An Extended Holiday

by Commander_Pensword

162 - A Daring Venture

Extended Holiday
Chapter 162: A Daring Venture

---

The night after their return saw Grif approaching Hammer Strike’s office late. He knew the Pony was in, only because no one had seen him leave in the last few hours. Grif waited as he approached the door, not bothering to attempt to knock.

Hammer Strike had clearly just settled into his office. A neat stack of papers waited off to the side for him to look at. Either he hadn’t begun work yet or he was putting it off. “To what do I owe the visit, Grif?”

Grif let himself in and closed the door. “I have a request.”

“Certainly something you don’t do often. What is it you’re in need of?”

“I’m going to need some land outside the compound.” Grif handed some rolled-up sheets to the Pony. “Somewhere possibly close to the outer wall and easy to access.”

Hammer Strike reached into his desk and sorted through a few scrolls before pulling out a larger one. Then he unfurled them to reveal the city layout near the Gryphon compound and the set of building plans Grif had just handed over. He frowned to himself as he pulled out a quill and began marking a few spots on his city layout. “If you’re willing to sacrifice some of your training grounds, not much mind you, I can push your borders out enough for you to fit this in.”

“This isn’t for the clan, Hammer Strike. It’s—” Grif sighed. “A headquarters, for a guild.”

“Running a mercenary camp isn’t enough for you?” Hammer Strike gave a smirk.

“You know how during the Third Gryphon War, most towns had at least one hunter to deal with monsters and threats of a similar nature that need non-conventional means? These days, your lucky if there’s one in every big city. Equestria’s monster population has risen dramatically in the last few hundred years, and the amount of people with the knowledge to deal with them is pitiful by comparison. The reasons are quite clear. There are no resources, no forums for such hunters to meet and share knowledge, nowhere to show hunting areas or what lives where. It’s just corporeal monsters right now, but if creatures of the night ever showed up again, we’d be in a lot of trouble.”

Hammer Strike frowned as he thought to himself. After a few moments, he began redrawing on the layout. “I’ll see what I can push back, but keep in mind I don’t know how much I’ll be able to, and you might still have to sacrifice some of the training grounds to make it work. It’s late into the layout, so there’s only so much I can do.”

“It’s worth it.” Grif shrugged. “Between the relatively few hunters and the surprising abundance of false information out there, we need to work this out. I can handle giving some ground, if it means a town doesn’t go quiet overnight.”

“A central hub for such would prove quite useful.” Hammer Strike tapped his quill against the city designs as he scanned over both it and Grif’s designs. “Tell you what, take the side rooms down by about a third of their scale from the outer wall and pull the internal room slightly more—” He pulled out a blank scroll and began drawing a different design. “A few alterations to the support locations, readjust the length of this room, and you should have plenty of room still, but less wasted space, meaning you don’t have to make much of a sacrifice on the training grounds, and you can get the building.”

“I appreciate the help. I’m also going to be inviting Jäger to new unity to serve as guildmaster. I don’t have the time to exclusively look after this, and winds know he knows more about hunting than I ever will,” Grif noted.

“I’m certain he’d enjoy it more than his current retirement,” Hammer Strike replied with a smile. “We can only hope he’ll accept the position.”

“If he’s anything like the stories say, he’ll come.” Grif nodded. “Unity’s also the best place for it. Anything that attacks here is more than likely to be repelled.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’ll get the formal request and the paperwork to you tomorrow, but I thought it was better to do this in person.”

“Gives me time to work things out and ensure that After Thought gets things down.”

“Thanks for hearing me out.”

“No problem. Go ahead and get to work on gathering materials. I’ll send the all clear through Vital to the overseers.”

Grif gave a nod as he headed for the door. “Don’t work too hard,” he offered with a smile before departing. Though he knew it was likely Hammer Strike wouldn’t get any rest tonight. Neither was he, for that matter.

---

Hammer Strike sighed to himself as he stationed himself back in his office. It took some time, but he was able to clear everything up with the overseers of materials. He frowned to himself as he thought back on the point Grif brought up. Equestria was very much lacking a fighting force for “monsters” and the like.

It wasn’t long before his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves rapidly approaching his office, though he could sense a brief jump in their step and a gap in their movement, meaning it was most likely a pegasus flapping in between certain steps. He frowned as he tried thinking over who it could be, but it was clear they weren’t going to stop. At least, not quickly enough. Hammer Strike gave a brief gesture of his hoof as he pulled at his door thaumically, opening it quickly enough for Daring to charge in. The alicorn tablet was firm in her grasp as she came to a halt in his office. “It figured something out!” she called out, quickly placing the tablet on the table.

“What do you mean it—?”

“I can’t explain it. While I was gathering information from it, it ended up stopping when I asked for the location of a device it mentioned. The tablet went silent for a bit and said that it was calculating something along the lines of ‘backtracking location.’”

Hammer Strike grabbed the tablet and tapped the front of it, activating it once more. “Repeat last process,” he ordered in Latin.

“Connection has been reestablished to the central mapping unit. Location confirmed.”

“What location is confirmed?”

“Location: Aethica, has been reestablished on this unit’s maps.”

“Aethica?” Hammer Strike frowned. “What in the world is Aethica?”

“Answer: Aethica is the primary city amidst the Alicorn Empire.”

Hammer Strike shifted back slightly upon hearing the results. “It’s located the Alicorn Empire….”

“What?”

“Whatever you asked of it, in order to determine the result, it had to find the location of the Alicorn Empire.” Hammer Strike looked to Daring. “It’s done it.”

“In other words, a cornucopia of vast historical knowledge from the Pre-Discordian era that has laid unspoiled for millennia is ripe for the picking, … and I’m the one responsible for locating it?”

Looking to the tablet once again and frowned. “Display map and a path to the city.”

The tablet pulsed blue before a display appeared above it, revealing the topography of Equestria, specifically centered on New Unity. After a few seconds, the topography shifted and the map began to expand, revealing more landscape until it ended off the western coast, then continued on. After some amount of time, a segment of land appeared in the vast ocean. The mass was large for a typical island, and was marked with small text around it.

“Daring, I need you to prep a team. It has to be small, and it has to be cleared by myself or Grif. I want nobody else going for this, or so help me, I’ll kill them personally.” He fixed the mare with a flat stare as his eyes flashed. “As soon as possible.”

“How many?” Daring pressed. “I need to know what I have to work with, so I can prioritize.”

“As little as possible. I can supply any extra members.”

“I’ll make some inquiries,” she promised. “Any other orders?”

“Make sure it’s known that I will deal with any opposition personally.”

Daring shuddered. “Now that’s a threat that carries some weight.” She nodded. “I’ll be in touch.” She donned her helmet and strode to the door. “And I’ll make sure the right channels hear your warning,” she promised. A few seconds later, the toughened mare was gone to prepare for the great adventure to come.

Hammer Strike frowned to himself as he began pulling out parchment. “I’ll need to schedule a meeting with Grif. This will definitely need the Gantrithor.”

---

Pensword glided over the boulevard toward New Unity from Ponyville on autopilot. His mind was still reeling over the last committee meeting. The first half had been a very icy storm that blew into a raging blizzard of words and accusations. The events from what Captain Spitfire had pulled created a rift between Rainbow Dash and the mare. He and Lafayette had to join in to mediate between the two.

Now it was time to do his own house cleaning. So many things were waiting on the Military being formally reorganized and implemented. Regrettably, Spitfire would likely find herself ranked a Colonel, due to Politics, but he was going to put her in as non-damaging a role as possible. Perhaps a remote outpost by the Lunar Sea, or a border patrol to teach her some much needed humility. If she didn’t learn it, then her behavior would surely justify demotion, despite objections that might be raised in other branches of the government. The main problem now, however, was the underlying issue that Spitfire’s behavior had unearthed. Canterlot was infecting Cloudsdale with the idea of buying rank and of noble blood being better than showing real nobility. Pensword snorted in disgust. Those Unicorns didn’t realize that the Pegasus nobility that existed before the Unification was bought through the blood of sacrifice and duty. Not bits, no baubles, no quid pro quo.

“Disgraceful,” he muttered.

New Unity’s stone towers rose in the distance, and he angled his flight path accordingly to prepare for a landing. This kind of issue would require careful thought and discussion before he proceeded with any form of discipline or correction. “Perhaps Eclipse can help,” he mused. “That or Grif. He’s probably already heard about it.” He furrowed his brow. Just how did that Gryphon learn so much about, well, the whole nation? He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like he’s going to up and tell me.” He chuckled and shook his head as he readied his hooves and clattered onto the inner courtyard. “But it may be worth the attempt,” he mused. “Just maybe.”

---

Hammer Strike hummed to himself as he walked toward the Gryphon compound. After finishing up his own alterations to the designs Grif had in mind, he figured the Gryphon may as well take a look. That, and there was the fact he needed to remap the borders and make a request.

He looked at the compound’s walls in the distance and smiled. The structure of its defenses certainly stood out. But, then again, that was the point when Grif had asked permission to construct it. He stopped near the gate along the side. “Hey Grif, you in?” he called out, knowing the many open windows that were within.

The gate opened a few moments later. “He’s in the main building,” someone called down.

“Mind getting him out here? I’ve got to go over the new structure, borders, and some designs with him.”

There was a few minutes of silence before a figure took off from above the gate. A few minutes later, Grif landed in front of Hammer Strike. “Hey. Whats up?” he asked.

“Got a few things to discuss, the primary right now being the fact that I’ve got your new borders to lay out. Secondly, I’ve finished up a redesign of your structure. Whether you use it or not is entirely up to you.” Hammer Strike pulled a scroll out of his coat and handed it over. “Remind me to get you a thaumic relay, so I can keep in contact with you like I do Vital.”

“I’ll remember to do that.” Grif nodded as he unrolled the scroll and began looking it over. “Well, this isn’t too bad. I honestly feared it would be more,” he noted.

“Function over form for this one,” Hammer Strike replied simply as he pulled out a larger scroll containing his new measurements. After confirming them mentally, he began altering the marks around the compound and setting up new marks for the structure in question. “Also, I’ve got something more to discuss with you while I’m at this.”

“Yeah?” Grif asked as he examined the new scroll.

“I need to request use of the Gantrithor, prolonged use of the Gantrithor,” Hammer Strike spoke in Draconic.

“That's easy enough. Where are we headed?” Grif asked.

“We’ve located the Alicorn Island.” Hammer Strike looked to Grif. “And it’s some distance away.”

Grif shrugged. “Good thing we’ve got a mobil basecamp, then.”

Hammer Strike continued marking the land. “Ensure it’s prepped for combat. I want to make sure that if anyone follows us, they are dealt with swiftly and without remorse.”

“No witnesses. Got it. Should I have Daring tailed, just in case?”

“See to it. I want nobody else following us. The island has already proven to be insanely more advanced than anything else in this world, and I refuse to let it be found by anyone else.”

“So, skeleton crew, but one ready for combat at a moment’s notice, preferably people who won’t get squirmy about blowing a ship out of the sky without warning.”

“Correct.” Hammer Strike finished marking the terrain. “There you are. That should be it.”

“I’ll look these over tonight and let you know if anything needs to be changed. By the way, I'll need to be taking the Gantrithor out in a few weeks. Some of the rune matrices are acting up. I want to take it back to the empire for a tuneup,” Grif noted with a wink. “Could be gone for a while.”

“Probably for the best. Can’t have it breaking down whenever you need it.” Hammer Strike rolled up his scroll and placed it back in his coat. “I’ll leave you to it. Everything’s been cleared, and materials are open. I’ve got things to discuss with the others, so I’ll be off.”

“See you later.” Grif nodded and took to the air, both to return to his post and to get a bird’s eye view of any potential spies. Hammer Strike’s own eyes flashed briefly as he ran a thaumic scan. It was better to be safe than to be sorry.

---

Hammer Strike sighed to himself as he sat down in his office once more. One down, and more to go. First, he’d have to discuss these events with Pensword and Vital. Following that, with Rarity. Clover would perhaps want to come along as well. Following that, there was potentially others’ wives and such.

He groaned to himself as he rubbed his forehead. “This is going to take some time,” he muttered as he pulled out a small crystal and gave it a small tap. “Vital, are you there?”

