Times Long Past

by Cryptic-Dash

3: Discovery

As Celestia and Luna decended into the darkness the cave around them quickly changed from jagged rock walls into smoother metallic walls long rusted and almost unidentifable from the rock other than its flatness, the wall was only disrupted by the sharp rocks and crystals that had punched their way through the ruined metal causing it to stick it in unusual angles as if a trap ready to catch its unexpecting foe.
As they continued down the corridor being lit only by the faint glow given off by their horns, they reached a cross section. One way only traveled about twenty meters before being cut off by massive piles of rock, Celestia and Luna looked wary at the structural integrity of the surrounding supports which were now showing clear buckling under weight and age.

"Tia" Luna began with a note of caution in her voice, "this place does not seem quite so-" unable to finish her sentance, the sound of falling rock echoed around the cave causing Luna's wings to snap out in suprise.

Celestias gaze narrowed as if to see what was down the second, unblocked passage, "I do believe this place may crumble around us at any moment Luna" she began sternly before softening, "but I also believe that this place has been on the edge of collapse for along time and will most likely be fine while we are here."

Luna looked at her sister warily as there was still that chance it may collapse, sometimes your as stubborn as a mule Tia she thought to herself before following it with a scowl at her sisters defiance to continue.

Celestia glanced back briefly to look her sister in the eye so her point was made, however when she looked back Luna was wearing the ultimate glare that had Celestia pull her head back a little from the sudden sight, "Lulu... are you okay?" she asked with uncertainty in her voice.

Luna narrowed her eyes at the question, lifted her hoof, pointed it in her eyes and then back to her sister before very casually returning her hoof to the ground, okay then Tia thought, that was ummm... she cut off mid thought when the energy from the cave returned this time bathing them in raw energy causing both sisters to wince as they went light headed from the exposure.

"It appears this power has its own agenda sister" Luna stated coldly as she recovered from the besieging.

Celestia returned her gaze to the path, "it appears it does Luna" she stated coldly, voice devoid of emotion. They began their way down the dark tunnel but realized something about the ground was amiss, they had dropped about a foot and were now stood on some form of transit system, the dull silver marks in the ground clearly showing signs of trains or some other transport utilized this long ago.
Quickly returning to the task at hand they made their way down the tracks but before long the short tunnel appeared to exit out into... nothingness. Pressing on in spite of what appeared to be a cliff edge they trotted to the edge,both finding it now very hard to see due to the loss of the cave walls and the floor having seemingly disappeared beneath them.

"I can't see anything sister" Luna stated as she narrowed her eyes and increased the magic to her horn illuminating more of the darkness, alas it still did not reveal anything more to be seen.

"I believe something stronger is in order Lulu."

Celestia began to charge her horn for a moment before a burst of light fired out into the darkness, for a moment it just seemed to keep going but the small ball of light had other plans. After it had travelled around three hundred feet it seemed to explode in a shower of bright white light bathing the surrounding area in a glow long lost on the cave. The small balls of light hung in the air as if a thousand candles had just been lit each with the intensity of a mini sun.
Now with both sisters finally being able to see into the cave both gasped as they marveled in what they stood in, towers stood on either side of a large expanse of space in the middle, the underground skyscrapers, even though coated in grime and rust still held a certain elegance to their design, with the smooth curves and the jagged balconies.
The centre was a large expanse of walkways and metal with patches of dirt and long dead trees whilst the roof held what seemed to be a strange black that seemed to shimmer with the light.
Celestia stared at the roof for amoment thinking of how the light seemed to reflect off it in such a strange way, her thought was abruptly cut off as a burst of sparks decended from points in the roof while a very glitchy sign seemed to flicker across the roof.
Luna was looking around the expanse in front of her, the main floor fifty feet below her, what originally looked like a drop to oblivion was soon discovered as transport down as the rails they had been following descended down the cliff.

"What is this place?" asked Luna in amazement as she cast her gaze around the cave, massive sections had obviously peeled away and were now overhanging the main area while larger rocks and boulders and pieces of metal lay scattered on the ground due to the collapsing nature of the ancient cave.

Celestia cast her gaze from the roofto view the rest of the expanse, hestiantly she began "I believe..." she looked at her sister, "...this may be the remnants of a very old, very powerful civilisation."

"Well, for being so powerful..." Luna looked straight at Tia, "... =they seem pretty errr... dead" finishing by motioning her hoof over the ruins.

Slowly they made their way to the floor where they were met with the rails from before only this time they could see exactly where it led too, gently gliding down Luna looked straight ahead through the oncoming darkness to make it out dull lights at the entrance to what seemed another section of the cave.

"I believe we have a heading Tia" Luna stated as she pointed towards the entrance way in the distance, "Tia?" Luna turned to see Celestia staring off into the darkness, slowly she walked over to Celestia's side to also stare inside the darkened cave.

Celestia didn't awnser her sister as she stared into the smaller cave which seemed much the same as an underground shelter, why would you need an underground shelter when your underground Tia thought to herself, there wasn't much to look at though since the roof had caved in and all that was visible was dust and debris.

"Sorry Luna, thought I saw something" Celestia turned towards her sister and at her nod they continued down the rail, taking one quick glance back at the bunker they made their way towards the new cave section.

Reaching the mouth to what seemed like a more secure section of the underground city the two alicorns gazed around at the area they stood, the entrance way had half collapsed and the rail they had been following had just... stopped.
To the left of where they entered was a maze of tunnels but only one was lit in anyway while some of the others had been blocked. Celestia started making her way down the lit one while Luna followed cautiously, horns now relit since the light in the larger cave had now died out leaving a much shorter range of vision. As they continued down the tunnel they reached a set of double doors with two lights around the top, one red, one green and flickering.

