Uncharted: Secrets of the ancestors

by Cloud Thunderhoof

Chapter 3: New Allies and Old Mysteries

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Victor Sullivan-

Sully hid behind a crate in the covered back of the military truck. He could hear the vices of the soldiers through the canvas.

“How much longer do we have to put up with this bullshit?” a soldier with an American accent asked.

“Until the boss stops paying us or you know…” a mercenary with an Indian accent said. Then there was the unmistakable crack of gunfire.

At first the adventurer thought that it was just the merc’ trying to make a point, but then there was a hollow thud from outside the canvas covering followed by another one yelling “Oh god, Hostile contact three o’clock!”.

Shortly after, the sound of automatic gunfire began and Sully grabbed for the hilt of his revolver instinctually. The gunfire was deafening, causing him to release his grip on the gun and cover his ringing ears instead. Every so often a stray bullet ripped through the canvas and let golden beams of sunlight filter into the dark interior. Victor did his best to stay quiet, though he knew that no sound he made would be heard over the noise outside. He began to wonder who was attacking them, whatever it was, the hired guns didn’t seem to stand a chance.

As time went on the sound of gunfire outside got quieter, which Sully assumed was due to the soldiers falling in combat. The sound of gunfire diminished until Victor could only hear one weapon fire, but it cut off abruptly.

“I surrender, please don’t kill me I have a family”, came a pleading voice from directly outside.

“Look, I’ll throw down my weapons just to prove it”, the pleading voice came again follows by a metallic clattering of weapons falling to the ground. However the pleading did little to sway the attacker, and seconds later there was a gunshot and then the sound of body falling to the ground.

Sully silently edged his way to the end of the cargo truck. Hoping to avoid any more stray bullets that might come through the canvas covering. Silently he got out and peeked around the corner of the truck to see what had happened.

To his surprise there was nothing there, just the bodies of slain soldiers and spent shell casings. Sully let out a sigh of relief and put his gun back in its holster, but did not release the handle in case there were still enemies out there. Something about the corpses was off, Sully couldn't put his finger on exactly what, but something seemed wrong. Each mercenary had been killed in the exact same way, a bullet straight through the heart; except that was the only wound any of them had. Whoever had killed them was incredibly accurate, which didn't bode well for Sully.

He crouched down and scavenged the bodies for anything that could give him a clue as to where Drake could be. Eventually he found a worn map in the front pocket of one of the mercenary’s body armor. He unfolded the yellowed paper and inspected it. The map was blood stained but he could make out some of the details; the map was definitely of the island, but it had seemingly random locations circled in thick black ink.

Something snapped behind him. Then before he could react, he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel being pressed against the back of his neck.

“Get up”, a female voice commanded.

Victor had no option other than to obey, so he slowly got up to his feet and made sure not to make any threatening movements. If drake were here he would have made some smart-ass remark, then again, if I was with Drake then we wouldn’t be in this mess, He thought, trying to take his mind off of his probable death.

“Don’t try anything funny, this is your gun after all”, the feminine voice continued with a note of almost smug confidence.
Sully stole a glance at his now empty holster, confirming what the voice had said.

“Eyes front, take two steps forward and turn around, if you make any sudden movements I swear I will put a bullet in your skull, understood?”, the voice commanded.

Sully nodded as the gun barrel prodded him. He took two large steps forward and turned around, making sure not to make any threatening or sudden movements. The source of the voice ended up being a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties.

“You’re a little old to be a mercenary”, she stated bluntly, her crystal blue eyes trained on the aging man.

“I’m not one of the mercenaries” he replied, hoping she would not just shoot him anyway.

“Then why are you here? Why were you in the back of the truck if you aren’t with the soldiers?” she asked, taking aim at sully’s head.

“Listen, a friend and I were hired to help with the expedition, if we had known that all of this was going on then we wouldn’t have accepted the job” Sully said, he spoke slowly and deliberately, choosing each word carefully.

The woman used her thumb to pull back the hammer on the revolver and the cylinder rotated, chambering a new bullet. Then she raised the gun and Sully found himself staring down the barrel of his custom Colt Python. She was obviously about to fire, except that Sully had and ace in the hole. During the last fight with the pirates he had spent all but one of the bullets in his revolver, the one she just chambered was not that one.