The response was immediate as the Unicorn’s voice projected through the crystal. “Yup. What do you need, Hammer Strike?”

“You’re currently with Clover, are you not?”

“It is class time. Did you need to talk with her?”

“I need you both to come here as soon as you can. I have some important things to discuss.”

“We should be finished with class in a half hour. Will that do or is this one of those now situations?”

“That’ll be fine. Sorry to have interrupted your lessons.”

“No problem. You’re the only person who can call and interrupt without my getting in trouble. You know how Clover can be—yowch! Hey! I wasn’t being disrespectful, just honest!” The crystal communique shut off shortly after, and Hammer Strike couldn’t help but wonder what Clover might have tried to do to the Unicorn. Exactly one half hour later, the two Unicorns in question stood within Hammer Strike’s office.

Hammer Strike sealed the room in the usual way and laid his forelegs on the desk. “As per usual, let’s keep this all between us, yeah?” He asked simply. “We’ve discovered the location of the Alicorn Island.”

That got Clover’s attention almost immediately. “Oh, really?”

“A whole lost civilization. I assume you plan on mounting an expedition as soon as possible, and preferably without any word getting out to Canterlot?” Vital asked.

“Correct. In fact, preparations are being made as we speak. I am telling you both now as a just in case either of you wanted to come or, at the very least, so the both of you will know of my absence.”

“You’ll probably want Clover, at the very least. She’s a magical powerhouse and a bastion of mystical knowledge. Though, if you’re going to the island, wouldn’t it be wise to bring an Alicorn with you, just in case there are any traps or spells that would require the presence of said species?” Vital asked.

“They appear to just require a large supply of energy. I can shape it to match most forms of magic that the tablet would sense, so I should be able to replicate it. If push comes to shove, I can send a message to Celestia or Luna and create a portal between.”

“Unfortunately, I have too many responsibilities here. That's why you’ll be going in my place, Vital,” Clover said.

“Teacher say what now?” Vital Spark gaped at his mentor. “You honestly think I’m ready to handle something like this?”

“I need someone to be my eyes and ears,” Clover noted.

“To be honest, I’m quite surprised as well,” Hammer Strike commented. “I expected you to be up for it.”

Clover sighed. “I have my reasons.”

Hammer Strike shrugged. “It’s your choice. I’ll try to bring things back for you to examine within your interests.”

“I’ll have to let Trixie know, or at least tell her you have business that needs me to come along. How much can I tell her?”

“If she presses on it, tell her to come to my office and I’ll clear it all up. I’d prefer little to no information getting out.”

“Understood.” Vital nodded. “Best continue packing, then. Were there any other errands you needed me to run while I’m out?”

“I need you to bring Pensword by my office later on.”

“With or without Eclipse?”

“Tell Eclipse that he’ll have to stay back for this one.”

“Will do. Just be ready, in case I have to call you on the crystal.”

The field of energy left the edges of the rooms. “Perfect. That’ll be all.”

“We’ll get out of your hair, then,” Vital said.

“I’ll have those research reports on your desk soon.” Clover nodded, and the pair departed.

---

Hammer Strike rubbed his forehead as he tapped a quill against a set of documents in front of him. Pensword would be arriving shortly, and he didn’t plan on starting any documents until the meeting was done. Otherwise, he’d lose his train of thought. It didn’t take long before he heard the faint sound of hooves turn down the corridor toward his office. “Come in.”

“Can you let me knock on your door at least once?” Pensword asked as he entered. He rolled up a scroll and shoved it back in his saddlebag to join its fellows before he closed the flap. “Was there something else I did wrong?” he asked bluntly. His expression was flat, his eyes tired.

As Hammer Strike had done before, a faint amount of power seeped from the cracks of the room as he sealed it to prevent eavesdropping. “I simply called you here to inform you of events. In particular, the Alicorn Empire has been located, and I will be heading out alongside others to it sometime in the near future. I am telling you this to either let you know why a number of individuals and the Gantrithor are missing or for you to come along with as well.”

“Unless you need me to assess military problems, or truly need me at your side, I don’t know if I can get away. While the Committee is built, and I have been trying to delegate the paperwork, I’m still drowning in a lot of it, and I doubt Eclipse would like me galavanting about willy-nilly.”

“Eclipse has no say in this matter, as I technically hold final say over this situation.”

Pensword nodded. “Okay.”

“The choice is entirely up to you. If you have any questions, you’re free to ask them to myself, preferably not in public.”

“First off, do you want me to come?” Pensword began. “And secondly, how long would we be away?” He fluffed his wings as he pondered the invitation. “And on another note, how do you handle all the paperwork you have to do?”

“I have others work for me to assist with that.”

“And you can afford to pay them wages.” Pensword sighed. “I can’t do that just yet, unless I can get staff from the Changelings.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out in time,” Hammer Strike replied as the energy left the edges of the room. “I’ll probably be here for some time, so if any questions come to mind in the night, you know where I am.”

“Okay,” Pensword answered as he turned to leave. “When do you need an answer?”

“Give or take, within a week.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you later, unless you want to join us for dinner. Moon River would love to see you.”

“I’ll check if I can. I’ve still got others to talk things over with, so….” He shrugged.

“The invite is open, even if it is late, you might still get to come by for a nightcap or something.”

Hammer Strike nodded. “We’ll see.” Then he waved his hoof and nodded. “Farewell, Pensword.”

Pensword nodded. “Until we meet again.”

---

“And lo, in the coming of the eighth cycle, when the sun, the moon, and the stars unite, the wrath of ages past shall descend, and the guardians of twilight shall rise against the horde….” Vital brushed the feather of his quill against his chin as he pondered what he had just written. “A little on the cliched side. Maybe something a bit closer to home. I do know a lot about things that don’t exist here in Equestria, after all. So long as I don’t include any technology, I think Hammer Strike won’t mind.” He levitated a fresh sheaf of papers to the desk. “Let’s try that again.”

“What are you writing?” Trixie asked as she entered the room.

“Working on some ideas for prophecies to use. I used to have fun writing them when I lived back on Earth with my friends. It was sort of my specialty when we wrote together. That and naming things. When it feels right, I just … let it come, if that makes sense.”

“Finally found some time to write for yourself, then?” she asked, smiling at him.

“A little. It helps me to clear my head. I’ve got a lot of stuff jumbling around in there, despite Clover’s help with organizing it. I do need to do some research on future sight sometime, though. I’ve been curious about how those branches of magic function here in Equestria. Think you might be able to explain some of it to me?”

“What are your questions, specifically?”

“Well, how does it work? I know you were able to prophesy once with me back at the fortune tent you were running. And I suspect fortune telling is also a legitimate art in this world, but I don’t know how accurate that art is or what items are used to concentrate that unique power. Back home, we had tarot cards, crystal balls, seer stones, that sort of thing. What do you use here? Can anyone develop these skills or do they have to be inborn?” He chuckled and blushed. “And I’m gushing. Sorry, sweetie.”

“Well, as I was explained, telling the future comes in three different arts: fortune telling, soothsaying, and prophecy. These are listed from weakest to strongest in order. Fortune tellers tend to imbue a small amount of magic in an item or object. Then they receive small guesses into the likely future, depending on what they’re using and what forms the object takes. But as noted, it’s the weakest form of the magic. Bones, runes, or tarot cards, all you recieve is guesses on a possible future. The best fortune tellers have a one-in-fifty chance of being right.”

“I always thought tarot was more about giving people a chance to choose where they want to go, anyway, and change course before the future comes, should they wish to change it. The rest sounds about right, though. So what comes next?”

“Soothsaying. It’s more precise than fortune telling, but less controllable. Soothsayers are given visions or glimpses of the future through dreams and other such states. Some soothsayers need to use certain herbs to stimulate a vision. Almost always whatever they see will come true. But how and when are usually left untold. It’s quite common that a Pony causes such events by trying to prevent them.”

“The famous achilles’ heel of future sight, the self-fulfilling prophecy.” Vital nodded sagely. “Dare I ask how many documented incidents there are?”

“Soothsayers are actually pretty common. Maybe not one in every town, but most large cities have at least one or two hidden away.”

“Have they ever been used for state purposes?”

“It’s not legal.” Trixie shook her head. “As these are only glimpses of the future, it’s hard to interpret the details correctly, and it could lead to too many issues.”

“Fair point. And the third one?”

“Prophecy is a vision of the future sent by a god. Generally, it’s infallible and will happen without question, just as shown. However, those are exceedingly rare.”

“I see. So what about beings like oracles and such, people who prophesy by channeling divine power or authority? Where do they fall?”

“Oracles are more the mouthpieces of the gods.” Trixie shrugged. “It’s more of a direct connection type of thing.”

“So, does that mean the current empress of Gryhonia falls under that classification?”

“She’s a prophetess. What would a prophetess use?” Trixie asked sarcastically.

“A seer stone, perhaps?” Vital shrugged. “That’s what the prophets and seers used back home, anyway. I just thought she might have her gift as a result of interaction with her gods.”

“In another time, that might be true. She may become an oracle if the Gryphon gods come back. But right now? No. Their gods’ influence on the world is cut off almost entirely.”

“Good to know. Also very interesting. In that case, Trixie, I’d like to ask, how far have you dabbled in fortune telling? Were you ever trained in it before?”

“Not nearly enough to pursue the act.” She sighed. “That was just a few minor tricks I picked up from a fortune teller on the road.”

“Well, I’d definitely say you have a flare for it.” He smiled and kissed her. “Though when I’m around you, I always see a bright future.”

She laughed. “I think we share the same vision.”

“A daughter of light and shadow, who dances between with the beauty of aether and the glory of twilight in her starry eyes.” He kissed her again. “I think I feel a prophecy of my own coming on. I see a bed, and a most intimate discussion.” He gazed at her amorously.

“Well, best not run from the future.” She returned his look.

“And best not to keep it waiting.” He smirked as he rose from his desk and gestured with bowed head and pointing hoof. “My lady.”

She gave a small curtsy before heading off. Vital Spark followed close behind.

---

Hammer Strike smiled to himself as he entered Carousel Boutique. Rarity was in; he was sure of that, and he needed to finish up plans to figure out who would be coming along.

“Hiya, Hammer Strike!” Sweetie Belle beamed as she waved from behind the register. “Good to see you. Want me to go grab Rarity for you?”

“It’d be great if you could.” Hammer Strike smiled gently.

The filly hopped off the stool she’d been sitting on and strode back into the design room. A minute later, she emerged with her older sister in tow. “Rarity, can I go play with Button Mash now? He said he wanted to show me a new game.”

“Well, I suppose you did finish your homework already,” Rarity conceded. Then she smiled. “Go ahead, Sweetie Belle. Have fun. Just make sure to come home before it gets dark.”

Sweetie grinned. “You’ve got it, Sis!” She left in a dignified manner until the door shut behind her. Then all that remained was a dust cloud under her churning hooves as she raced into town.

Rarity giggled. “I wonder how long it’ll be before those two go on a real date.”

“If anyone in our groups are to go by, a year at least,” Hammer Strike commented. “In any case, I have something important to discuss, so I figured a visit was in order, anyway.”

“Important how, darling?”

“Well,” Hammer Strike started. He casually laid a hoof on the counter. The thaumic energies raced through the wood and quickly sealed the room. “Daring and myself have located the Alicorn Empire, a long lost island of unimaginable technology that was home to the original Alicorns.”

“I see. That would certainly fall under the important category. And just who were you thinking of taking on this expedition?”

“Right now, it’s the usual crew of Grif, Vital, and Pensword, if they all accept. Apart from that is a skeleton crew prepared for battle, and whoever Daring brings who is valuable. And you as well, if you feel the urge to come along. Do keep in mind that it’s more of an archeological visit, and will lack anything in terms of luxury. Though I suppose you may find inspiration from the ruins of a once advanced empire.”

“I should certainly hope so. Though it begs the question. What time are you leaving? I’d have to arrange for some babysitters, and then there’s also the influx of orders after that coup d'etat at Fashion Week.”

“It’ll be within a week of today.”

“That soon?”

“I want to get this going as soon as possible. Should any information of this get out beforehand, it could lead to some dire situations,” he explained. “Imagine if there were some advanced weaponry the likes which Equestria has never seen. Armor, even. We don’t know what lies on that island. And now that we’re certain it exists and know where it is, we need to get to it as soon as possible.”

