Journal of a War Pony

by CrackedInkWell

August 18 - 24 (Part 5)

The doorknob glowed in a blue color as it was opened. As we entered, the smell of dust choked the air. The four of us walked down a long hallway with a few odd metal doors that are marked with “LAB 1”, “LAB 6.” and so on. Along with the cryptic sings of "Class D Clearance," or "Class M Clearance" (whatever any of those meant). At the near end of the hallway, we stopped at Lab 13.

We entered a series of darkened rooms, in each of those rooms had a layer of dust with some evidence that ponies had been here long ago with barely noticeable hoof prints. Twilight commented that it seems that all of these rooms looked like they had, indeed, been left in a hurry.

In a kitchen, for example, there was a table in which there were a few mugs on top of ancient papers, a few pens and some kind of technology that looked like a scroll made out of a thin flexible glass. Almost as if these chaps had to put down their cups of coffee and never came back.

During our tour of the underground laboratories, Luna made the comment that despite being away for centuries, it was strange that this is the only place on Earth where things never change.

Our tour went through rooms of the remains of offices for doctors that include the rotting remains of examination tables. Shattered glass beakers, rotten books, and broken tools laid about in these rooms. In some places, parts of the ceiling had collapsed, revealing the cut stone above.

There was a circular room where there is a column in the middle and a dome above. They explained that when they were young, the scientist would turn on a projector on top of the column to show them the night sky where they were taught about astronomy.

They showed us a room that was the size of a cathedral, where they explained that the three of them used to play. Where in that huge room, the three of them learned how to fly.

They even showed us the place where they were created. In a room that was surrounded by machinery and broken glass, in the center of the room was the remains of a glass tube laying on its side, embedded to the floor. They told me that they were created in this very tube. At this point, Twilight was in every sense of the word humble. Maybe this was because this to her, this was the sacred ground where the teacher she admired so was born.

Then they took us to the very back of the laboratories. Where there was the thick glass box that they talked about with the door long off its hedges. The box itself was connected to pipes above. Both Twilight and I noticed that both the princesses stood in silence as they entered the room. This crushing silence lasted for a minute or two, I thought that maybe I should break the silence to ask them about something.

“Excuse me your highness's, I wish to ask you two something that I just realized.”

“Yes?” Celestia said quietly.

“It's about your story, for living beings that are thousands of years old, how is it that you two can remember your childhoods so well, even to where you can quote what someone has said?”

The two princesses gave each other a quick glance, Luna told us that they were going to show us one last room. In that remains of that room is something they called “the memory machine.” The thing itself it was nothing more than a slab of glass with a mechanical base.

Celestia offered for Twilight to turn on the machine. After giving her some instructions, Twilight's horn glowed and then, the glass slab lit up. At first, we saw a dozen pictures. Now with Celestia horn glowing, she moved the pictures until she found what she was looking for.

The only way I could describe what I saw was like watching a picture show, only it had color and sound. We saw the two sisters and their brother on examination tables that looked like new. They were surrounded by men and women in white lab coats.

“Blood presser is normal. Wing reflex,” said a lady with blond hair. The other scientists tap small hammers in between their wings on their backs, all of their reactions had their wings open half way.

“Mitch mashed seems normal,” joked a scientist near their brother.

“Hey, cut it out,” their brother said with the annoyed tone that teenagers have.

“And finally, the heart rates," the blond lady said, they listen to their heartbeats and wrote down the numbers.

“97 for mixed up.”

“Stop it,” the brother warned, now more annoyed than before.

“Are you kidding jumbled, I can do this all day,” he said chuckling.

The brother's eyes glared razor-sharp daggers at him. Before they all left, the scientist who teased him said: “See you tomorrow, Hodgepodge.”

His eyes expressed rage, he spotted a glass beaker from across the room, it was picked up in the air by some unseen force, and it flew 'til it shattered at that scientist's head. As soon as that happened, the brother's expression immediately changed from rage to shock. “D-Did I just do that?” The sisters in the machine shared their brother's look of shock.

There is something that I failed to mention the machine, while the scene played out, I saw on the bottom of the glass, IV/XX/MMLXIII.

For someone who has studied Latin as a child, I recognized that the I's, V's, X's, M's and L's are Roman numerals. I didn't ask the two if they knew what these letters meant. They didn't seem to notice other than myself.

From here, Celestia told me to close my eyes, and like that we were going back to the surface. This time, we ended up in the royal library. Celestia invited us to come to a concert at two o'clock. We accepted, but I ask if I could talk to Twilight for a while. They nodded, told us they will see us later and left.

I shared to Twilight about what I discovered from the machine. I told her that IV/XX/MMLXIII was a date. April the 20th, 2063. This major clue along with the story will be entirely useful in getting me home. But Twilight pointed out that if I would be going home successfully, we need to review the whole story in order to get the dates just right. This, of course, we need to use the memory spell to record it, but it would take several days.

Later that day at two, we were in a music room filled with an orchestra. The princesses said that they will be playing some new pieces that had been transcribed from the golden records.

I remembered they played a total of five pieces, the first four I didn't recognize, however, the last one that I recognized immediately. They played a march, but the tune, to my surprise, they played "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." Perhaps it was my loyalty, or it was nostalgia that flooded into me at that moment, but I found myself singing that song out loud. Much to the confusion of the musicians who were playing something for the first time in who-knows-how-long.

One more thing before I end this entry, by the time we left the capital that day, Luna took me aside and told me that she remembered a few things she learned as a young filly when it comes to human history. Even though she told me that she wasn't certain, she told me that I should remember the date, November 11th, 1918. The reason was that she told me that that was the date that my war ended.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure how to feel about this. When I left, it was 1916, and now hearing from Luna that the war would have been over in about two years or so... Part of me wants to celebrate, for me, the war has been long over. Yet at the same time, it filled me with fear, she didn't say who won.