Suddenly the woman pulled the trigger but only a hollow click greeted her. The woman recoiled in surprise and Sully wasted no time in fighting back. The aging adventurer sprung forward and grabbed the pistol out of her hands. She recovered from her shock extremely quickly, and within a second was on the offensive. She swung out, striking Sully in the jaw and causing him to taste blood. Her next strike was directly into a pressure point, causing Sully to lose sensation in his legs. He barely managed to stay on his feet as the woman swung at his ribs. The strike connected, sending ully reeling back a few steps. Suddenly she sprung forward and drew a hunting knife from a sheath on her leg. The woman lashed out with the knife, the steel gleaming in the sunlight.

The tip of the knife grazed Sully’s face, slicing a jagged line from his ear to his chin. The long gash sent waves of pain coursing through Victor’s head and made it hard to concentrate on his assailant. Adrenaline began to work its way into Sully’s blood and the pain diminished, letting him focus on the fight. The woman lashed out with the blade again, this time she went straight for the chest. However Sully was ready; he grabbed her wrist as it got within an inch of his sternum and twisted it so the blade faced away from him. Then, without hesitation Sully used his other hand to bring up the revolver. He swung the gun, and with an audible crack the hilt of the revolver struck the woman’s skull.

The metal base of the handle ripped a gash into her head. Instantly she stopped struggling, her eyes rolled up into her head, and her body fell to the ground; motionless.

Sully prodded the still body with his foot to confirm that she wasn’t going to get up. Next he crouched down and searched for a pulse. The woman still had a faint pulse, confirming that she was just unconscious. Although the woman had fewer injuries they were much more sever. The gash on her forehead now oozed scarlet blood, which pooled around her right eye and trickled down the side of her face.

The surge of adrenaline which had kept Sully going during the fight now left his blood. Every cut, bruise, and scrape from the conflict now cried out in pain. Victor took the revolver and rotated the cylinder until the last unspent bullet was chambered. His injured arms protested as he lifted the gun and steadied his am at the unconscious woman’s head. He used his thumb to pull back the hammer on the pistol and then rested his finger on the trigger, but didn’t pull.

This isn’t right, I can’t just shoot someone when they can’t fight back; either way if she was the one who killed the mercs than we might have the same enemy. Either way, I bet she knows something I don’t, Sully thought.

He took his finger off of the trigger and holstered the gun, hoping that the decision not to end the woman would come back to bite him later. Instead Victor dragged the unconscious body over to a tree, and tied her hands behind it using rope form the back of the supply truck.

After he made sure the knot would hold, he went to scavenge anything he could off of the dead mercenaries and from the supply crates. There was a veritable gold mine of weapons and ammunition within the truck, Sully found everything from RPGs to tazers in the supply crates. Sully found an M4 and slung it over his shoulder then stashed extra magazines on his belt before moving on. Each crate was filled to the brim with state of the art weapons and ammunition; and by the looks of it they had all just been dropped off on the island.

Sully remembered seeing the cargo planes dropping supplies in by parachute for the last few days. All of the supply drops had been taken and loaded onto trucks like the one Sully now occupied before they drove off to some unknown location.
“Wait a second, there are barely even a hundred mercenaries on the island, why the hell do they need so many guns” He wondered out loud.

Sully got off the flat bed of the truck and looked at the unconscious form of the woman and something told him that she be invaluable in the days to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Twilight Sparkle-

“Pinkie, how, what…” Twilight began, baffled by her friend’s appearance out of the book.

“Sorry-Twilight-I-have-to-go-and-put-together-a-party-for-our-new-friend”, the words tumbled out of the party mare’s mouth as she sped out of the door at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash jealous.

Twilight just stood there for a moment, trying, but failing, to understand what just happened.

“Do all your books do that?” Drake asked, obviously joking, but shaking a little bit for the unexpected encounter.

“Not usually”, Twilight said as Spike got off of her back and cleaned up the mess Pinkie had made

“Let’s go up to my study and talk”, Twilight said as she climbed the stairs to the second floor of the library

“Spike can you hold down the fort for while I’m upstairs”, she called to her assistant.

