Of the Past and its Mysteries

by Sb129

7) 3808

Chapter 7 (3803)

~15 Years Later~

“As your mayor for this year, I would like to thank none other than those who are departed from this world, humans. For without them, our city could not be the grand spectacle it is today. They bequeathed us with such power with their technology and knowledge; we must take the utmost care to be responsible with this gift. We shall continue to prosper and gain strength so long as She never knows about our continued existence. Furthermore-”

Blazing stood in the middle of the crowd, trying to stifle a yawn. |I wonder how much longer his speech is gonna be. I hate having such a miniscule attention span| She yawned, unable to contain it any longer. her eyes wandered around at the all too familiar cityscape. Roads, aqueducts and power lines criss crossed the entirety of the city, which now spanned about ⅓ of the crater they lived in. T’was all business as usual to her, and the others who helped build it. All she really wanted to do was work more on her study of light and magic.

“~again I say thank you all whom voted for me and don’t forget we have a celebration tonight marking 15 years since the first grand discovery!” The mayor waved and the crowd cheered. Then he took to the sky towards Pentium Hall, the new place for bureaucratic affairs. Blazing did like thinking of the time before, but in memory only..

They had since discovered forces they hadn’t thought existed; electricity, steam power and even metallurgy were now coming under their control. Though most prefered the mesmerizing sight of mechanical engineering at work. Exploring was still an occurance but on a smaller scale, and longer timelines. |I bet Feather will be here just in time for the party tonight. And with something new to go on about.| It was a tad bit unfair to say the expeditions found nothing. Even ignoring the wonderful pictures they took whilst driving on, they always managed to find at least a remnant of what they hoped to find. Most artifacts eroding and rusting away to nothing, some far too large to move and others mere fragments

She had a feeling though, a similar feeling to that very first day. Not just of hope, but also with a slight tinge of anxiousness and just like before it was a completely foreign type of anxiousness. But she knew it was nothing dangerous of course because this latest find was supposed to a plaque in memory to something. Surely a plaque wouldst survive the centuries in better condition than a city. But that anxiousness still lingered on.

|I should like to meet that kind zebra in the woods again.| She thought. |She gave quite a unique insight towards humans, and to how the Equestrians view them.| It was kind of strange how a zebra all the way from Zebrica would end up in the middle of the country, but most paid it no mind. Only stories came about that place, just like that of the flutterponies themselves.

The afternoon melded neatly into evening and quietly to night as it always did. To be sure, the city was gearing up for a welcoming party from the longest exploratory mission yet, 7 full months. The workers in the power plants worked extra hard to charge batteries for the event. Seasonal planners even got out the string of colored lights normally used on Christmas. Tech was hard at work to fix some bugs to allow some human music to be played through large speakers. Everyone else was either cleaning their place of residence or themselves.

Even from a distance the team arriving from the Irate Lands from the south could see the extra lights and some new structures. “Ah yes a sight for sore eyes indeed!” One of them shouted. Almost the whole of the team was dedicated to holding up the plaque, which was quite heavy for its size. The remainder either awaited a turn or had just taken one. Feather Duster could be seen at the front of them all, concentrating on keeping a protective field around the rest. “Just a little ways more from here.” He told himself. “Could someone please contact the council when we are in bluetooth range and tell them we need to talk.”

When they came within the required distance they sent the message, got a reply back and had a small conversation that ended while they were still a distance away. “We will reveal this tomorrow once we all come to a valid conclusion on what our course of action from this find will be.” Feather told the rest. He had a certain seriousness in his voice that wasn’t heard often. The others acknowledged and they began moving again. Feather felt an intense and confused fear within him, of Her”

The team got to the rear of Pentium Hall, and went to the underground sections, still holding their prize. The crowds outside were going wild as soon as they saw them. Underground the sounds were muffled. Just as they discussed, the Advisory board was there. De Novo, Clock Work and Pre History were standing in the middle of the room. The team flew out, both because they wanted to get with their families and because they didn’t want to get stranded in there with the former leaders. In seconds only the four were there.