Rarity frowned. “A week is going to be tight, but I should be able to get my affairs in order. How long are we anticipating being gone?”

“It could take a few weeks for the initial visit, depending on how things go.”

“A few weeks. That’s simply much too long for me to be away. I can hardly let Sweetie Belle fend for herself that long, and to have her stay with Apple Bloom and the Apples may cause problems, especially given her … unique abilities in the kitchen.” She winced.

“Sadly, I can’t offer to bring her along.” Hammer Strike hummed. “Perhaps she could stay in New Unity. Though a few weeks would be a stretch on things.”

“Not to mention how stir crazy she’ll become without her friends.” She rubbed her chin in thought. “I’ll make a few discreet inquiries. Assuming I can spread the burden out evenly among trustworthy Ponies, it shouldn’t be that much of a bother for her or them, though I’ll probably worry like an old nag, regardless.”

“If push comes to shove, don’t worry about it. It’s mostly just to determine what is there and how to deal with it appropriately.”

“Hammer Strike, Dear, every time you all go to simply ‘determine’ something, it’s almost a guarantee that something is going to happen that will result in another of your roundabout journeys, either yours or one of the others’,” Rarity noted. “I’d prefer to keep you closeby, in case something happens.”

“Fair enough.” Hammer Strike shrugged as he let the field of energy drop from the room. “Sadly, I have to return to keep things going.” He frowned. “But I should be back in a few days to determine your answer.“ He smiled warmly at her. The thought of being with her always helped lighten his mood.

“And if you can’t, I’ll come to you.” Rarity returned the smile and kissed her husband, then giggled like a school filly. “That never gets old.”

“I’d hope it wouldn’t.” He chuckled. “All right; I must be off. Until next time.”

“Ta-ta, darling.” She winked coquettishly as the lord walked out of the shop. Then she sighed and flipped the sign to CLOSED. “Well, Rarity, it’s time to get to work.”

---

Pensword sighed as he closed the drawer on the newly-filled file cabinet. He looked up as Fox Feather and Night Terror entered the small office space. “Girls, I’m afraid I need to ask you two to be my eyes and ears for a while. Hammer Strike needs me on one of his more hush missions.” By now, most of the city knew something was up. Supplies had been loading into the Gantrithor for the last couple of days. Fortunately, Grif’s cover story of ship maintenance had placated the majority of inquirers.

Fox Feather gave a salute. “Of course. It’ll give Night Terror and me time to prepare to announce the engagement.”

Pensword smiled and couldn’t help but chuckle. “I can’t wait to see the look on your father’s face.”

Night Terror blushed. “Nor can I. I look forward to learning what it means to be a clan leader’s wife while thou art gone.”

Pensword’s ear twitched, and he smirked. “Trying to butter me up with the old language? Cute, but unnecessary. I have to show that I’m ready to lead a modern force, not drag everything back to when I first served Equestria.” Night Terror’s ears folded back at the reproach, until he leaned in and whispered, “But in the bedroom, it is perfectly fine.”

Night Terror’s whole face turned red.

Fox Feather grinned. “I’ll see about getting her ready to handle a few brews, too.”

“No, Fox Feather. I only can accept one mare who likes the bottle too much,” Pensword said sternly. “As for Eclipse, I’d like you two to follow his lead in regards to the settlement. And by Luna’s light, find if there’s something to make those who are upset over the changes happy, please. Many of the folk in the settlement aren’t too happy with me at the moment, but they might open up to one of you.”

Night Terror nodded. “I’ll make sure the Solar Court can’t use the discontent against you. If the settlement realizes just what might happen if the Solar Court learns about it in the first place, they might realize the advantages of adhering to the law properly. If worse comes to worst, we’ll ask Eclipse for his assistance and take the matter before the council.”

Pensword raised a brow, but was otherwise silent.

Finally, Night Terror spoke up. “My brother informed me of some of the things he heard around court as an early wedding gift. I don’t know how much of it is true and how much a potential false trail being offered by my father, but I’ll forward it to the proper channels.”

Pensword nodded his head. “Right, and Night Terror, thank you.”

She blushed, then curtseyed. “You’re welcome.”

Pensword smirked. “Say, Fox Feather, since you were so good at this back in the old days, maybe you can teach Night Terror how to do paperwork?”

Night Terror’s blush quickly faded into a sulky pout while Fox Feather laughed.

“I’ll do what I can,” the mare promised between gasps.

Pensword smiled and handed off some of the less sensitive paper work that he could get away with, just enough for Night Terror to learn the basics. He then returned to the pile that awaited him, hoping against hope to finish before the departure date. At this point, he doubted it would be possible. Memories of his human father spending entire weeks grading papers and literally eating in his office, rather than being with the family flashed through his mind. “Now I finally understand,” he muttered, then sighed as he returned to his task. “Here’s hoping the children can forgive me.”

“Please. Do you actually think we’d let you stay away too long?” Fox Feather chuckled. “Not going to happen. We’ll drag you in irons, if we have to.”

Pensword chuckled. “Thanks, Fox Feather. I needed that.”

---

Six days later, in the late evening, Grif and Hammer Strike stood aboard the Gantrithor’s deck. Between them, they had several lists varying from personnel to equipment to cargo, and everything was being double checked carefully.

“I wasn’t entirely sure what we’d need for personal arms, so I packed a little of everything. Spears, arming swords, bucklers. I figured better to have it and not need it,” Grif noted as he opened the lid of a crate to show the items within. He checked the number on the crate and checked it off his list.

“We’ll probably need some mages on both ends, Equestrian and Gryphon as well.” Hammer Strike hummed. “And some additional engineers of sorts, since we are looking into an advanced civilization of tech and magic.”

“I’ve stocked the stores with enough rations to feed us all for a week or so, and enough hard tack for a month, if we require longer. I’m still trying to get the numbers for if there is anything left in the lower decks after our kitsune friend’s stay.”

“I’ll look into a system for transport between the levels of the ship after this.” Hammer Strike shrugged. “It’ll make it easier to get around to check everything with less worry of getting lost.”

Grif nodded. “I asked caring to whip these up for us.” He handed Hammer Strike a specially adjusted earpiece. “They’ll let her keep in contact with us, in case there’s something the crew doesn’t need to know.”

Hammer Strike looked it over for a moment before nodding as he equipped it. “Useful.”

“My crew’s been told everything they see and hear is classified. Fortunately, with my contracts, that will keep them from saying anything. I’ve septuple checked each of Daring’s acquaintances and every person she so much as spoke to up to this point. Everyone who was a risk has been bought or silenced. I found a few leaks in her own network that explains how her enemies always find her.” The Gryphon chuckled.

“Good to hear. This one cannot get out.” Hammer Strike frowned as he looked over their lists.

“Yeah, if they’re even Earth level for technology, that's still too much to let out,” Grif agreed.

“Grif, that tablet alone was better than earth tech,” Hammer Strike commented quietly in Draconic. “Magitech is the best way to describe it, and if that’s just a research module, imagine what the empire itself is like…”

“You don’t have to worry. The area’s a no fly zone, and Circlet’s prepared to shoot on sight if anything gets within earshot of us,” Grif assured his friend. “Did you get Daring to sign something regarding us having priority in this venture?”

“Something close to it.”

“We’ve got three months. That’ll be the maximum I can keep this silent. This is very big news. I had to use everything to make it work.”

“First trip will be a month at longest. Our second trip will be to seal things up and deal with all ‘advanced’ issues accordingly.”

“Okay, any idea how you want this to break when it does?”

“It can’t be anything less of a grand discovery.” Hammer Strike sighed. “But at least we can deal with everything first to ensure nothing dangerous goes to the public.”

“Yeah, I'll be taking helm for most of this trip, so I’ll make sure that if anything comes up, you’re the first to know.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Anyway, I packed several crates of various supplies that might come in handy but aren't vital to the venture, just in case.” Grif handed him a list. “Anything you think is unnecessary?”

“Focus less on the weapon side of things. We’re probably going to rely mostly on defense if anything happens. Of course, still keep some around.”

Grif nodded. “Okay. I'll adjust that before dawn. I’ve got a crew coming in an hour to finish last minute checks and make sure everything’s ready. Anything else we need to discuss?”

“Not off the top of my head. That should be everything.”

“I’ve set the imperial suite up for you and Rarity. Figured it would serve you better than me and Avalon this time.”

“I appreciate it, Grif.” Hammer Strike stretched as a crack sounded from his neck. “I need to finish off any important paperwork that has been left for me before we head off. Also, send a message to Celestia and Luna. They told me they wanted to keep up with what was going on at the island.”

“Go on. You’ll see me in the morning.” Grif gave a wave. “I’ve got plans to make.”

Hammer Strike chuckled. “Just like old times.”

Grif smirked. “Isn’t it always?”

---

“Is that everyone?” Grif asked hammer strike as they finished final checks.

“Should be,” Hammer Strike replied as he sorted through his lists. “All personnel and cargo are accounted for.”

“And my students are standing by,” Avalon promised as she emerged from the deck entrance.

“Good to hear.” Grif nodded. “And thanks for doing this. I know it’s sudden, but we honestly don’t know what we’ll find.”

“And you think Gryphon magic might pose a greater advantage because Alicorns haven’t dealt with it before?”

“Unicorns are fearsome on their own. Each has full access to their own magic stores and can cast spells straight from their brain to their horns. But we have one advantage they don’t.”

“And that is?”

“You can cast a barrier, and I or one of your students can instantly attach to the spell and strengthen its nature. Unicorns need to harmonize to do so, and the effect can be hit and miss, but Gryphon magic can link without much thought, just intent. One Alicorn might overpower one Gryphon, but sixteen Gryphons all reinforcing one another? It would take a lot to break that much power.”

“We’ll see how it goes. I admit my students still have a lot to learn.”

“I’m sure Clover’s students do, too. Has Vital checked in yet?” Grif asked hammer strike.

“Twenty minutes ago. He’s on the lower levels near his quarters.”

“And Daring’s people? They’re not wandering around my ship, I hope?”

“Upper levels, near the civilian study/office space,” Hammer Strike replied as he turned over his list.

“They were informed the engine rooms off limits and under guard?”

“Yes. They’ve also been warned that the lower sections are off limits as well.”

“We can set up barriers to make sure nobody wanders where they don’t belong. It will be good practice for my students,” Avalon offered.

“If it won’t tax them.” Grif nodded. “Sorry, Hammer Strike. I shouldn’t be questioning you. I’m just a little antsy. Technically, this ship could be considered an artifact, and I don’t want them trying to start trouble about it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve placed markers on them that Clover can track as a just-in-case,” Hammer Strike replied as he placed his list inside his coat. “With that all in order, I believe we can head to the helm and depart?”

“Circlet finished the safety checks. We’re green as soon as everyone’s below deck.” Grif nodded as he turned for the helm.

Hammer Strike followed behind, pulling out the strange Alicorn tablet as he prepared it.

“Is it thaumic?” Grif asked as they entered the bridge.

“Is what Thaumic?”

“The tablet. I mean, its energy is strange, but not unfamiliar.”

“It’s true Alicorn magic, something that Celestia and Luna could cast, but it’s significantly more … dense, if you get what I mean.”

Grif nodded as he opened the door and gestured for Hammer Strike and Avalon to enter.

Hammer Strike placed himself near the front by the helm as he prepared the tablet.

Avalon sighed. “It’s a pity we haven’t had as much luck finding our lost city.”

“If the Alicorns were such grand enemies of the Gryphons in the past, it would make sense for them to contain records of the placement of key locations of the Gryphon Empire,” Hammer Strike replied, his attention still on the tablet.

“Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll have our banner outside that city next.” Grif smiled as he took his seat at the helm. “Circlet, is everyone below deck?”

The golem housing Circlet nodded. “The doors just closed. I’m sealing all exits now.”

“Aim for the coast. Prepare for course correction as soon as we’re free of eyes,” grif noted as he worked the instruments.

“Already done so. We’ll vanish somewhere over the eastern planes.” Circlet nodded. “I have my sensors on as far as they’ll go. Given Hammer Strike’s considerable modifications, we should be able to avoid any tails.”