The small dragon threw a salute and then plodded off to take care of some other task. Drake grudgingly followed her up the stairs. The study was still in disarray from a whirlwind night of studying a few days prior. Twilight blushed slightly out of embarrassment as she swept some of the papers off of her desk haphazardly.

“Take a seat”, she told the human. He obeyed and sat on the ground in front of the cluttered table.

Twilight scanned the shelves and the various piles of papers for something she could use. Eventually she located some tomes and maps among the chaos and focused on them. The familiar sensation of warmth came to her horn as her aura enveloped the objects and drew them closer. The mare placed them on the table before her and sat down opposite to Drake. Twilight wasn’t sure she was reading his face right, but Nathan seemed surprised about something.

“How did you do that?” he asked, pointing at where the books used to be.

“Levitation isn’t that hard, it’s usually the first spell unicorns learn”, she replied.

“Sorry, I’m still getting used to the whole magical talking ponies thing”, Drake replied

Twilight unrolled one of the maps with her magic and placed it on the table. The map was old and water stained. Blue pen marks and random notes were scribbled on the old paper, they were smudged but Twilight knew what they meant. It was a hoof drawn map of the Everfree Forest with blue circles drawn around certain areas. She took a blue pen and circled the place where she had found Drake the previous night. She then rolled the map back up and set it to the side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Nathan Drake-

“What was that?” Drake asked trying to get a look at the map.

“Magical Hotspots in the Everfree Forest” The purple pony replied.

Drake wanted her to elaborate but he knew that there were more pressing matters at hand. The two sat there for a few uncomfortable minutes, neither one speaking. Drake was secretly grateful, these ponies might have been strange but they weren’t pulling him apart on a lab table, yet; he wasn’t sure the reaction would be the same if one of them suddenly appeared in his world.

“You said your friend is missing?” Twilight asked, breaking the silence.

“I haven’t seen him since the explosion” Drake said, restating what he had said a few time before.

“You keep talking about an explosion, what happened?” She asked, obviously worried

Drake opened his mouth but paused and chose his words carefully, “Something exploded; I don’t know what, but it was pretty big. Next thing I know, I wake up in a rundown barn in a land of magical ponies” he decided to omit the details about the helicopter and pirates.

She didn't seem to notice Drake’s lie and continued to sift through the books in front of her.

Drake looked around as the pony searched through a set of books taking in the details of the room for the first time. It was brightly lit but there did not appear to be any obvious source, which he assumed was because of some of this magic. Shelves were carved into the walls and lined with ornately bound books. Drake looked at Twilight who was paging through an alarmingly large book at the moment and wondered if getting up to look at the other book would be overstepping his bounds.

“Go ahead take a look; I'm going to be at this for a while” Twilight Said. Drake didn’t realize that Twilight had put the book down.

Nathan nodded as he stood up and walked over the wall which was overflowing with the ornate tomes. Each one was large and bound in a stiff cloth with ornate golden designs on the side. He selected a deep red tome and flipped it open. The first few pages were images of a massive castle with ornate marble towers, high walls, and a cascading waterfall tumbling down a mountain in the background. However, it looked more like a photograph than a painting.

Drake opened the book to the first page and scanned it. The page had a picture of a massive castle nestled over a cascading mountain waterfall. Ornate gold capped spires rose from behind the marble walls. The castle appeared to be built for comfort more than the defensive fortresses they were back home. There was a caption under the image but it appeared to be in poor handwriting and smudged. If he didn’t know any better than he would have said the image was a photograph.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” A female voice came from behind Drake.

He turned his head and saw that Twilight had walked up behind him without him noticing. “Yeah, the artist has a real talent” Drake said, mesmerized as he leafed deeper into the book.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, “It’s a photograph”

Drake gave her a skeptical look but turned the page to see if there were any details about the regal structure. He turned the page and looked at the paper but couldn’t make out any of the letters. It was strange, they looked like English but some of the letters had an extra line or were curved in strange ways. The letters resembled Russian more than English but even they they still looked strange.

Great, magical “communist” horses, Drake thought sarcastically.

