//------------------------------// // Part II: Past and Present // Story: Rainbow Dash and the Treasure of Canterlot // by Insert Pen Name //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash and the Treasure of Canterlot Part II: Past and Present A FiM fic by (Insert Pen Name)         It was yet another beautiful morning in Ponyville, as was yesterday morning, and the morning before that. But to Rainbow Dash, this particular morning was the most beautiful at all, primarily because she hadn’t been in charge of making it. For once there were no clouds to be moved, no weather to be managed, and for Dash this meant only one glorious thing; sleeping in.         The sky-blue pegasus dreamily snuggled deeper into her cumulous pillow. Three days had passed since the Royal Canterlot Archaeological Society Ball, and were Dash awake, she might have been reflecting on the events of that night, on the mysterious inscription on the black stone, and on the nagging fact that she had canceled a day out with Pinkie Pie to attend. But as it was, Dash was sound asleep, and so none of that mattered. All that mattered was her bed, her pillow, her sheets, and the very loud and annoying ringing noise that suddenly reverberated in her ears.         Dash’s eyes shot open. The ringing continued. Her tail twitched in agitation. What vile device could produce such a fiendish sound? What damnable contraption had so viciously interrupted her perfect morning? The answer, she realised, was rather obvious. With a groan, Dash reached over and groped for her alarm clock, only to find empty space in its stead. She then remembered that she had, in a similar state, tossed her alarm clock out the window some two weeks previous, resulting in several hundred bits worth of property damage. Rainbow had naturally attempted to deny responsibility, but was thwarted in this regard by the ‘Property of Rainbow Dash’ label she had stuck across the back of the clock for no adequately developed reason. She had made no effort to replace the clock since.         The ringing sounded yet again.         Dash briefly suspected her telephone, but that was also out of the question for the simple reason that she did not own one. Telephones were still a rarity in Equestria, especially among pegasi, largely due to the fact that nopony had yet conceived of a practical way to install the necessary wiring in a cloud home without the attendant risk of turning the whole structure into one big exposed socket (in which the residing pegasus would be the proverbial fork).         This left only her doorbell as the last possible culprit, which meant that Rainbow had no course of action but to get up and answer it. She briefly considered merely ignoring it, and waiting for whoever it was to give up and move on, but given that fact that the bell was still ringing even now, that probably wasn’t going to work out. Grumbling, Dash roused from her bed and trudged the length of the hall to her front door.         “Who’s there?” she demanded groggily through the door.         “Pony Express!” sang a cheery voice from outside.         “Pony Express?” repeated Dash to herself. “I didn’t order anything...”         With a resigned sigh, Dash flung open the door and found herself staring into two bright yellow eyes, both of which had clearly had a falling out at some point and now wished to have as little to do with one-another as possible. What little they did agree on was focused directly at Rainbow’s grumpy face. The owner of the eyes was a grey pegasus mare wearing a bright smile on her face, and a plain brown knapsack on her back with the words ‘Pony Express’ stenciled on the side.         “Good morning, Rainbow Dash!” beamed the smiling courier.         “‘Morning Derpy,” responded Dash flatly. “How’s life?”         “Pretty good,” answered Derpy Hooves. “I’m going to Las Pegasus today!”         “Yeah, that’s great,” deadpanned Rainbow. “So, is there a reason you’re bothering me this morning or what?”         Derpy responded to this rude query by staring blankly and scrunching her snout up in an expression of adorable bewilderment. It was a demeaning tactic to be sure, but she found it tended to yield results when dealing with difficult customers. Dash, however, was quite immune to its effects.         “Well...?”         Realising that her mind tricks were availing her nothing, Derpy shrugged and produced an envelope from beneath her wing.         “Twilight Sparkle asked me to give you this on my way out of town,” explained Derpy.         “You could’ve left it in the mailbox, y’know.”         Derpy shook her head.         “Nope, ‘your hooves only’.”         “Whatever. Thanks, I guess. Enjoy your trip to Hoofington or wherever.”         “Las Pegasus,” corrected Derpy.         “Whatever. See you later, Derpy.”         With that, Dash turned back into the house and politely slammed the door behind her.         “And I thought Mr. Brown was a grouch,” muttered Derpy. * * *         Rainbow,         Meet me at the library as soon as you’re free. Come alone.         -Twilight The note had been short and swift, just as Dash preferred it. Unable to return to the wonders of sleep, and at a loss for anything better to do, Dash now found herself flying in the direction of the Ponyville library. The rest of the world was just a colourful blur beneath her as she soared through the air, free of all boundaries and responsibilities and couriers with wonky eyes. Her arrival at the library was distinctly uneventful. One can only make so many crash landings before the art is gone, and more mundane consequences take its place. So it was that Rainbow Dash made a perfectly civil landing right before the front door, and was promptly greeted by the adorably motor-like buzz of tiny, rapidly-beating wings. “Rainbow Dash!” called the voice of a very excited filly. With an amused sigh, Dash turned to greet her number-one fan. “Hey, Scootaloo, how’s it going?” “Totally awesome!” shouted the orange filly as she drew her scooter to a grinding halt. “I just invented this amazing new trick on my scooter! You wanna see it? Huh, huh, please, please?” “Sorry, kid, I got stuff to do,” said Dash. “Maybe later, okay?” “What kind of stuff?” asked Scootaloo. “Oh you know, boring grown-up stuff. You wouldn’t like it.” “Yeah right, it’s never boring with you around, Rainbow Dash! You’re like the least boring pony in history!” “Heh, you got that right,” said Dash with a grin. “So now can we hang out?” “No.” “Drat. So close.” Dash sighed. “Look, why don’t go run around with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle?” she suggested. “Go fly a kite or blow stuff up or something.” “Nah, we did all that yesterday,” said Scootaloo glumly. “And now Applebloom and Sweetie Belle say they’re both grounded for a month.” “What about you?” asked Dash. “Aren’t you grounded?” “No.” “Oh. Cool. Anyway, I gotta go in and see Twilight, so I’ll see you later... maybe.” “But what am I supposed to do?” demanded Scootaloo. “It’s boring being out by myself.” “I dunno, read a book or something,” laughed Rainbow. “Actually...” With a thoughtful grin, Dash turned and cantered on into the library. Scootaloo instinctively followed close behind, and was duly horrified to see her idol actually selecting a book off the shelf. “Wait, are you seriously going to suggest I actually read a book?!” asked Scootaloo in alarm. “Only because the book is... ‘Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone!” announced Dash, holding her favourite novel aloft with an inexplicably prehensile hoof. Scootaloo raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Hey, I enjoyed it,” said Dash with a shrug. “Therefore, it must be awesome.” Unable to argue with her mentor’s impeccable logic, Scootaloo leapt forward and snatched up the hardcover tale of high adventure with an excited squeal. The little filly then proceeded to deposit herself in the nearest chair, and delved hungrily into her prize. With Scootaloo thus occupied, Dash quietly headed for the back room of the library, where she was not at all surprised to see Twilight Sparkle sitting in the midst of a nigh impenetrable ring of books. Several open volumes hovered daintily around the unicorn’s head, and every so often she would levitate one out of the ring, only to replace it with another. After patiently waiting for about five seconds for the unicorn’s attention, Dash cleared her throat. “Hey, Twilight, eyes up.” Twilight’s head popped up out of her literary redoubt and broke into a smile. “Ah, there you are, Rainbow. Derpy gave you my note then?” “Yes, she did,” said Rainbow grimly. “So what’ve you been up to?” “Research!” declared Twilight. “Yeah, I figured. Have you been looking into the... uh...” “You don’t need to be sneaky about it Rainbow, it’s perfectly safe to talk here.” “Oh cool, so you’ve been looking into where the White Crest is-” “Shhh!!!” hissed Twilight. “You want everypony in town to hear you?” “But you just said-” “Never mind what I just said. I told you never to mention the White Crest to anypony!” “And I haven’t, I swear!” protested Rainbow. “Good. Because as of now, we can’t trust anypony!” “Twilight, you’re starting to scare me.” “Tell that to Princess Celestia!” snapped Twilight. “I just received a letter from her this morning. She’s worried that somepony might try to steal the Crest if we’re not careful, so she’s ordered complete confidentiality! She’s even arranged a secure rendezvous point where we can safely give her the Crest after we recover it.” Dash let out a low whistle. “Wow, she’s taking this pretty seriously,” she said. “Anyway, have you figured out where to start looking?” “Oh yeah,” scoffed Twilight, suddenly casual again. “I figured it out on the train ride home, actually.” “And you didn’t tell me?” “Well, I had to confirm my hypothesis.” “Meh, whatever. So where’re we headed then?” asked Rainbow. “Old Canterlot!” declared Twilight. “What?! We were just there!” shouted Rainbow. “Why couldn’t you have figured that out while we were still at the party?!” “No, no, I said Old Canterlot,” clarified Twilight. “You’re thinking of New Canterlot.” “There’s two Canterlots?!” “Well there were. Or rather, first there was one, then the other... Didn’t you learn any of this in history class?” Dash shrunk back a bit. Thinking back to her school days, her history teacher had very likely covered the topic, but Dash herself had generally spent most of her history classes passing notes to the filly sitting next to her. This in itself might have proved a worthwhile endeavor, were it not for the fact that the girl had finally admitted at the end of the term that she was not a fillyfooler after all, and had simply been playing along because she had enjoyed the attention. That