“Okay, bridge dampeners on at full power, engines at seventy, all hands secure. We’re gone.” And with that, Grif steered the ship away from the dock, and it left unity in an easterly direction. The hunt had begun.

---

Four days of constant journey went by slower than Hammer Strike would have liked, but it was their optimal speed without causing any issues for passengers and supplies. He stared at the holographic map as it displayed their position compared to the island. There was nothing between them and the island, leaving them a straight shot to it.

However, after staring at the markers on the map for long enough Hammer Strike noted something strange. They were traveling in a straight line towards the island, but the map was saying otherwise.

“Circlet, are we heading in a straight line, or are the winds strong enough to actually move us?” He questioned as he studied the map.

“All sensors claim we’re going in a straight line,” Circlet noted.

“It appears that we aren’t.” Hammer Strike frowned as he directed her attention toward the map. “Looks like we need to correct our course by… twenty degrees east.”

“My sensors say doing so would put us off course,” Circlet noted. “I need you to confirm whether you truly believe that to be the correct course of action.”

Hammer Strike hummed to himself for a moment. “Set the correction. I’d like to trust this for now, since it located the city in the first place.”

“Course correction set,” Circlet noted as the ship began to veer.

Hammer Strike kept watch over the map, and despite everything saying they would be headed away from the island, they were now going in a straight line towards the island. “It says we’re on track now, so here’s hoping we don’t have to make more corrections.”

“What is our estimated travel time remaining?” Hammer Strike questioned the tablet.

“Estimated at current velocity, arrival time in thirty minutes and twenty seconds,” it responded with a faint pulse.

“It says we’ll be there in half an hour,” Hammer Strike commented aloud to Circlet.

“Current destination’s not marked, so we’ll have to believe it until proven otherwise,” Circlet noted.

“Would you mind calling Grif back up here? And please tell him it’s no rush.”

“He’ll be arriving soon,” she answered back moments later.

Ten minutes later, Grif arrived on the bridge. “You needed me?”

“We’re twenty minutes out,” Hammer Strike replied. “From what the tablet says, at least.”

Time went by as they stared at the horizon. Fifteen minutes, ten minutes, and soon five minutes till arrival, and yet there was no sign of the island.

Hammer Strike sighed as he looked to the tablet, it marked them as nearly at their destination, and yet there was nothing in sight. “Great. Now we’ve got to regather our position and track it down ignoring the map.”

“Should I do a scouting—?”

Grif was suddenly cut off as the tablet pulsed green and spoke aloud. “Authenticating transport.”

As soon as it finished talking, a field of energy washed over the entirety of the Gantrithor, causing several alerts from Circlet. But nothing was worse for wear. The ship rocked for a moment before resettling. And there in the distance, right ahead of them, was an island, large and covered in tall structures of unknown material. Green coated most of the surfaces, signifying how long the land had been left to itself.

“I think we found it,” Circlet commented.

“They were hiding it. The entire island was cloaked…” Hammer Strike spoke in awe. “Based off what the map showed me, it was subtly adjusting our course outside of our notice, and was cloaked, even if we did get this close naturally.”

“Receiving message. Ii can’t understand it, but it seems to be some kind of artificial being.” Circlet’s eyes took on a neutral blue. “This is docking intelligence 4572 ple``` ````mit clearance code ----- airspace unidentified ````````ubject to armed response.”

“Uh,” Hammer Strike tapped the tablet to awaken it. “Relay authentication codes.”

The tablet pulsed green once more before returning to its natural blue state.

Circlet’s eyes flashed the same shade of green momentarily before they too returned to blue. “Code recognized. We```````eam zeta, docks 1 through 65 are currently empty. Please land at the ne``````` dock authority well be there to greet you in 3.1459265359 to the tenth power hours to debrief your leader. Good day.” Circlet’s eyes returned to normal.

“That was unsettling,” she commented.

“Sorry to put you through that, Circlet.” Hammer Strike hummed as he walked close to her. “I’ll have to start looking into altering your body to better resist these things,” he finished after a brief inspection. “Everything good for now at least?”

“The transmission has stopped. I’m feeling some sort of signature below.” Near the city’s gate, a large platform seemed to float up from an open hatch under its own power with no visible energy source or indicators of any kind. It stopped only a hundred feet or so below the Gantrithor and produced a small blue beam from some unseen emitter, which proceeded to trace the ship. Instantly, the platform expanded, pulling metal seemingly from the ether. It expanded in length until it exceeded the Gantrithor’s own length. Then the beam turned red as the ship was guided in place to the platform without Grif or Circlet’s input. The Gantrithor parked with the deck level to the platform. Deciding it was better to play along, Grif depowered the ship in a parked position.

“Well, that was weird,” Grif commented as the beam vanished.

“Welcome to the norm, but yeah.” Hammer Strike hummed to himself. “And, despite being in such a bad state, they performed quite smoothly.”

“I guess since Alicorns could fly, they didn’t need docks to actually connect to anything.” Grif shrugged.

“It’ll probably come together shortly, giving us a way out.” Hammer Strike hummed. “We’ll have to gather everyone topside and prepare for departure.

“I’ll leave a small squad onboard. Ghost city or not, I don't want the ship unguarded.” Grif shivered. “This place gives me the willies.”

“It really doesn’t feel right, does it?” Hammer Strike commented as he looked out the window over the city.

“Circlet, connect me to the intercom,” Grif instructed.

“Connected.”

“All hands, personnel and archeology team report to the deck within thirty minutes. Bring everything you can think of needing. All forces have full gear and be prepared. We don’t know what's down there.” Grif nodded to Circlet, who then cut the transmission.

“I’ll see you out there,” grif told Hammer Strike. “I’m going to get ready.”

“One last thing, Grif.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t use any major forms of thaumaturgy here.” Hammer Strike continued to stare out at the city. His eyes gleamed with the light of that same art as he scanned the area.

Grif nodded. “I’ll do my best.” He made for the door. “That's going to take some getting used to.”

Hammer Strike’s ears twitched, and he nodded in agreement as the door closed behind them. The city was drenched in thaumic energy. It was remarkably dense, and from what Hammer Strike could guess, it was spread so far out that they weren’t able to discern it. Whatever or whoever happened to the Alicorns, they left their mark.

---

Vital Spark whistled as he stared at the imposing structures before them. The metal was coated in a dark substance not unlike volcanic ash, but it seemed to become more of a sticky residue on contact. Beneath the layer, the same golden metal as the structure that housed their airship laid in wait. “Definitely a certain amount of magic flowing through here, but the circuits are much more refined. Probably why the system was able to still function in the first place. I think it’s designed to absorb the base mana in the air and convert it into energy stores.”

“Close, but not quite right. I had Circlet run some scans, and it appears that the energy radiating from the Gantrithor is being picked up by some of these machines. So only things within range of the Gantrithor are active,” Hammer Strike explained. “It appears to stretch out nearly half a mile, but after that, everything is inactive. So, while everyone gathered, I began work on some relays to push things out.” He gestured to a series of crystals atop metal spikes. “They glow when in range, and are obtaining energy, so we’ll know what’s working and what isn’t.”

“So, we’re each to take one of these with us in our teams to investigate the inner city?” Vital queried.

“I was only able to make so many in the time we had, so we’ll have to give a small collective to small squads to venture out. That means we’ll have, at best, six teams of four or twelve teams of two,” Hammer Strike explained. “Either with a set of four relays or eight relays. Each squad must also have at least one soldier in it.”

“Where you go, I go, darling,” Rarity said pointedly.

Pensword looked anxiously at the city. He was worried, not only because Eclipse was furious when he saw his name was on this list, but because the city might not like the idea of lesser beings roaming its streets. He looked to Grif. “Last I heard, Gryphons and Alicorns were fighting each other. We might need something to keep the city from attacking Grif.” He looked to Hammer Strike. “This is an alien city whose residents could have been anything from welcoming to anything equine to closed off and looking out on the world from an ivory tower. The main concern for now should be safeguarding lives.”

“The system isn’t registering us on an individual level, Pensword. If it did, we would have been attacked on entry,” Hammer Strike replied as he grabbed a few relays.

“Seems like an oversight,” Pensword muttered. “We had a key, true. We were smart enough to activate it. My concern is whether they were so arrogant that they thought no creature but them could activate them or if they put safeguards around the entries.”

“If they set a system in place for that, I would have expected it to activate sooner.” Hammer Strike shrugged. “Considering the current groups, we’ll be mostly sending out Ponies until something else pops up otherwise. Apart from Grif and selected individuals.”

“All right, so who’s going with which soldiers, then?” Vital asked.

“We’ll sort it out based off a head, a scholar, mage, and soldier. Three of us count as a head, while you, Vital, are under the mage category,” Hammer Strike explained.

“What are our priorities right now?” Grif asked.

“Expand the relay system out in specific directions, locate facilities and other things our archeologist Daring may want to explore. I’d hope for us to find the main station for power distribution, but that’s just a side goal.”

“A good side goal to have,” Pensword agreed. “I think the four teams is good, though I’m curious why Circlet can’t just manufacture more relays now that you made a base model.”

“She doesn’t make the relays. They’re all made by me,” Hammer Strike explained as he held one up. “These are thaumic relays, which connected themselves to each other and the core of the Gantrithor. They have a limited range, but should be sufficient enough for us to expand the power grid out.”

“Ah.” Pensword nodded. “If they had a zoo, the wildlife could be out there. I would recommend spending nights up here, since it’s the most secure location.”

“Given the limited range of the relays, anyway, I’m going to assume that was Hammer Strike’s plan all along,” Vital noted.

“The second thing to note is that you all have to recollect your relays at the end of the day. I don’t know what systems will be activated with these, and I’d prefer not to just leave them all active until we have a good understanding of our regions,” Hammer Strike warned.

“Sounds like a plan.” The Unicorn nodded. “So, who’s divvying up the parties?”

“Each head will be assigned to select their own units.”

“I think it would make the most sense for Avalon to come as my mage,” Grif noted.

“Rarity, if you trust yourself enough as is, would you accompany me as my mage, or would you prefer it to be left to someone else?” Hammer Strike asked.

“Probably better if I simply come along, darling. I’m not nearly so well studied as Twilight or the mages from the academy.”

“Very well. Vital, will you accompany me as the mage of my squad?”

The Unicorn shrugged. “Sure. I don’t mind.”

“Daring, will you be head or scholar of a group?”

“You’re saying I can’t be both?” She smirked. “I’ll take point. I’m used to these sorts of things. My colleagues don’t have quite the same field experience.”

“Select your group, then. And you as well, Pensword.”

It didn’t take long for the friends to organize their parties and take the relays in question. Each would have a necessary representative for the various races. And as an extra precaution, Hammer Strike warned the members that they weren’t to destroy anything without his permission, unless it threatened their lives. This was an excavation, after all.

---

“Okay. Bow out, arrows ready. I want full sweeps in regular intervals. Keep the scholar and the mage center. I’ll take point. You take the rear,” Grif explained to the Gryphon he’d taken for his soldier. Avalon sat nearby along with a male Unicorn. He had orangish-brown fur and mane, with the exception of a rectangular white patch on his muzzle. A similar orangish-brown goatee sprouted from his chin. He wore huge silver spectacles and a dark blue cloak covered in turquoise stars.

Grif turned to them. “Avalon, have a barrier spell prepared. Your first priority will be keeping Sunspot here safe.” Grif gestured to the Unicorn.

“Um, that’s … Sunburst, … Sir….” the scholar said in a tremulous voice.

Grif looked to him. “Sorry, it's been a long week. Listen, I appreciate this is big for you. I get the magical and historical possibilities a city like this could have for Equestria are hard to overstate. But you have to be ready to do what I say, okay? Nobody’s going to be able to benefit from this if we all die, right?”

“O-of course, Mister Bladefeather. I-I’ll follow your lead,” Sunburst promised.

“It’s Grif, not Mr. Bladefeather,” Grif said.

“Uh, right.” Sunburst cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Whatever you say.”

Grif looked pleadingly to Avalon.

The Gryphoness shrugged. “What? He’s just nervous. You are an intimidating figure, you know. And let’s not forget your historical significance to a Pony who’s made it his life’s work to study arcane lore and history.”