The adventurer paged through the book, trying to see if he could understand any of the writing but to no avail.

“What language is this?” Drake asked as he scoured the tome for legible text.

Twilight gave him a strange look and responded as if it was a stupid joke, “I know the hoof-writing is bad in the book but it’s perfectly readable Equuis”

“You mean English?” Drake asked as he turned to face the pony, wondering if he had heard her wrong.
She cocked her head to one side and returned a curious look, showing that she didn’t understand what he was talking about.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Twilight Sparkle-

The human rooted through the pockets of his pants, looking for something.

“Damn it, must have lost it during all of the confusion”, he swore when he could not locate whatever it was.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, wanting to know what he was looking for.

“You have something I can write with?” he asked, not appearing to notice Twilight’s question.

Twilight levitated a quill, ink and parchment her desk over to the human. He gave the items a cautionary glance before reaching out to grasp them. As Drake’s had approached the hovering items a strange sensation ran across Twilight’s horn. It began to feel cold and she felt herself losing control of the spell even though it continued normally. She had felt a similar feeling when casting the healing spell on the human before, except it was less pronounced. It bothered Twilight, but she bit the feeling back seeing as she couldn’t do anything about it at the moment.

Twilight watched with curiosity as the human wrote on the parchment. For the first time she saw his hands in action and it fascinated her. She had seen Spike write countless times before but the human’s writing style was much different. His hands worked much quicker than spikes pudgy claws ever could and with much more precision. She was also fascinated that his hands weren’t clawed, each finger looked soft and fleshy except for a small hard tip on the top of each one. What surprised her was that they didn’t appear to be designed for anything else than manipulating objects; Spike’s claws were designed for digging more than anything else, and most animals with similar appendages used them for ripping into flesh. If Drake’s species had evolved to manipulate objects and tools than that could say a lot about what it was like where Drake came from.

Twilight’s train of thoughts was broken up when Drake stopped writing and held out the piece of parchment towards her. Twilight took the paper with her magic and turned it so that the writing faced her. At first the wanted to know why he wanted her to read it, but what surprised her was that she couldn’t. The letters appeared to be in Equuis at first but the individual characters did not flow together as well as the equestrian script and the lines of each letter were much thinner, almost barren looking.

The alicorn asked the first question that came to mind “What does this say?”

Drake took the paper back and Twilight noticed that when his hand made contact her magic instantly faded away even though she didn’t release the spell. It bothered her that the human somehow could negate her magic without even trying, overpowering somponyelse’s spell was a cultural taboo in Equestria, but something told her that the human didn’t even know he was doing it.
The human absently folded the paper and slid it into his back pocket before saying “it’s my name in my language”
Strange, our spoken languages are practically identical but our written languages are different, Twilight thought. Then another thought came to the forefront of her mind, but that shouldn’t matter.

“It shouldn’t matter though, all of the books in my library are enchanted with a universal translation spell, you should be able to read them no matter what your native language is”, Twilight said, perplexed as to why it had no effect on the human.
“Listen Twilight, I’m not sure if you heard me say this before, but there is none of this kind of magic where I’m from. Maybe it’s just that I’m not from a place where magic exists, but the universal translation spell or whatever might not work on me because of it”, Drake said, trying to get a point that he had made before across.

Something finally clicked in Twilight’s mind, she had heard him say that before but dismissed the notion since a magic-less world seemed so improbable. However now that she thought about it, other abnormalities about Drake started to make sense. Then another thought managed to work its way into the mare’s head.

Twilight facehoofed and groaned “How could I not have thought of it before”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Nathan Drake-

Drake watched perplexed as the pony in front of him hit herself in the face with one of her front hooves and muttered something unintelligible through a groan.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, not sure why she had such a dramatic change in demeanor so quickly.

However instead of answering she just looked at him and gave him a nervous smile. It worried Drake that she wouldn’t answer, but he didn’t feel like prying would help the situation much better for him.