Dash was able to pass the class at all was due only to the last-minute intervention of Fluttershy, who agreed to help Rainbow study if she promised to stop passing notes in class. Dash agreed, and took up sneaking comics into her textbooks instead. “I might need a refresher...” Dash said finally. Twilight sighed, but deep down she relished in the chance to lecture her friend. And so she began: “Old Canterlot was the first city in Equestria, founded mere days after the arrival of the first pony refugees. Some ponies were skeptical about trying to build a whole new city from scratch, but the leaders of the three pony races were determined that a new city would provide a beacon of hope after all the hardships the ponies had faced. They also hoped that it would give everypony a common goal to work towards, so they wouldn’t fall back into their old prejudices again.” “So building the city was like a giant team-building exercise,” suggested Dash. “Exactly. The city was founded on the edge of what is now the Everfree Forest, where there were ample supplies of lumber and forage for the construction effort. Building the city was a tremendous task. Stones were quarried from all over the surrounding mountains. Huge fields were tilled to feed the workers and the city’s future inhabitants. Roads were laid all over Equestria to keep everything running smoothly. Finally, after five years of construction, Canterlot was declared the official capital of Equestria, and the first Pony Parliament was held amidst a massive celebration. “For hundreds of years afterwards, Canterlot was the shining jewel of Equestria. The population reached into the hundreds of thousands. Traders came from all over to sell their wares, and the city grew immensely wealthy. Art and science flourished, and it was said that on a moonlit night, the castle gardens were the most beautiful sight in Equestria.” “So if this place is so great, how come I never heard of it?” asked Rainbow. “Oh, but you have,” answered Twilight. “You’ve been there, in fact.” “What? When?” “The night after we first met, actually.” “... Wait, you mean-?” “That’s right,” nodded Twilight. “The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters; once the proud centre of Old Canterlot.” “What happened to it?” asked Rainbow in disbelief. Twilight shrugged morosely. “A bunch of things, really. A big part of it was the Everfree; the forest started growing out around the city almost as soon as it was completed, and by the end of the sixth century, Canterlot was surrounded on three sides by the forest. With most of the roads cut off, the city ceased to be a major trading centre, and so it began a period of steep economic decline. On top of that, other large cities were now sprouting up, such as Cloudsdale and Manehatten, so Canterlot was no longer the major population hub it once was. And while he’s not mentioned in any history books, it’s a pretty safe bet that Discord was a major factor as well. By the time the Royal Sisters came to power in 673, Canterlot was only a shadow of its former glory. “The final blow was the Nightmare Moon incident in 1010,” continued Twilight. “Nightmare Moon?” repeated Rainbow, now vividly imagining the great black mare of darkness leveling homes and terrorizing innocents. “What did she do, exactly?” “Nothing, really, but you’d hardly expect anypony to stick around through something like that, would you?” answered Twilight. “Now, the stories make it sound like Nightmare Moon was defeated overnight, but in fact Celestia battled her for several days, or nights rather, before she resorted to using the Elements of Harmony. By that time, Canterlot had been completely abandoned. Even the Princess didn’t want to stay. Too many bad memories, I guess. She rounded up all the refugees she could find, and went on to found New Canterlot that same year.” “And they just forgot about the old one?” asked Dash. “Not all at once,” explained Twilight. “Celestia ordered a number of salvage operations to recover important reserves and documents, and treasure-hunters continued to comb the ruins long after that. The city was finally leveled by the earthquake of 1289, and the Everfree just grew over the rubble. The castle is pretty much the only major structure still standing.” “Woah...” said Dash solemnly. There was a pensive pause. “And that’s where we’ll find the White Crest?” she asked finally. Twilight nodded. “Seek the city of the boundless garden...” recited Twilight. “I knew it couldn’t be anyplace other than Old Canterlot. As for the other clues, it took me a while, but I found us a pretty promising lead...” Twilight magically selected a lone book from the vast pile that surrounded her, opened it to a previously marked page, and floated it over to Rainbow. “This is a book of sketches made by an adventuring artist who explored the ruins over two-hundred years ago,” explained Twilight. “Notice anything?” Most of the sketches were fairly rough, but impressively detailed. In one corner, Dash quickly recognised the gutted husk of the old castle, but the artist had explored other areas of the lost city as well, and the bulk of the page was dominated by sketches of what appeared to have once been some sort of garden or promenade. Of particular significance was a pair of large statues that flanked the path, each depicting an armoured pegasus. The two stone guardians