“Please, just, anything to calm him down. A nervous person is as dangerous as an overexcited one.”

“I’ll m-make sure to keep that in check, Sir, I-I mean Grif.” Sunburst blushed heavily. “I’ll do my best to offer whatever help I can.”

Grif rolled his eyes as he moved into the hall before them, taking long slow strides as he examined the area for anything that could be trouble.

Despite the aging, disrepair seemed to not be a common sight among the corridors. In fact, more of the damage seemed to have been caused by signs of violence than the eons of time. Grif whistled as he looked at a pillar of metal that looked like it had been broken like a plank of wood.

“May I?” Sunburst asked as he looked at some of the metal wreckage.

Grif nodded.

He picked up a smaller portion of the structure and peered at the material. A few moments later, a dim glow ran over the metal as he cast a spell on it. “Fascinating. I wondered why this felt so familiar. This metal is literally formed by the conscious manipulation of silicates to bind together into a cohesive form that can easily modify itself in accordance with a particular command. I can still feel just a hint of a signature. The organization is eerily similar to the palace at the Crystal Empire.”

“You’re saying the Alicorns likely used similar building methods?”

“Possibly, though it would require further study to even begin to postulate the algorithms and spell formulae involved in something this intricate.”

“Put that in your notes and we’ll see about it for the second trip,” Grif advised.

“Yes, Sir!” Sunburst said. The researcher was eager to comply.

As they moved forward, the architecture of the area began to change. There were less signs of battle, and the materials seemed to change, becoming denser. Sunburst theorized several large buildings could be factories, though far more advanced than anything he’d seen. Strangely enough, Grif had found twice recently that when he placed a relay, small spherical machines were released that moved busily to and fro. They seemed to be scanning the buildings and machinery within.

“Perhaps some form of maintenance device?” Sunburst postulated.

“Given the fact they're not attacking, I’d say that’s a fairly good guess,” Avalon agreed.

“I’ll document this for Hammer Strike,” Sunburst said.

“Lets just hope these relays don’t awaken something less hospitable,” Grif commented.

“If they do, then we’ll just have to beat a hasty retreat with relay in hand,” Avalon said coolly. “For now, we should probably press deeper. We can report back to Hammer Strike after we’ve exhausted all our relays.”

“Not supposed to leave them behind,” Grif noted.

“And we won’t. Doesn’t change the fact he wants us to use them all, then retrieve them after we’ve mapped the area.”

“Still, let’s be careful. If this area’s industrial, there’s a good chance the next will be military,” Grif noted.

“Good point,” Avalon agreed. “Do you want me to cast any cloaking spells?”

“Honestly not sure it will matter one way or another,” Grif noted. “Best to keep barrier prepared.”

---

Pensword trotted through the walls of the city. Unlike the other segments, the majority of this area seemed to be made almost entirely of stone. The crumpled remains of metal orbs and what appeared to be feathers of some kind littered the ground. A quick order to the scholar led to one of these strange feathers getting bagged for analysis later. Most of the buildings had fallen in or been reduced to their foundations, as though some giant hand had leveled the structures with a single swipe.

“What happened here?” the commander asked as he planted another relay.

“It’s difficult to say. The decay could have been the result of natural aging, depending on the materials used. Or it could have been an overall lack of magic to maintain bonds. Or it could have been an outside force that leveled the structures with explosive results. There are too many variables to be certain. I’m inclined to think the first or second, however. While the Alicorns were certainly powerful enough to wreak this kind of destruction, it makes no sense that they would do so themselves. After all, it was their city.”

“Any signs of what this place may have been, Lost Scribe?” Pensword asked the scholar.

“Given the general dimensions of the buildings, it’s obvious they aren’t factories or any sort of industrial centers. No weapons implies no armory. Whatever these buildings are, they have no function that I’m aware of that pertains to our mission at the moment.”

“Then we press on until we find something that’s recognizable.” Pensword nodded. “Let’s move, team. This mission is recon. We’ll examine the wreckage and the interiors of the buildings after we finish charting out the lay of the land.”

“Yes, Sir, Pensword,” the warrior of their unit replied. Lost Scribe merely scribbled down the portion of town where they had arrived in her notes, and they continued forward.

Pensword’s gaze darted back and forth as the party continued its advance down the streets. This place was home to one of the greatest civilizations that had ever existed on the planet. Such a place should have left an imprint, an impression, a sense of awe. Instead, all the Pony could feel was … nothing. No sense of being watched, no emotional imprint or spiritual hints. It was as if the city were dead, not only on the physical level, but on the metaphysical. “What force could cause such an exorcism?” he muttered to himself.

“Did you say something, Sir?” Lost Scribe asked.

“Just taking note of the situation.” Pensword shrugged and carried on. Lost Scribe wasn’t from New Unity, and the Pegasus wasn’t going to tell unauthorized personnel about his special sense if he could help it. “Let’s carry on. We still have a lot more ground to cover.”

---

Vital Spark shuddered as they passed through the decrepit shadows of the ancient city. Incomplete spires twisted skyward, some interspersed with crystal, others with little more than the dusty remains of stone. Jagged metal shards littered the street with large chunks of wood, stone, and other debris.

“This place looks like a war zone.”

“It certainly looks like it wasn’t natural decay.” Hammer Strike looked to a large barrier wall, which was clearly scattered toward the main roads. “Too many markings of outward force being added.”

“So some sort of attack? It couldn’t have been the Gryphons,” Rarity noted. “They would have lorded it over the other races.”

“The best way to discover the truth would likely be to locate the city’s historical archives. If this place is as advanced as you suggest, Hammer Strike, then it’s likely they would have some means to record what happened,” a younger Earth Pony said as he peered over the wreckage.

“Footage is typically one of the first things to go.” Hammer Strike hummed aloud. “Even the audio log on the tablet we recovered wasn’t fully intact.” After a couple more steps, the relay at his side suddenly stopped glowing, resulting in him stopping, taking a few steps backwards, and planting it in the ground. After ensuring it was secure, he grabbed a new one to place at his side.

“One down, three to go,” Vital noted. “So, based on the distance we traveled, that would give us a maximum range of … what, about a quarter mile?”

“Per relay, yeah.”

“One mile into the city. Depending on what district we go through, that can yield a lot of information,” the Unicorn mused.

“Provided we don’t uncover any dangerous artifacts along the way,” their scholar noted casually.

“Should anything of the sort be uncovered, we simply pull back to disable whatever it is that could be considered dangerous.” Hammer Strike shrugged before continuing to scan their environment.

“Darling, I think I may have found something.” Rarity pointed toward what appeared to be the fragments of some sort of display. Static danced across the screen in short periodic bursts, followed by a series of unfamiliar characters.

Hammer Strike pulled out a small scroll as he scanned the display. After a few minutes of going back and forth, he frowned. “This is apparently a central magic research facility, or was.” He looked through one of the openings to notice a large amount of rubble and shards of metal. “We’ll have to set this on the backlog of places to explore.” He squinted slightly before nodding to himself. “With all that in the way, we’d either have to unequip ourselves or spend over a week clearing it out with no idea what is farther in.”

“I assume we don’t have time for that,” Vital noted.

“We can’t waste that much time on a single location for this trip.” Hammer Strike shook his head.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to mark this place as a point of interest on the map for later.”

Hammer Strike nodded. “For now, we’ll head over that way.” He pointed toward another building. “It’s another research wing, but it appears to be more toward—” He looked down to his parchment and back again. “Mechanical pursuits is the simplest way I can put it.”

“Like Gryphic mechanical or something more advanced?” Vital asked.

“Considering our location, more advanced.”

“It’s certainly going to prove an interesting experience,” Rarity said. “Does your tablet make any reference to potential security systems?”

Hammer Strike pulled out the tablet once more. “Is the automated security active in this region?”

“Security Systems in this district are offline.”

“It appears they’re offline, at least in this district.”

“So, before we go in there, what are the rules?” Vital asked. “Just so everypony is clear on them.”

“Refrain from physically interacting with as much as possible, unless cleared or that it is obviously not a threat.”

“I assume the same goes with using magic on anything?”

“Correct.”

Vital took a deep breath. “All right. I guess we should go see what we’re dealing with.”

Hammer Strike nodded, leading the group into the research wing. He made a mental note to return to this location to study the other laboratory, though he was certain of one thing, he wouldn’t be able to bring his full kit. There was too much energy in the air. It would conflict with his thaumic field.

---

“All right,” Daring said as she drew herself up in the council chamber of the Gantrithor. “Here’s what we know so far. Based on our recon from the last few days, the city shows signs of more than the usual form of decay. There is evidence of blunt force on a massive scale. The majority of the damage appears to have been the result of some form of shrapnel or debris, but I wouldn’t be surprised if greater evidence of some form of explosion or other force were found deeper in the city.” She pointed toward a holographic projection provided courtesy of Circlet. A series of pulsing blue lines traced out from the image of the Gantrithor and into the buildings and streets beyond. “Thanks to the relays, we’ve been able to chart a rough portion of the city and the direction of certain channels of power that fed off the energy provided by said relays. In theory, once we isolate enough of these conduits, we may be able to find their original source and restore power.”

“If I recall correctly, Grif, you explored an industrial segment of the city, correct?” Hammer Strike questioned.

“Yes, though we ran into some military-looking buildings near the end. Also, we encountered what appear to be maintenance bots, and…” He cleared his throat and spoke in English. “We managed to look closely at their building materials. Our scholar noted they were eerily similar to how the crystal empire was built.”

Hammer Strike nodded. “It should be within that region, then, given how much of the security systems are damaged. I think it may be fine enough to work on powering up the city, though we’ll definitely have to use the Gantrithor’s core to do so, since there is no way for us to know how their systems work entirely.”

“I trust that won’t affect Circlet?” Grif asked.

“Circlet runs off a seperate system, in technicality,” Hammer Strike explained.

“I thought she was bound to the core, though,” Vital said. “Won’t a reduction in energy affect her connection to this plane?”

“Vital, at current, we haven’t tapped into a tenth the power the core could provide at maximum,” Grif noted.

“We also don’t know how much energy this city will take. I’m just suggesting we take things slowly if we’re going to use the core to power the city is all.”

“And, as I mentioned, a lot of the systems are currently offline or damaged beyond use, meaning that the power drain of the city would be significantly less than in its prime,” Hammer Strike explained. “The relays can take as much as the core will give, but with Circlet as the main control of it, she can sway the energy cost.”

“Then I guess I don’t have any objections. It’s in Circlet’s court now. Are you all right with this plan, Circlet?” Vital asked.

“I have no objections to this plan. You wouldn’t put me in danger.”

“Then that settles that.” Hammer Strike nodded. “We’ll restore power to the city. Be sure to bring at least one other individual, Grif. As much as I hate to say it, teams of two at least.”

“Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.” Grif shrugged.

“Speaking of which, I need someone with wings to accompany me to a lab. In particular, I need someone who’s on the smaller side.” Hammer Strike shrugged. “Anyone at the table interested who doesn’t have a task lined up?”

“How small are we talking?” Daring asked.

“Roughly your size.”

“So, my size, with wings, and at this table. Why do I get the feeling I’m the only one that fits this criteria?”

“I can find someone else, if you aren’t interested in a high-tech lab.” Hammer Strike shrugged.

“I’m just wondering why you didn’t just save us time and say you wanted me to go in the first place.” She shrugged, then smirked. “When do we leave?”

“As soon as possible. I’ve got something I need to figure out.”

Daring nodded. “I just need to grab some gear. Anything else you wanted to cover for this meeting?”

“Once power is restored, we can look into re-searching regions we’ve been to before.” Hammer Strike sat back in his chair. “Of course, only some members have a cipher for translation, which I’d prefer to keep that way, so our squads will eventually have to start moving out with quite a number of more members.”

“For strength in numbers or some other reason?”

“Because I don’t want many to have the cipher,” he replied simply.

Daring nodded. “Okay, let’s get probing. Your secret lab isn’t going to find itself.”

“Keep your gear light.” Hammer Strike stood from the table. “I’ve got to readjust myself as well.” He frowned as he left the room.