Drake watched as the pony used her magic to pull books, scrolls, an abacus, and even a messy chalkboard out from areas all over the study. It fascinated him how she could use her magic so effortlessly. He couldn’t help wonder at what he could do if he possessed the same abilities, the ability to manipulate objects without even touching them would make so many things easier. Then something occurred to him for the first time, all of the ponies he had seen had wings, a horn, or nothing at all; except that Twilight was the only one he had seen with both of them. He wanted to ask the pony what the story behind it was. but she was neck deep in what appeared to be calculations at the moment.

Drake stood there, trying to figure out what the pony was doing for a few minutes before the purple lizard’s voice filtered up from the first floor, “Twilight!”

Twilight turned to face the source of the voice and screamed back “Spike, I’m busy!” losing her usually calm demeanor.

The young lizard replied unperturbed by Twilight’s harshness “Applejack is here, she has something…”

“Tell her I’m busy!” Twilight yelled back, cutting him off

The purple lizard continued despite Twilight trying to make him stop, “She has something for…him” he paused before addressing Drake, as if searching for the right word.

He looked at Twilight uncertainly but she was still engrossed in whatever she was working on, so Drake took the liberty of walking down the stairs, careful not to hit his head on the low ceiling. The first floor of the library was now occupied by both the purple lizard and the orange pony from before, except that now she was wearing what looked like saddle bags. Neither of them looked comfortable with being in the same room as Drake, and he could feel them watching him cautiously.

As he approached the lizard stood back, probably attempting to stay as far away from Drake as possible. Drake turned his gaze to the orange pony next and she returned an uncertain look. There was still fear in her eyes, except that this time it was more subdued and she looked more confidant then when they had first met.

A few moments passed before she dug into her saddle bag and took something out. It took Drake a second to recognize it but once he did he quickly took it. It was his bandoleer and holster, with the gun and grenade still attached.

The orange pony started to speak in an uncertain voice, “Ah caught my sis’ and her friends messing with this”
Drake looked up and his blood ran cold for a moment “Are they ok?” he asked, his voice quavering a bit.
Crap, I hope nothing happened to them, Drake thought, but he didn't let his face portray any more of his worry than is voice already had.

“They’re fine, it’s jus’ that I didn't want them messing with your things”, She replied, obviously not understanding why he was worried.

Drake didn't reply, instead he ejected the clip to make sure that none of the bullets were missing, then he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were all still there. Then he wasted no time in removing the firing pin, which he then slipped into the back pocket of his jeans.

“Thanks umm…” Drake said, addressing the pony in front of him.

“Applejack” she said, filling in the blank.

“Well, thanks Applejack” Drake said as he disarmed the grenade.

“Well I’m going to head out”, the mare said hurried as she walked back out of the front door.

After the door swung shut Drake began to walk back upstairs to the study. As he neared the top of the stairs a much different sight than before greeted him. Twilight was talking to the lizard who appeared to be writing on a large scroll with a feather quill. It took Drake a second to realize that she was dictating a letter to him.

“…however, as the situation has grown more complicated I feel that we need your judgment in the matter. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”, Drake only caught the last part of the letter but it grabbed his attention

“What do you mean ‘the situation has grown more complicated’?” Drake asked, making his presence known.
“Drake there’s something you need to know”, Twilight said, chalk dust now speckled her otherwise tidy mane and she wore an extremely nervous smile.

“What?” Drake asked, a slight hint of agitation now coming to his voice.

Twilight used her magic to pull the chalk board she had been working with earlier and picked up a small piece of white chalk before speaking, “Ok, so here’s a quick crash course in magic; the world is surrounded by a field of magical energy, we don’t know exactly what causes it but we believe it originates from the planet’s core” she is illustrated her point by drawing a big circle on the chalkboard and then drawing wavy lines around it.

“Now, the strongest concentrations of magic are the north and South Pole, except other high magical activity areas exist around the world and the Everfree forest, where we found you, is one of the most active” Twilight continued, looking at Drake to make sure they were both still on the same page.

Then before continuing, Twilight used the chalk to draw a tunnel on the chalkboard with an object on either side, “It’s not too uncommon for something to accidentally get pulled from one area of high activity to another. Usually it’s just a few rocks or bugs; but every so often something bigger comes through, which is how most scholars believed that the hydras got there even though they’re native to the Talon Islands”

“So that’s what I shot” Drake muttered absently; after all that he had seen today the fact that hydras exist barley caused him any pause.