As usual Pre threw formalities aside and eagerly asked how Feather was doing. “Fine.” he replied, still having the feeling from earlier. The three were taken aback. De Novo was the first to speak, “I can sense some something is amiss if you are calling us here on such short notice.” He spoke that last syllable with sternness. Feather didn’t say a word, he just calmly flew over to the wrapped plaque and pulled off the covering.

Revealed was not a rusting, eroded piece of metal and it wasn’t even a pristine piece of metal. It was a tablet made of pure sapphire, colorless as glass! And embedded inside it was text written in three languages along with two objects. It was written in English, Ancient Equestrian and Modern Equestrian; And the languages themselves were writ in precious metals: gold, silver and copper respectively. An assortment of dates and places and names were all given in the small font.

To say the other three were shocked would quite an understatement. “Gentleponies, may I direct your attention to this clause?” His antennae glowed and a portion of text was illuminated for the others to see.

“...It is fortunate that we were afforded an opportunity to save the last of our kind through technology. To escape to places not even that witch can follow us. I’ll not let Celestia herself know where, but know this, it is amongst the stars!”

Feather let the info begin to sink in before speaking once more, “You all are aware of what this could mean. Humanity could still be out there, surviving...Thriving even! On another world.” He hovered over to the Three. Clock Work walked over to the tablet of pure sapphire and gazed at it for a moment or two. It hadn’t gone unnoticed to him that this thing had more than text and illustrations.

At the bottom of the tablet were two objects. One was an unassuming stone whose only feature was that it was a pyramid shape. The other was just to the right and looked to be a piece of technology but not like any they had ever seen before. Clock Work turned to the explorer, “What might these be?” He asked. Feather grew slightly uneasy, “I am not too sure, the text around the stone is written in Ancient Equestrian and I am not well versed in the meaning of it all. But I can tell you what it is called, ‘Zentuel Et’seneleka Venchtenint’. Like I said I am not to the stage of understanding Ancient just yet so I’ll need Pre’s help for some of this.”

At this point Pre History was already deep in thought at the mention of Ancient since he was one of the few to be a master in it. Ancient was only reserved for the oldest of their scrolls but some words and phrases survived in normal use. He took a closer look at the writing and to the stone. “Goodness, I’ve only read of these, its a time stone! Technically the direct translation is stone of knowing time…” Even after all he had seen in the past 15 years he was quite puzzled. “How could such a thing end up with the humans?! Only the strongest of unicorns could create one of low quality, but this craftsmanship. Only someone directly studying under Her could craft something like this. It is designed to tell time across vast expanses of time, the rest of the Ancient writing around it must be the activation spell”

De Novo was just as intrigued as anypony could have been, but he was still stuck on the part about humans still being out there. After all these centuries, more than a thousand years later, what could they have learned by now? But he chose to keep his demeanor above all else.

Feather chimed into the talk about the stone. “Well knowing that about this stone puts the other piece in perspective pretty well. Because the other is a timepiece by the humans, and it reads as ‘05-3803’ and that isn’t all. Pre History, if you thought that stone was most puzzling, you really ought to read this in its entirety, as should you all.”

“We know that, but the presence of this stone mystifies all else about this tablet. Have you found any pertinent information about the stone in these writings?” Feather simply highlighted more text on the tablet for the others to see.

‘Illustrated to the left is a device from the Old World, a T|5. We have had this relic of our past restored and upgraded as it was easily older than 1000 years when it was found. To keep simplicity and this tablet single, we have put much more information on this T|5. Both this tablet and the T|5 should be in the same casing. If not then its original location will lay in the Irate Wastelands within the Valley of the Sun.’

Feather broke the silence of reading, “Like I said, you all really should read this in its entirety.”

Author's Note:

minor edits ~ 12/29/14

Comments

[Shpoople96]

I FEEL LIKE A WISE OLD MAN PASSING ON THE WAYS OF OUR PEOPLE.

[Lazy_]

Fuck me, take your time dude.

Good work on the chapter, even if it is a tad short. Glad to see you're not letting this story go, I've been waiting ages for the continue.

[Slayer 10321]

Damn......you update like a tortoise!!!! Still, this chapter has pleased me!!!!!!!!! Can't wait for your next update!!!!!!!!

[Sb129]

Since Black Friday will be done this week i'll have more off time to finish this chapter and maybe another.