Vital looked awkwardly around the room. “I guess council dismissed,” he said as he rose from his chair. “If anybody needs me, I’ll be polishing my staff and brushing up on some spells in my room.”

Grif let out a chuckle as he stood. “Think about what you said without context, Vital,” Grif noted before leaving.

Vital’s cheeks blazed as Grif’s words sank in. His voice carried after the Gryphon, followed by the sound of rapidly receding hoofbeats. “Grif, get your mind out of the gutter!”

---

“You doing okay?” Grif asked Avalon as they moved through the halls.

“I’m not an invalid yet, you know, even if I am going to have triplets.”

“Not suggesting you were, but this place is new and strange,” Grif noted. “Hopefully, it shouldn’t be much farther now.” He looked around. About thirty minutes ago, the buildings had switched from factories to what seemed like barracks, and later on larger finer buildings that could only be administrative.”

“And the place our ancestors have wanted to find and destroy for so long. It’s strange that we happen to be the Gryphons that wind up here after all this time and animosity.”

“Honestly, who’s to say the animosity wasn’t earned?” Grif noted. “Nothing here seems worth awe.”

“Nothing here’s fully functional either.”

“That will change,” Grif noted as they kept going.

“How do you know that?” Sunburst asked.

“We’re heading for the core,” Grif noted. “If the relays are activating things, it generally means a lack of power is all there is.”

“And, um, not to sound disrespectful, but … how do we know we’re going the right way?”

“A sense I can't fully explain.” Grif shrugged. “Also, if you had a power source that could run a city, you’d probably keep it near where you ran it, so no one could take control of it from you.” He concentrated his thaumic vision and took in the city with new eyes. A little farther down their current path, he noted a brighter patch. Then he blinked and his eyes returned to normal. “I’d say we’re close”

“Then let’s get to it,” Avalon said. “Hammer Strike wants that power restored as soon as possible, after all.”

“And the scholar in you has no curiosity about what we’ll find when it’s back?” Grif asked her.

“The mage in me is more worried about providing protection in the off chance that what we find may want to kill us,” she noted. “I’ll leave the curiosity to Sunburst.”

“Um … thank you?” Sunburst said.

Grif rolled his eyes as he carved an arrow in a wall and walked on. Eventually, they came to a medium-sized octangular building raised from the ground on stairs that seemed to surround it from every direction. An entrance faced them directly. It was a simple rectangular opening. Above it, however, was a relief of three Alicorns looking down. The central one had four legs visible, while the outer two only had two.

“Sleipnir,” he murmured. “But why two depictions of Faust?” He shook his head, rolled his eyes, and entered the building. The ground sloped downwards to a central point where a large metallic orb sat in a depression. “I think we found the core.”

“Because of the conduits running underneath it?” Sunburst asked.

“Also because this building is a magic circle,” Grif noted. “The stairs form the ring.” He pointed to several half pillars sticking out in the eight points. “Points for the star. If you traced the circuitry, you’d likely find the formula.”

“I’d heard you were well-read, but that really is something else. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of a three-dimensional model for a magical circle. It could revolutionize magical defense in Equestria, assuming we can adapt those principles to each of our towns,” Sunburst noted.

“It’s not really that unusual for a Gryphon to notice.” Avalon shrugged. “We’ve used that kind of technique for centuries in our airships and other structures as they’ve been needed.”

“Despite not having magic?”

“It’s the power that matters, and provided the runes have been properly engraved, our blood and the storm cores will take care of the rest.”

“That is incredible! I have so many questions for you now!”

Avalon chuckled. “I suppose some things are just universal among us scholars.”

“He can grill you back at base.” Grif chuckled as he planted the relay next to the core. When it activated, there was a burst of power which encompassed the core. Immediately, it began to draw all the power it could. Grif stepped back to not be caught in the draw as more energy flowed into the sphere.

The sphere began to hum in an unusual tone as it levitated just off the ground. Runes and circuits of power lit up as they were filled. Soon the room was glowing with power as more and more circuits became visible and the energy spread from the core building into the city.

In the Gantrithor’s core room, the bloodstone core began to glow as power radiated from it. Its first layer had already detached and was orbiting the core like electrons around an atom. Slowly, the second layer likewise began to detach as more power filled the relay network toward the Alicorn core.

With a heavy surge of power, the city’s core lit up. Light and energy flowed along the surviving runic pathways, and the city that had slept for millennia hummed with life.

Sunburst gaped at the machine. “The way it absorbed that magic and distributed it….” He trailed off and scribbled violently on his scroll. “Is it possible?” He shook his head. “Needs more study.”

“Care to share with the rest of the class?” Avalon asked.

“It’s still a theory for now. There’s no guarantee that it’s true, but the similarities are striking.” He turned and peered intently at Grif. “You were there at the Crystal Empire when Sombra returned, weren’t you?”

“Not the moment he returned or his defeat,” Grif noted. “We were in stone at that time.”

“Then I’ll have to analyze it myself when I return to the Crystal Empire. But if my hypothesis is correct, then this core is currently functioning in a manner similar, if not identical to the crystal heart and city when its power is invoked.”

“But on a few thousand times scale,” Grif noted. “Let’s get farther away. I don’t trust this much energy radiating from one place.”

“Whatever you say, darling. You are the leader, after all,” Avalon said, then smirked as she gestured toward the door. “After you.”

It didn’t take long for them to emerge from the tunnel and back into the city’s ruins. Several more of the orbs they had seen earlier had become active on the streets.

“You two head toward that building.” Grif gestured to a building a few hundred feet away as they left. “There’s something I need to check.”

“Isn’t rule number one supposed to be not splitting the party?” Sunburst asked nervously.

“Except in cases like this,” Avalon said clinically as she started to push the orange Unicorn. “Trust me, you don’t want to argue with him when he makes up his mind. I’m sure he’ll return to us quickly enough, and we can work on gathering more data in the meantime.”

Sunburst gulped, but nodded. “O-okay.”

Avalon winked at her husband. “Try not to keep us waiting for too long, okay?”

“My dear, you of all people know there is only one thing I am not quick at.” He gave her a wink.

Avalon blushed. “We’ll discuss that later.”

“I know, dear. At some length.” He gave her one last parting kiss, then waited until they were far enough away that he was sure they wouldn’t pick anything up from him. A few seconds later, he activated his thaumic vision and peered at the buildings. A shudder ran down his spine as his suspicions were confirmed. On a building closeby, an arrow had been drawn. Above that was a hastily scrawled version of Hammer Strike’s symbol next to Grif’s own clan symbol, all written with thaumic energy. He sighed. “I really hope this doesn’t mean what I think it means.”

Grif followed the trail as quickly as he could, leaving marks in the walls every once in a while to make sure he could find his way back. The path led around until Grif arrived in another section of the industrial military area. He found himself entering a door that led into a large room filled with strange machinery that seemed untouched by time. Consoles lit up with data he couldn’t read as it switched rapidly between characters. There was so much going on in the room that he lost track of his place as he attempted to take it all in. He bumped into something, only to feel the surface depress against his back. A voice spoke from nowhere in words he didn’t understand, and Grif felt a sudden stab to his side. Drowsiness overtook him as his entire body began to forcibly relax. The last thing he noted before the world went dark was the sensation of movement beneath him and a calm blue light.

---

Pensword was at the lead of his small group. Even in the daylight, a few of the remaining light posts flickered while from the windows of this rather tall and elaborate structure in the middle of what research and a few aerial recons over the area showed to be some form of residential area. They had poked around and so far recovered what might have been a few foal’s toys and other odds and ends. However, the structure gave the impression of something grand. For one thing, it had been built on an artificial hill with a wide staircase leading up to large doors greater in size than the normal passages and entryways they had seen up to this point. A park of sorts surrounded the area. The ground was overgrown with grass and wildflowers, while dry fountains held algae-filled waters. The pieces were tall with carvings on the sides of the occidental middle, with a cracked chipped stone carved umbrella-like structure that created streams of water. It was likely that the carvings became a clearer image if viewed through the wall of water that was meant to spout from above.

On closer examination, Lost Scholar was shocked to discover the stone didn’t have any carving marks. It was as if the fountain had been formed naturally on the spot. Pensword looked at the other fountains that dotted the park. Six more flanked the main entrance with three on each side of the stairs. The scholar took notes and a few observations and drawings before they returned to the stairs and resumed their climb toward the main entrance. They came across the remains of two destroyed statues strewn down either side of the staircase. While the fragments could be pieced together, it would take time to parse all of the pieces of leg, neck, torso, wing, and hoof into a proper complete piece. A project for another time. At last, they reached a new set of doors.

“Well, looks like we found a temple,” the soldier groused.

Pensword shook his head. “No, Vital got the luck of the draw. He’s going to the temple, and from the sweeps we’ve made thus far, the city appears to only have one major temple complex.” He looked up at the building as they continued their ascent.

As they reached the threshold on the landing, the doors swung out on their own, accompanied by a garbled chime. Lost Scribe almost bolted, only for the mage to use her magic to keep the Scholar rooted to the spot. Pensword knew this system well from his time on Earth. It appeared that the Alicorns had employed automatic doors as well.

They all slowly crept forward as they entered the now open portal and found a large lobby with stairs leading up and down. A large desk sat perfectly preserved, having been sheltered from the elements outside. “Looks like some sort of administration building.” Before they could answer the doors gave a different chime and the slowly swung closed again.

Lost Scribe moved closer to the doors and they sounded a chime and they swung open again.

“Okay, that’s enough, Lost Scribe. Let's move farther into the room, so we don’t keep activating the system,” he ordered. Pensword looked at the other two and used his primary feather to point at the others. “Okay, I want you to stay here. I’ll fly up the stairs and see what I can see on the top floor, maybe see how many floors go above us.” He flapped his wings, sending a cloud of dust flying throughout the lobby as the lights flickered on and off. He worked systematically, pushing what doors he could, only to meet resistance. Pulling soon solved that issue. However, the victory was short lived. Rubble stared back at him with its bleak and impassive nature. It seemed that the upper floors had fallen in on themselves. The brittle bones of wooden floorboards and snapped support beams were mixed with plaster and wooden and stone shelving units. Broken busts and other decorative pieces were strewn every which way. With his examination complete, he turned around and glided to the bottoms of the stairs.

“I think I know where we are. If the shapes of the ruins is anything like home, then I’d hazard a guess that this is a library of some sort,” Pensword announced as they had gathered around the lobby desk. The spent the next few minutes scouring the main floor. Eventually, they discovered an unusual machine built into the desk itself. A few good knocks yielded the satisfying clang of metal, and Pensword nodded in satisfaction. A bin for returns. He was certain of it.

“If this is a library, then we need to be careful,” Lost Scribe said. “The books have been well protected here, but they could still crumble if we touch them.”

Pensword shook his head. “I see no paper. If they had any books or records like that, they’d been long gone or in plain sight. And we can’t go any farther up. The entire upper portion of the building has fallen in. We’re lucky the lobby remained intact. That implies a strong foundation, and possibly a basement that we can explore. I recommend we try there next, taking precautions to avoid any areas that might show weakness in structure.”

It took some time, but they eventually discovered the door that led to the basement stairwell. The Soldier and Pensword followed up from the rear. This part of the library had been reinforced with strong stone and metal structures that had resisted the flow of time to reinforce the structure. The lights didn’t flicker down there. The space was simple, a large rom lined with shelves, a few tables, and chairs. Familiar black tablets lay scattered haphazardly over the floor and various surfaces.

Lost Scribe didn’t lose a single moment. She dashed from surface to surface and scooped up each of the precious artifacts. However, joy soon turned to a low cry of dismay. These were the books. They had to be. But the screens didn’t react to her touch. The technology was dead. Nothing they could do would be able to restore them. Though Hammer Strike might.

“Gather them all, Lost Scribe. Just because we can’t operate them now doesn’t mean we won’t be able to in the future. Hammer Strike may be able to come up with something.” Pensword passed into the chamber and joined the scholar as she slowly began to pick up the items. “We’ll organize them into two parts: Those that are operation and those that are not.” A thorough search yielded a small trove of tablets that were still operable. The questionable ones had been stored in saddlebags in preparation for transport to the Gantrithor.