Twilight stopped her lecture and looked at Drake quizzically before asking “What?”

“Never mind, it’s not important” Drake said, trying to change the topic before he had to tell her about the gun.
Twilight shrugged it off and continued to explain, “Anyway, so like with most teleportation magic there’s a definitive way to tell where an object originated by what’s called an entry signature. Whenever an object is teleported and reappears there’s always a flash of light and a very subtle disturbance in the air around it. The light is really just magic which traveled along with the object when it teleported, and a trained unicorn can usually identify where the teleport originated by the color of the light flash and how much of a disturbance it caused”.

“So finding how to get whatever comes through back, and I’m assuming you’re referring to me, should be just as easy as using the origin point as the destination instead”, Drake stated, hoping that he was getting everything.

However instead of replying right away Twilight just gave him a sheepish grin. When she began to speak it sounded more cautious and reserved than before “But there’s a problem; whatever brought you here was definitely some sort of teleportation spell, except that the numbers don’t match up”

“What do you mean ‘the numbers don’t match up’?” Drake asked, the nervous tone in his voice becoming slightly more pronounced.

“So based on my knowledge of teleportation, the entry signature of whatever brought you here covers about a two hundred mile radius. Except the disturbance doesn’t match up with that at all. Whatever brought you here was extremely violent and reduced over a square mile of forest to ashes. As far as I know nothing has ever had that much of an impact before”, Twilight paused and looked at Drake as if debating what to say next.

Except Drake beat her to it, “Twilight, cut to the chase, what’s going on?”

The mare gulped and looked at Drake uncertainly, “Whatever brought you here isn’t anything I’ve encountered before, or even heard about before”.

“So basically, you have no clue how to get me home”, Drake stated, keeping his face a neutral mask despite his conflicting internal feelings.

Twilight seemed a bit hurt at the acquisition but she quickly regained her composition before speaking, “I don’t know how to send you home, yet” the last word being stressed.

“Oh this is just perfect” Drake said sarcastically as he let out a sigh.

“Listen Drake, my mentor has access to one of the most extensive libraries in the world; and I think that I might be able to find something if I can get into it for a day or two. The letter I was dictating to Spike earlier was just me asking if it would be okay for me to stay there while I look for clues on how to get you back”, She explained; and it took the human a second to realize that the name Spike referred to the purple lizard.

“If you’re gone than what am I supposed to do here in the meantime, also time isn’t exactly on my side either”, Drake said, trying to get a full grasp on what exactly the purple mare was planning on doing.

“If I go you should probably come along, my mentor is going to want to meet you. Wait, what do you mean ‘Time isn’t on your side’?” Twilight asked, now getting curious as to what the human meant.

“What I meant is that the friend who I left behind in my world might be in some big trouble right now”, Drake said, he knew that there was no guarantee that Sully was even alive after the explosion but he couldn’t afford to think like that.

Twilight spoke next, “Drake, I know you say you come from a world without any magic, but I need you to tell me if you came into contact with any strange artifacts or creatures”

The first thing that popped into Drake’s mind that fit the description was the bronze amulet which had set all everything back home in motion. He pulled the large metal disk out of his pocket and held it up for the pony to see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Twilight Sparkle-

The human held the large metal amulet in his hand so that the alicorn could see it. Twilight activated her enhanced vision spell in order to more closely examine it but something strange greeted her. The amulet was covered in the same black hole like aura that enveloped the human, except that to her surprise it appeared to be the source of it. The black cloud of magic flowed out of the center of the amulet and swirled around Drake, creating what appeared to be a barrier between his body and the natural magic which swirled around the library.

But then she noticed something strange; any of the natural which got near to the black aura slid across it and flowed into the center of the amulet, which Twilight’s enhanced vision spells showed as glowing. The princess tried to grasp it with her magic except the waves of energy did not latch onto the item, instead they flowed to the center where they were absorbed like the natural magic around her. Then she lost control of the spell and the amulet began to suck the magic from her body instead.

