "May I, Sir?"
"Go ahead and slot an Earth gem." came her master's reply.
Reaching into one of the pockets on her vest, Sunny removed a gem that was a milky brown color, which she then inserted into the head of her staff. Content that the gem was secure, she started walking off into the distance.
"Where's she going? I thought the Star was below us."
"Quite right, but if there's something I've learned from all of my time with the pack, it's that one never digs straight down."
"Why is that?"
"Well, for starters, there's no guarantee that you know what's under you. Also, we don't have wings, so it may prove to be quite difficult to escape from whatever pit one might find themselves in."
Daring pondered that little bit of advice before catching up to Aaron. "Huh, I guess you can learn something new every day. So what's that gem for then?"
"It allows for better control of one’s geomancy, provided it's slotted into some Steelstone."
"Like a magic focus? But you said she could use an earth gem, are there other types?" Daring asked, briefly wondering why none of the unicorn mages used such things.
"Yes, each of the basic elements are covered its own family of gemstone."
"So, there's one for fire?" Daring asked.
Aaron nodded in acknowledgement, pulling out a gem from his vest pocket and showing it to her. "This fire opal shares the same properties of fire magic, as I understand it."
"Okay, so then why didn't we use that for a fire last night instead of all of those scraggly sticks? It took us hours to find enough for dinner and breakfast!"
"I suppose that would have saved some time, but the nature of geomancy which lets us alter the properties of things other than the earth itself, means that we only have a few uses out of each gem. That, coupled with the fact that our supplies are limited, and I'm hesitant to use them when not required."
"Are we ready to descend, Aaron?" Sunny asked after locating an ideal location.
"You may start when ready, Sunny." Aaron replied before turning to the pegasus once more. "I recommend that you not fall too far behind, Miss Do. I don't expect we'll run into much, but the underground is not a domain meant for ponies."
"Pssh, you're talking to the only pegasus who actually chooses to delve into dungeons, remember?"
"'Another day, another dungeon.'" Aaron quoted before catching a weird look from Daring. "Oh, yes I'm quite sure I know who I'm dealing with, Miss ‘Quite Famous’ Heroine." He finished before giving Daring a cheeky smile.
"When did you-? Damn! You must have gotten to those books on the ship!"
"The whole set, I'm afraid. You will have to tell us about these adventures you've had sometime, Daring."
Daring just gave Aaron a speculative glare. He'd known exactly who she was for a few days now, and had kept it to himself? Who does that? After briefly wondering why he didn't seem to be treating her any different, Daring began to wonder if the Canis even had a concept of 'famous'. With a sigh, she stopped before stumbling into the now stationary dogs.
Sunny had reached a point far enough away so that her hole wouldn't be too steep for their descent. Focusing her power into her staff, she angled its tip towards the ground before unleashing her magic. The ground, seemingly liquefied, flowed in a cyclic torrent away from the canine's staff. A moment later, the earth re-solidified into a perfectly rounded perimeter, leaving a circular hole several meters deep, that matched the angle of Sunny's upheld instrument. "We descend." was all that she said before the disappearing into the depths below.
Aaron gestured a courteous 'after you' to Daring Do, and soon, they too left the wide open world for the confines of the tunnel.
~~~~~
Were it not for the warm breeze being pulled from behind everytime that Sunny created a new void in the Earth, Daring feared she'd shudder slightly every time the unnaturally smooth not-quite-stone touched her hooves. Why did every bit of Canine magic have to be creepy?
"How much farther?" Daring asked.
"We've yet to travel more than two dozen meters, I'm afraid." Aaron's replied, since Sunny was focusing on her work.
Despite her bravado, she had to admit that there was a distinct difference between dungeon diving and simply being stuck in a hole in the ground. To Daring they might as well have traveled an entire league beneath the surface.
When Sunny suddenly stopped in her tracks, Daring found herself excited to have a change of pace. "Problem?"
"Come have a look at this." Sunny said stepping to the side, allowing enough passage for the other two.
Aaron took a close look at the blue-gray stone that was now obstructing the path. "Masonry? Down here? Curious."
"Old too, very old. Either first era or earlier, if I had to guess." Came Daring's analysis.