Their search had also yielded the existence of many foreign machines and monitors. At most Pensword could only theorize as to their use. But if it turned out any were true, it would be intriguing to test them out at a later date. For now, they would take their precious cargo back to the ship. They had done good work for the day.

---

Far away from the island, over hills and valleys, forests and tundras, and across the great dunes of Equis’ largest desert in a hidden location, a small black tablet lit up with a loud chirp. There was a startled gasp as a rich brown energy enveloped it. In the darkened room, the light of the tablet reflected off two round panes of glass as its data was examined.

“Ooh, a Gryphon. So, the Gryphons found it, then. Ah, but this one….” The person manipulated the screen with a few deft swipes. “Capable of direct magic manipulation? Traces of divine energy, and…” There was a gasp and a flutter of wings. “Aer?” There was a chuckle. “This is interesting.”

---

As the world groggily swam back into place for Grif, he found himself coming to in that mysterious laboratory he had entered, only he was on the opposite side of the room. A panel nearby flashed symbols and equations rapidly. His first instinct was to lash out in anger at the machinery. He suppressed that urge with a careful application of willpower. There were too many reasons not to even consider that.

Grif was aware he was drugged, but he was unaware of what he’d been drugged with, which meant his thaumic field couldn’t detox it. He’d have to deal with it the old-fashioned way. He let out a few coughs as his body registered its next complaint. His throat felt like sandpaper. He retrieved his canteen from his pack and drank until his throat felt mostly better.

Slowly, Grif began concentrating on his thaumic vision again. It took him some time, but he was able to pick up the trail again. He found himself being led through many interconnected tunnels that seemed to lead to more laboratory buildings. They got more and more sterile as time went on. And then the trail split. One branch went forward while another veered into a door on the left. Grif took a moment before deciding to examine the new direction. He could come back this way later.

He found himself inside a narrow room filled with panels and what seemed to be screens of some kind. A window opened on the far wall to show another identical room. This one, however, had the far wall lined with large devices Grif could only guess were tanks of some kind. Most were sealed with no evidence of tampering. Three, however, were severely damaged. One had been cut open from the outside, most likely by some form of magic. Another looked like something had torn its way out from the inside, with the metal rent to pieces bending inside and out. The third was the strangest of all. It, too, looked like something had torn it’s way out, but the edges were warped, as though the metal had melted. Other places seemed to have shattered, as if frozen and then broken apart.

Grif gave these his attention for a few moments before he looked for the trail and found it leading to a panel in the far corner. This one was rapidly flashing not only data, but images of Dragons, Gryphons, Ponies, and more. It seemed the Alicorns had been working on some very weird things. The trail stopped at this panel, so Grif looked around for a clue. And then the image changed again. It wasn’t in colour, but the profile was unmistakable. A tall scarred Earth Pony stood in the picture. The upper portion of its left ear was missing.

The ground pulsed beneath him, and Grif looked at the floor to behold a message emerging in his thaumic sight. While there was no doubt the energy signature was Hammer Strike’s, the penmanship was not. The writing was almost robotic in how perfect each letter had been written, right down to the spacing between words and characters.

How strange it is, to have to rely on you to do what I am unable to. Grif, I hate to have to do this, but I need you to do a few things for me. I don’t have the time to scan over everything here. Would you collect as many of the remaining documents as you can and bring them with you? Afterward, follow my trail.

“And how do I collect them?” Grif asked. Then his gaze fell upon several tablets hidden behind the panel. If they were anything like the bestiary they’d assembled to find the place before, then these would likely contain the files Hammer Strike mentioned. Grif shrugged and stored them in his pack. Then he sighed. “What did you get yourself into this time?” He soon returned to the trail. The overall journey this time was faster than it had been. The next stop was only a few doors down. The door opened with a mechanical hiss into what Grif guessed was some kind of surgical bay, judging by the flat gurney-like device in the center and the few metal tools scattered around the room.

His eyes widened as he drew closer and noticed the heavy metal restraints that had been built into the makeshift bed. Several nasty-looking devices, probes, and surgical implements were attached to mechanical arms on the ceiling above.

Grif found his next instruction written next to the gurney. This time, however, while the penmanship was still different, it was notably varying in placement.

Destroy this, Grif. Whatever it takes, I want you to get rid of all of this. I can’t … I just can’t do it myself.

Grif looked around the room. He wasn’t sure what had happened here, but if Hammer Strike wanted it gone, then it would go. Grif closed his eyes and concentrated. The thaumic energy didn’t come as quickly or readily as before, and Grif found himself having to throw his will at the energy to move it as he pulled as much of the aer aspect around him together as possible. He shaped the crystal so that it attached itself to the floor. When he finally gathered enough together for sufficient destruction, he gave the room one last look. The floor glittered yellow as tiny ridges of crystal coated all the surfaces bound to it in a thin film. He exited into the hall and walked a considerable distance from the room after the door shut behind him. Then he willed the crystal to disperse rapidly.

When he returned, it appeared as if the room was unfinished. The floor was scraped down to the cement beneath. The walls were bare, and the metal shone as though it had been cut. Grif nodded in satisfaction, then left the room to follow the breadcrumbs his lord had left behind. This time, the trail led to what could only be described as a cell block. The giant room was dark and dank, with heavy cement walls and floors. The walls were lined with barred cells and narrow walkways that went up a good quarter of a mile.

Skeletons began to crop up the farther he traveled. The main subjects appeared to be Ponies, based on what he could make out from the structure of the remains, but he found a couple of Roos and even some Diamond Dogs as he walked. They sat in various poses. Some lay against the walls of their cells staring out. Some leaned on their bars as if they had been struggling. More than a few times, Grif saw a skull and spinal column hung by a roughbound hair rope as the rest of the bones lay scattered beneath.

After what seemed like an eternity, Grif found himself entering the higher security cell blocks. He ascended several flights of stairs on all fours. He would have flown, but he needed to follow the trail, and there was the matter of potential security defenses if he was identified as a Gryphon invader. A line of five cells made entirely of heavy gauge metal waited for him at the top. The trail ended in front of the final cell.

You are free to look within, Grif, but I will warn you now. This is the answer to the question you’ve asked yourself.

Grif looked into the room. His gaze darted around at the mass of information. The cell was so filled with Hammer Strike’s scrawl that it practically glowed in a solid sheet. Some of it was senile scribblings, some long ditribes. There were threats and plans for escape. Grif even noticed a few thaumic formulae he wanted to examine for later potential application. It took immense willpower to pull himself away from that particular distraction. Ironically, as he felt his will to ignore the knowledge begin to fade, his eyes locked on a symbol. it was out of place and archaic. Looking at it gave him a sense of dread, but also gave him the strength to ignore the formulas. The symbol was that of a line with a spike on either end, but near one end before the spike an incomplete loop appeared with a dot in the center. There was a squiggly line on the one end giving the spike an almost arrow-like appearance followed by three arches of varying sizes. The largest was beneath the spike, the second largest on the top, and the smallest rested above the second largest.

The symbol seemed to pulse with archaic power and pushed willpower into Grif. Grif turned away from the cell, even as he began forming the crystal. As he looked to the exit, he found one last message. ‘Help me’ written in several fashions and styles and every font Grif could think of. Grif tossed the crystal in the cell. As he left, he felt a strange sensation over his body. He felt lighter as the weight of his pack and his weapons harness vanished. Something hung over his side lightly. Not looking down, Grif leaped off the railing and into the air as he dissolved the crystal and the room behind him ceased to be.

As he flew towards the exit he finally took a moment to look, Clinging tightly to his body was a familiar long coat with blue with gold trim. Though as he wore it, he felt it drinking his power. It was an odd but not unpleasant sensation as the coloring shifted to a deep earthy green, and the gold became silver. He felt a strange sting in the back of his mind before a soft voice seemed to whisper faintly.

Find him.

---

Vital Spark peered curiously at the crumpled remains of the structure before him. The roof sagged dangerously, and a large chunk of wall had either collapsed or been broken in some way. The building bore three spires, each which held a celestial body: a tarnished sun that had lost many of its tines, a blemished crescent mounted in a crooked smile, and a third spire that had been snapped halfway up. Pensword had reported on the building in passing during his travels in the civilian sector. And given the unique symbolism that had only been found therein, Vital Spark was keen to investigate.

The vastness of the structure was on a scale similar to Notre Dame. The gaping remains of stained glass windows jutted mournfully at the sky like a toothless nag. The doors had long since been eaten away by time, leaving dessicated husks that bent at the slightest touch and imprinted on just about anything that made contact. However, while the exterior of the building had taken a heavy beating, the majority of the interior was surprisingly well preserved.

The room was a vast open space with vaulted ceilings designed to draw the eye toward the rafters and inevitably to the altar on the far end. Row upon row of pews lapped like waves against a shore as Vital Spark passed down the aisle. Beneath each of the larger windows on either side, a small plinth had been laid. Each bore an identical indentation the shape of a small divot. The decayed remains of protective runes could barely be seen on the stone anymore. Twelve plinths in total formed the sides beneath metal rungs and the few tatters that remained of once grand tapestries and banners. Far to the front of the chamber, a set of stairs led up to a great dais, where three altars waited, each carved with a series of symbols and effigies. The left bore the sun in all its shapes and forms. The gold still shone brightly within the white marble. Behind it, the towering form of a mighty six-legged steed reared in the air. His wings were spread wide, and his horn was surrounded by an intricately crafted golden helm that highlighted his broad face. The mighty Sleipnir was unmistakable.

The middle altar was crafted from finely polished obsidian. A golden feather jutted out from the center of the structure, and its tip seemed almost awash in the glassy material in which it had been embedded. Four white inkwells sat at each corner of the altar, and two gold rods laid beneath the quill, the last remnants of some religious document or scripture, no doubt. The mare that stood behind this altar was tall and fair. Her mane was flat, but her eyes were deeply expressive and looked out with a deep and abiding love over the congregation. The etched stencil of an inkwell and quill on her flanks clinched this mare’s identity.

“Lady Faust. We meet again.” Vital bowed his head respectfully, first to the mare’s statue, then to Sleipnir’s.

Lastly, he turned to the third altar. This one was carved out of gray stone and was closest to the gap that had been blown in the wall. Its surface was beveled and peppered with dents and holes, but the gold and tarnished silver that remained intact was enough to reveal the moons and stars that spotted the various reliefs. The edges that formed the frames of the images pulsed with a weak silvery-white light. “Moonstone,” Vital breathed as he brushed the substance reverently. The Alicorn that stood behind this altar was unassuming. Her mane was more ethereal, seeming almost to have been caught in the middle of its lazy waving. The eyes that stared down were meek, timid, and filled with a sense of longing that nearly pulled Vital Spark physically toward them. Her neck was bowed and her wings drooped, as though weighted down with a terrible burden.

“Okay,” Vital said as he pointed to the first two statues. “I know you, and I know you.” Then he looked back at the third. “But who are you?”

---

Hammer Strike frowned as he shifted Ulkrusher on his back. From what he noticed earlier, the passage was covered in metal shrapnel that would make most forms of cloth a hindrance. Rather than his usual attire, he was equipped with just a sheath for Ulkrusher and a sash for the thaumic relays.

The thaumic energy in the area was so potent that he had difficulty controlling the finer points of his power. He could still use his sight, but anything involving altering or shifting aspects took too much work to keep stable that he could potentially drain himself before they could move through the tunnels.

He didn’t know the shape that the tunnels were in deeper into the labs where the center point of thaumic energy was, and deemed it better to refrain from using his power, which led to him having to leave his coat behind.

He disliked the fact, but rather than have it torn severely by metal, he decided it would be best to keep it safe. The only thing he truly worried about was the fact that he placed his cravat, and the primal, within his coat. So, the most dangerous thing he carried on him now held something equally as devastating.

Daring strode out of the shadows bearing her usual equipment and a set of daggers that slid between the pouches of her tool belt. A dim light shone from the relays to grant enough sight in the dark to navigate their route. A piece of chalk held in Daring’s wing provided the intent of tracking their progress with an old miner’s trick. “All right, I’m ready to go.”

“All right,” Hammer Strike replied as he took the lead. “To quickly note, there are other reasons for why I chose to investigate this location. Since these are bound to come up, I figured I’d at least tell you.”