stared ahead with their ceaseless gaze, and their wings were spread out to form a makeshift arch over the path beneath them. “Past the unblinking sentries...” remembered Rainbow. “Beneath the seventh column, to the sepulchre of silent stone...” continued Twilight. “Now, I couldn’t find any mention of a column, I’m afraid, but according to the artist’s notes, those statues mark the entrance to the royal guard cemetery outside the castle, so if that’s the case, the sepulchre shouldn’t be far off.” “Sounds like we’ve pretty much found the Crest already,” remarked Rainbow. “Let’s hope so,” nodded Twilight. “Right now, all that matters is that we get moving as soon as possible. If Princess Celestia is correct, there could be other ponies looking for the Crest as we- what was that?” Dash blinked. “What was what?” “That sound,” hissed Twilight. “I don’t hear any-” “Shhh!!!” Twilight turned quietly to the door, approaching it with slow, measured steps, before she suddenly let out a wild yell and flung the door open in a burst of magic. “AHA!!!”         “Yipe!” Rainbow had a fleeting vision of something orange and purple fleeing with a yelp, but Twilight was the quicker and a second later the poor filly had been magically dragged back before the two mares. “Scootaloo!” yelled Twilight. “What were you doing by the door?” “N-nothing,” said the quivering filly. “I was just, uh, reading, that’s all.” “Oh really?” sneered Twilight. “Then where’s your book?” “Uh...” “Don’t lie to me, Scootaloo, you were eavesdropping on us the whole time, weren’t you?” “No, I wasn’t!” cried Scootaloo. “It was an accident, I swear!” “An accident?” repeated Rainbow flatly. “How do you accidentally eavesdrop?” “I, uh...” “You’re not fooling anypony, Scootaloo,” said Twilight crossly. “What. Did. You. Hear?” “Nothing!” pleaded Scootaloo. “Absolutely nothing!” Dash and Twilight glared witheringly at the young filly. “Uh, well I might have heard some things...” “Such as?” “Well, I heard you guys going on a lot about a lost city, and a white crest, and something about how you’re going on a treasure hunt or something, and hey, can I come with you?” Twilight blinked. “What?” “Can I come with you guys?” repeated Scootaloo. “On your treasure hunt? ‘Cause that would really be awesome! I might even get my treasure-hunting cutie-mark!” “No, you can’t come with us,” exclaimed Twilight. ‘Aw, why not?” “One, this is an important archaeological mission; two, we’ll be going into the Everfree forest, so it’ll be way too dangerous; and three, there is no way that your parents would approve.” “Pah, I’ve been in the forest tons of times,” said Scootaloo dismissively. “And trust me, my parents wouldn’t mind. C’mon, I could be like your sidekick! How about it, Rainbow Dash?” “My sidekick, eh?” mused Rainbow playfully. “That does sound pretty cool...” “Oh no!” protested Twilight. “You are not taking her along! This isn’t Daring Do, Dash!” “Daring Do doesn’t have a sidekick,” said Rainbow. “Exactly!” declared Twlight, to her friend’s confusion. “She’ll only get in the way, we are not taking her!” “I dunno, Twilight,” said Rainbow with a casual shrug. “We can’t just let her go now, can we? She knows too much... Wouldn’t want her running around telling everypony what we’re up to, would we?” Twilight fell dead silent. For once in her life she didn’t have a good answer. Rainbow only smiled. “You can’t be serious,” pleaded Twilight. “I’ll be real good, I promise,” piped Scootaloo. “And I won’t get in the way either. Plus, you never know when you could use an extra hoof, right?” Twilight was still having none of it. “Please?” asked Scootaloo, adopting her most adorable little filly face. Twilight gave a loud sigh. “Fine, whatever, you can come. But you can’t tell anypony, got it!” “You got it, Twilight!” shouted Scootaloo, springing to salute. “Your secret’s safe with me!” “We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning,” continued Twilight. “Be here at 6:00, or we’re leaving without you.” “I’ll be there!” declared Scootaloo. “This is gonna be so awesome! Thanks Twilight, thanks Rainbow Dash!” “Heh, no problem, kid,” said Rainbow as the little orange filly clamped herself adoringly around her leg. “You just go and get ready, okay?” With triumphant whoop, Scootaloo hurried out the front door, nearly bowling over Spike on the way. Amid the dragon’s protests about crazy ponies, the sound of a motor revving soon emanated from outside, before quickly fading into the presumed distance. With Scootaloo now gone, Twilight rounded on Rainbow in annoyance. “You’d better know what you’re doing, Dash,” said Twilight. “We don’t have time to get stuck foalsitting.” “Oh relax,” said Rainbow in a manner that did little to placate her friend. “She’ll be fine. Besides, you know what a careful sort of gal I am.” Twilight shook her head in exasperation. For a moment, neither pony said anything, until Dash noticed the wide grin spreading across Twilight’s face. “Now what’s got you so happy?” Twilight grinned even wider. “I just realised... We’re actually going to find it. The White Crest, the most legendary artifact in pony history, and I’ll be holding it in my hooves...” Twilight reflected on this gleeful fantasy a little longer before finally giving in to her excitement and leaping into the air in a joyous display that would have done Pinkie Pie proud. To be continued...