It felt like somepony had frozen her horn while the amulet continued to draw the magic from it. Twilight quickly terminated both the levitation and enhanced vision spell and with that the icy sensation ceased. However it left her with a splitting headache and the feeling of lightning coursing down her spine. However within a few seconds the excruciating pain subsided and Twilight regained her focus.

Drake looked at her with a worried expression plastered across his face, but the mare gave him a reassuring smile which showed that she was feeling fine.

Now that she had terminated the vision spell she could see the amulet normally again. It was about the size of her hoof and made out of both gold and bronze with designs etched into the face. A large gemstone which the alicorn could not identify was set in the center of the piece, the gem radiated some sort of energy and Twilight assumed that it was the source of the strange aura around the human. Then Twilight notice that there was an inscription along the rim of the piece.

“Drake, can you hold it a little closer to me so I can read the writing on the side?”, as soon as Twilight finished the human held the amulet at her eye level.

The writing was spidery and drawn out, it looked nothing like Equuis or the human language, which confused Twilight. Then she remembered a lesson she had had in school years ago where they had been shown something similar. How is that even possible? Twilight thought as she realized what language it was.

“It’s Evarian script”, Twilight said, shocked by the discovery.

“Evarian script?” the human replied quizzically, obviously not understanding what the mare was talking about.

“The Evarius Empire is more myth than fact, and the little we know about them comes from the writings of other races and the few artifacts we’ve actually managed to recover. The strangest thing about them is that they just vanished about three thousand years ago, and there are barely any traces of the massive cities that are mentioned in the historical records” she elaborated while inspecting the strange artifact.

“Sounds familiar” Drake said.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked

“Well there are a couple of myths like that where I come from”, Drake said, chuckling a bit under his breath.

“But I have no idea how this could have made it into your world, unless this is also a language where you come from”, Twilight said perplexed by how any of this was possible.

“No its not” Drake said as he shook his head.

“We definitely should have my mentor look at this, she was alive back then and might have a better idea what it is or even what it does”, Twilight said as she stopped examining the dead language inscribed around the rim of the amulet.

“How long to ponies live?” Drake asked, obviously confused.

“We usually live into our nineties, except…” Twilight began.

However Drake interrupted, “But you said that the Evarians disappeared three thousand years ago”

“I was getting to that” Twilight began, shooting Drake a look, “She’s thirty-five hundred years old, but that’s not the important part”

Twilight then turned to Spike and noticed that his had a familiar queasy look plastered across his face

Jade flame erupted form the small dragon’s mouth and a royal scroll materialized from the smoke.
Twilight didn’t hesitate to open the letter and read it,

“Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

As per your request I have dispatched a sky chariot to pick up you, your friends, and your new acquaintance. However I would like you to take the elements of harmony with you; while I trust your judgment I feel that it is a necessary precaution to have the elements with you in case your new acquaintance becomes a threat we cannot handle without them. However I hope that none of that is necessary in the end.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia”

Twilight rolled the scroll back up and placed it on the table before informing Drake of what was going on “Listen, we are going to have to leave in about an hour and I have to get some stuff ready in the meantime. Can you stay here while I’m out? I don’t want you to scare any of the townsponies and it would be quicker if you just stayed here”

"Fine” Drake said begrudgingly as Twilight made her way down the stairs.

Before the alicorn was out of sight she turned around and said “Spike is still here if you need anything. Feel free to look around, but just try not to break anything too expensive. I should be back in fifteen minutes”

“No guarantees” the human said jokingly as he began to examine the amulet more closely, and with that Twilight left the library and set off to gather her friends.

Author's Note:

First of all i would like to thank Cromegas_Flare for pre-reading this

So here it is at long last, sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. Its been hard to stay motivated with everything else that's been going on in my life. Also I had to rewrite Sully's part about four times before i was happy with it, which didn't help me get it out any faster. From here on keeping myself motivated should be easier since i have actually been wanting to write the next chapter.

Until next time,
Cloud

Comments

[Cromegas_Flare]

I enjoyed this chapter quite a bit! From the beginning with Sully, to the end with Celestia's Reaction. Great job.
Mr. Flare

[DualKitsune]

Just a heads up, you've been misspelling barely as barley. Barley is a grain. One that I have yet to find tasty in any recipe. Understandably, it's not tasty here, either.