“Ancient devices that could prove highly advanced and possibly have vastly negative consequences for the world if they fall into the wrong hooves?” she guessed.

“Not quite.” Hammer Strike frowned as he thought of how to explain the situation. “To put it simply, there is a field of power here similar to what I know and use, and it’s coated the entire island, drowning it and making it impossible to do certain things. This is not something for the world to know, and I can’t figure out why it’s here.”

“And you’re hoping to find either the source of this power or some record that will explain its origin?”

“In a way.” Hammer Strike squinted as the building came into view. “Hopefully, I can ‘dispel’ it as well, but at the very least I will know what happened here.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

As the two walked toward the research wing, several devices and screens suddenly flickered to life around them. A series of lights followed suit, pushing the shadows around them back.

“Looks like Grif accomplished his task,” Hammer Strike commented as he walked into the building.

A small reception area greeted them that led to a collapsed tunnel. Rather than the usual layout with a receptionist’s desk, they found empty space, save for a sealed chamber in the corner that sheltered a smooth curved desk. A single heavily reinforced door divided it from the entrance, as though it were part of a different segment of the building.

“Well that’s strange,” Daring said as she peered through the windows at the desk. “Why would they keep a desk sealed off like that?”

“Safety reasons?” Hammer Strike shrugged as he approached the cave-in. After looking over the rubble, he shoved a few larger stones and metal fragments aside to reveal a small passage against the side of the tunnel, though several segments of rebar and other pieces of scrap metal jutted out hazardously. “Good thing you don’t mind a few scratches,” he commented as he pushed forward.

“I’ve been in tighter spots before,” Daring agreed as she followed behind him. “So, felt anything else yet?”

“We’ve got a ways to go before we find the center of this.” Hammer Strike sighed as the tunnel opened up once more. Thankfully, with Grif restoring the power, the hall was lit by several beams overhead. Looking back at his equipment, he noticed several cuts across the leather of his sheath.

“Then I guess we’d better keep going,” Daring said. “Want me to scout ahead?”

Hammer Strike shook his head. “Follow behind me. I’ll be mostly focused on finding the source. Gives you more freedom to search around while I track it down, rather than just tagging along with nothing for it.”

“I’ll focus on keeping a map, then.” She reached into a pouch and quickly scrawled a symbol on the wall. “And just in case we get lost.”

Hammer Strike nodded as he took the lead. The structural integrity of the interior appeared to be patchwork in nature. Several segments had collapsed while others remained in almost pristine condition.

“Well, that’s random,” Daring noted. “What do you think happened here?”

“We’re steadily heading underground, so perhaps some severe impacts happened topside.” Hammer Strike hummed. “Given the intensity of the energy, I believe we’re getting close. Keep an eye out for anything that seems abnormal.”

“Like magical field abnormal, ancient puzzle abnormal, mystical artifact abnormal, or highly advanced technology that I don’t have the first clue about abnormal?”

“Anything that seems drastically different from what you’ve seen on the way down here.”

“I can do that.”

It took half an hour of searching, but eventually Hammer Strike was able to determine the center of the spike in thaumic energy. After shoving open a pair of sliding metal doors, he was greeted with a large open room. Counters lined the walls, all of them empty. A multitude of crystals stood in a circle around the center of the room. After a quick scan, he was able to determine that the crystals were thaumic in nature, the aspects being a mixture of common and uncommon materials. Air, earth, water, fire, order, and chaos. It took him several seconds before he finally realized what he was standing near.

“They were trying to make it,” he muttered to himself, subconsciously reaching for his chest, where his cravat once was.

“Did you say something, Hammer Strike?” Daring asked from her place at the doorway. “And what’s this, some sort of spell circle?”

“Partially,” Hammer Strike replied as he took a step into the room. “To most, it is magic, while in actuality, it’s more of a science.” He stepped forward cautiously. “To put it simply, they—”

His voice trailed off as his eyes locked onto a point in the center of the circle. Daring looked to the lord, then back at the circle again. “Hammer Strike, are you all—?” Her voice trailed off as the air was suddenly sucked out of her lungs. Were it not for her swift reflexes, she would have completely lost her footing. Her hindquarters waved behind her as she clung to the door frame against an overwhelming force that pulled her back. She lowered her neck to peer beneath and see the source of the trap. It took a few seconds before she finally saw it, or rather its effects on the environment. The very air seemed to waver, almost like a mirage, as dust, dirt, and loose debris were pulled into the room and through a rippling black sphere no larger than a couple of centimeters. A corona of light swirled around it as it sucked hungrily at the room and its denizens.

Hammer Strike had taken hold of one of the desk doors after they had swung open. Despite his strength, the rift was pulling him with enough force that he had to ensure his grip to avoid being pulled in. However, while the desk in question may have been bolted and held by powerful magics reinvigorated through the channels from the city’s energy core, the hinges on the door were not. The old metal creaked and groaned under the onslaught of pressure and the Earth Pony’s weight. It shrieked, it cried, it groaned, and ultimately the metal rent, leaving only the lower hinge to keep Hammer Strike from imminent destruction.

“Hammer Strike!” Daring cried helplessly. “Hang on!” She reached a hoof out instinctively before she could stop herself. A chunk of stone from the hall did the rest. Before she knew it, the doorway was shrinking before her, and she had no way of stopping, despite her struggles to flap against the pull.

Before she could ‘fall’ too far, Hammer Strike reached out and took hold of her hoof. His jaw and neck strained as he held himself by the counter door with one hoof and held her body with the other. He groaned. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d ask if you gained weight,” he called out.

“Hah. Real funny. Now how about you stop whining and start using that legendary strength I’ve heard so much about?” Daring shot back with her usual bravado.

“Ex Divinia etiam, none of my secrets get by you all.” Hammer Strike huffed as he looked toward the door once more. “If you think you can manage it, I can throw you back up, and you can at least stand on the wall inside the hall.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll have to think on that part later,” Hammer Strike replied before growling to himself. “Daring, I’d love to discuss this more, but even with my ‘legendary strength,’ holding myself and you up in a gravitational field like this is very difficult. Ready yourself!”

Daring nodded and her body tensed. “Let’s do this!”

Hammer Strike took a breath as he swung Daring back a little before straining to throw her toward the door. He took as much effort as he could spare to throw her, resulting in her barely getting past the door frame, but it was enough for her to land topside and get a better anchor. However, the counter door he was relying on let out a sickening crack as the second joint broke free. He barely had time to register it before his world went black.

As Hammer Strike passed through the rift, it collapsed on itself. Daring fell to the floor as the gravitational force dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. She rose shakily to her hooves and gulped heavily. “Grif and Rarity are going to kill me.”

Comments

[Gargon94]

Well, it looks like its time to go back in time for Hammer Strike. The only one who knows a bit about what will happen is Grif. Can't wait to see the events within the Alicorn city in the past unfold next chapter.

[Fetch]

Later...
Grif: Great. Just great. I thought we were done with paradoxes.

[Well Geboren]

Hear me, oh great writers, and tell me how close my guess is.
Story teller is Clovers son under some kind gease, and Hammer Strike is the father. >.>

[Grif_Bladefeather]

10006079
one thing you have to remember is a orbit is itself simply a very careful fall, everything that orbits the planet well eventually fall, satalights, the space station etc etc. the moon is the exception because it posses it's own gravity which lets it interplay with earths. if you'd like a detailed explanation then i'll gladly make one up for you. the dummy head entered orbit relatively quickly and thus do to space not possessing forces to act against it by newtons law it kept it's momentum, eventually it entered the moons orbit for a while and circled it several times it's momentum constantly increasing by the movement of the sun and moon and thus there gravity inter playing on it, eventually a chunk of debris collided with it knocking it into an unstable degrading orbit on equis where it came down with the general force of several times what it was launched with, the heat and energy that would have normally been expelled upon impact where absorbed by and thus obliterated the shield.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

10006166
your so cold you've reached absoloute zero :P

[Charedfirescale]

Ugg, looks like Hammerstrike is behind the fall of the Alicorn Empire. Those experiments and cellblock remind me of the experiments conducted by the Nazis during WW2. The Alicorns had everything coming to them, those arrogant bastards....

Still I can't wait for this paradox stuff is over. Its nice but after awhile it begins to feel unnecessarily convoluted.

That symbol seems familiar... magic the gathering maybe? No...not Magic the Gathering....where have I seen it before....
It reminds me of this symbol:
a.deviantart.net/gallerythumbs/1/7/052140271.png?2
Though that's the symbol of the LORE series by Dragon-FangX
I've looked through Dark Souls, Bloodborne, The Witcher, Tales of, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasty and many others but I can't find that symbol. I no I've seen it before, but I barely catch most of the other material references sprinkled throughout this story. I mean I don't even know who this, "Story Teller", guy is from.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

10007414
the outsider

[Well Geboren]

10006916
Like if I was expecting you to be truthful, or to give the slightest hint, will just have to wait and see then.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

10008392
okay you weren't completley cold but a few of your details made you cold, you decide which :P

[Well Geboren]

10008442
Nope I'm gonna wait an see. ;P

[Shawn820]

10009015
Thaumaturgy in it's right is an old piece of mythology, it's description being the act of performing 'magic' or 'miracles from the gods'. The base concept is that it's all about manipulating the world around you and yourself, if need be. The whole thing is a mixture of it's old myth and magic, with me adapting it for the story and reader's sake.

The mod that you're talking about kinda gets the idea, but it lacks in several other parts. It gets the idea of the world and everything being made of aspects and such, but is limited by game logic, which is completely fair. DnD specifies it under a minor take of manipulation of yourself and the world around you, like altering a fire or causing minor tremors.

As for Hammer Strike in the raising of the two sisters, it's a half and half deal, he's adapted to the role they placed him in, as he gets the idea of it all, but understands that it's not him at that point in time.

[Booster Spice]

Uhoh, that place is throwing up a whole load of warning flags. And I dont mean just by all the powering up of automated systems that include active internal security in public places of terminal nature.

Vital apparently found remains of maybe Alicorns or at least other invading forces, but given the impact distributions, which Galois Boundary maths? Allows you to take a measurement of shrapnel density ofer a boundary fraction, multiplied by the rate of curvature, to get not only size of region but rough estimate of energy density and so total energy of impact?

As for Crystal Empire material but even denser? thats manufactured perfect four dimentional packing stuff, If you look at it 3D it looks twisted and wrapped in all sorts of confusing ways, but very recent descriptions show it having immense bandwidth and very useful properties indeed. If the ELF antenna wasnt a cylindrical rod but conical, it would have remarkable similarities to a Crystal Unicorns horn.

Thats a long way out for the deviation field to be operational, accross all senses, given such loss of power? Or would it be a magically powered field that uses the approaching magica source as power so theres no central power transmitter to act as a beacon?

Hammerstrikes off on a ride again, but it looks like the far end isnt that plesant. He ends up somewhere fully drained or Changeling Throne canceled, and the research into his energy is what gives rise to the Aliconr Empire in the first place?

I wonder if Thaumonuclear warheads were used, or Stealthed Thor?

[EnderHooves]

10006175
Ok, that makes enough sense.
10009089
Alright, that's cool. Do you have a list of sources you learned from? Or is it mostly all over the place and you built your own framework off it? I enjoy reading about magic(k) and applying its philosophies in my life.

I'm getting really irritated that I'm not getting notifications for replies on this story because I'm constantly reading it.

[Shawn820]

10010210
It's all over the place and in the end I've been just pulling it together and establishing my own framework on it. I'd offer more info, but I shouldn't reveal too much for story sake, got to keep some things unknown and exciting.

[EnderHooves]

10010531
You're good man, I get it. Its hard to keep sources straight when hunting Magick in the internet.

[ihatehaters1994]

Ok gotta say that cliff hanger was awesome.

[EnderHooves]

“Yes, though we ran into some military-looking buildings near the end. Also, we encountered what appear to be maintenance bots, and…” He cleared his throat and spoke in English. “ We managed to look closely at their building materials. Our scholar noted they were eerily similar to how the crystal empire was built. ”

Little problem here, the italics don't stop after this paragraph.
Hooo leee crap!! That ending was insane! I wonder what was with griff being drugged out of nowhere like that. And I wonder when hammer strike will leave the trail.