Sunny eyed the stones incredulously, "You can tell all that from just a few bricks?"
"I am an expert.” Daring scoffed. ”But something buried this deep? Definitely rules out and third age and most of the second. No tool marks rules suggests at least first age. I'd need some more artifacts to get a more accurate dating, but it's safe to say that this place is older than most of Equestria."
Sunny suddenly stiffened and motioned for the other two to quiet down. "Wait a minute. Do you two hear that?"
Ears perked up in the direction of the stonework itself. "Water!?" they replied in unison.
"Great, looks like we have our answer as to how the Star ended up down here. Probably washed into this ancient aquifer during the a recent rainy season!" Daring said with a little bit of distress in her voice.
"Maybe, it doesn't sound like it's up against this wall, and this section here doesn't seem to be load bearing. Let's take a look at what's on the other side. Sunny?"
"Please step back a bit, sir. You too, Daring."
Following the polite suggestion, Daring and Aaron took position behind Sunny whilst she raised her rod to the stone.
~~~~~
The sudden splash of water during the Geomantic spell-casting raised the group’s collective heart rates a little, but when they realized it was only a trickle and not a torrent, they found that, despite their newly forming puddle, the structure was largely intact.
They found themselves in a hallway lit by clumps of vegetation set into the walls at regular intervals, fed by a tiny aqueduct system set into the wall. The cool greens of the fluorescent moss and the blueish-purples of the large, equally fluorescent fungi ensured that the ambient lighting was oddly soothing.
"Huh, that's new. I don't think I've ever seen fungus used to light up a dungeon before," Daring said upon observing their new discovery, and the newly dissolved aqueduct that was still pouring water onto the floor. "and we've already managed to break it."
Sunny rolled her eyes before bridging the gap with a trough of summoned rock. "Happy?"
"For the moment. So, O Great Compass Bearer, how far are we from the Star?"
"It's still somewhere below us, but the indication is stronger down this passage." Aaron stated whilst pointing down the right side of the hallway. "Shall we?"
Daring tilted her head a bit. "Towards the sound of a massive amount of rushing water? Might as well."
Heading down the oddly lit hallway, the group fell into a deep silence as the deafening roar increased in volume until the hallway split into two directions, one of which was decidedly louder.
"Let me guess, towards the tumult?" Daring asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah..." Aaron said after conferring with the compass once more. "At least I hope this is the correct way. We still haven't reached the Star's depth yet."
That last part went unheard over the din of moving water. The trio suddenly found themselves on a platform overlooking an immense chamber. Waterfalls spanned the entire circumference, save for a few additional outcroppings similar to the one on which they now stood.
In the center of the roaring chamber was a brightly lit dais, fitted with white, polished stone bridge that connected it with the wall beyond it. The entire room was light by a upside-down fluorescent mushroom hanging from the ceiling, centered above the platform.
Regardless of how old the structure actually was, this room was of some ceremonial importance to whoever had built it, that much was for certain. Daring was squinting at the stone carvings that adorned the side of the dais, in a vain attempt to discern their purpose, when she sensed motion at the edge of her vision.
Towards the edge of the platform's bridge, mostly veiled behind the nearest portion of the waterfall, Daring noticed a light moving against the current, as if it was headed up a concealed, recessed staircase. She nudged the canines until they spotted it too.
The staircase zigzagged behind the waterfall, but every time it crossed the area nearest the bridge, they caught glimpse of male earth pony hauling something up the stairs.
Doing there best to identify the stranger, and his cargo, Daring decided to hover over and get a closer look. The Stallion was a muddy brown, but Daring couldn't see his cutie mark from this distance. The sack he was hauling up the stairs was shaped like a large, heavy bowling ball, the bag letting out a glint of light every time it hit another stair.
"Is that the-" Daring began to wonder just before the stallion spotted her and started bolting up the stairs. "Hey!" She started before realizing that Aaron and Sunny were still stuck on the platform.
"What's the matter?" Sunny asked, yelling so that she could be heard over the background.
"I think that pony has the Star!"
"Then chase after them!" Shouted Aaron. "We can't take the chance of the Star getting away!"
"But-!"
"Don't worry about us, we'll find a way to catch up!"
And with that Daring darted off in pursuit.