Luna looked to Celestia who gave a nod of reasurrance and they pushed the door open with a little extra force to help move debris from behind out the way. Once inside the surrounding noise grew into a low thum until they reached the large metal device, seemingly half melted on top, "Tia, do you feel that?" Luna looked to Celestia as her confusion grew on what was giving off so much power.

"Yes Luna, there appears to be a massive magical surge coming from behind this device as well as off it" as she looked at the device with slight confusion. They both jumped when the device decided to power up briefly before dying down again to nothing, Luna looked at the device carefully, her brain telling her to turn tail and get out of their while Celestia recovered and began making her way over the debris and around the back of the device, deciding it best be with Celestia Luna made quick to follow after her while scanning the area for anything that may jump out at them.

Stopping behind the device Celestia came across another set of much larger doors and a sign above the door that wasn't completely unreadable, con- control rom- room, well that wasn't the easiest to read Celestia thought to herself before walking up to the door.
Luna watched as her sister began to push on the door, with a hiss and and a heavy click the door finally budged only for stale air to pour out of the room they had just opened, the princesses gagged on the air as they tried to recomposed themselves.

Walking through the doors they were bombarded with sparks flying all over the place and an overpowering aura around them almost as if the walls were pushing in on them, screens not used in melenia flickered into life while light fittings hung down from the cieling lighting what little they could. Luna having now recovered from the spike in energy looked to the lit screen and stared at it for a while, "Tia... I think i've found something" she finished in a quieter tone.

Celestia looked around to see Luna reach her hoof out and tap the screen, "LULU, DON'T" but she was too late as Luna's hoof connected to the screen causing a miriad of clunking and whirring noises to begin sounding throughout the cave complex, each noise reverberating through the tunnels before all fell silent, the two sisters looked at each other in silent conversation both with semi panicked faces.

"h-h-hello" the new voice startled the princesses as they spun around horns lit ready for combat only to be face to face with a small glowing bipedal creature in front of them, "I am-am-am....BZZZ...'system error'... AL and I am this establishments AI" it finished in a distorted cheery tone. The princesses looked at the glowing figure speaking before them with confusion, Luna got up making her way around the side of the little thing, noticing it didn't notice her she lifted her hoof to poke it but paniced when it went straight through. "I am a hologram, there is-is-is... 'voice function error' bzzz.... no solidity to my form and am completly comprised of light, this is why you cannot thouch me" Al finished never looking at Luna once, a bit startled by this Luna moved back towards her sister and sat down next to her.

"How... how did you see me?" Luna asked hesitantly.

"I see all in this establishment, it is my function to protect the citizens that dwell here except my-my-my... bzzz... function has been useless up till now for a long time" Al finished in a more downturned voice.

"So..." Celestia began, "you are not... real?" Luna looked a little shocked at the bluntness of her sisters question but she would be lying if the thought had not crossed her mind too.

"I can assure you, I am very real" Al began sternly, "the difference is where you are made up of flesh and bone, I am made up of circuits and wires" the confusion on the princesses faces grew, 'sigh', "I am an artificial Intelligence, man made to help protect this establishment from all known threats."

Did it just... sigh Luna thought to herself, more than a little confused at this she just shook it out of her head and continued on the conversation, "So... what happened here exactly?" Luna motioned to the room around her which in its moment decided to spark a little more causing her to jump a little and Al to shimmer a bit before returning to a more solid form.

Now looking at the table Al began "A long time ago, ten thousand five hundred and sixty five years to be exact lived a species called humans, they had already for thousands of years before I existed, anyway when I was made the surrounding worlds to Earth-" Al was interupted.

"you mean Equis" Celestia corrected.

"-back then it was called Earth, anyway there had been attacks from an unknown alien race called the Krell, ugly things, green and scaly, nothing but bone and armour, but they were very technologically advanced and swept our colony planets aside as if a fly in the wind-" again Al was interupted.

"Wait, colony WORLDS??!" Luna exclaimed with suprise causing Tia to wince a little at her sisters tone.

"Yes, we inhabited several planets in the galaxy, however they were all decimated by the Krell, anyway back to this place, this place is called installation X, due to it's experimental weapons projects and advanced design in defence and weaponry, we even had a backup plan for if the place fell since this was a last bastion for humanity if worst came to worst" al looked a little sad now, "the worst did come to pass however there were defences in place to counter the devestation caused by the experimental weapon rightly nicknamed as 'the doomsday device', the weapon was designed to wipe out all life on and around the planet to prevent any threats from escaping, specifically the Krell, however" Al began cheerier again, "the defences in place to counteract this devastation is specially designed power conduits and flux capacitors designed to catch the energy and transfer it in to power for the reactor to reuse, this room you stand in is one safe haven while the other one is the civillian bunker at the entrance to this establishment."

"Then where are these 'humans' you speak of if they had these defences?" Luna asked cocking an eybrow at Al.

"when this place was attacked it was part of a network of four massive underground shelters, when the weapon was detonated it would communicate with the other establishments and would warn of the oncoming destruction, but they were all attacked and destroyed before the weapon was used leaving only Installation X as the sole bunker for humanity" again Al's tone began to sadden again, "when this establishment was breached the Krell were ruthless, they used all at their disposal to rid us for good, they broke into the civillian shelter-" the power surged again causing a flurry of machines to turn on and Al to shimmer and glitch as the power went haywire from extended use and lack of fuel, both Luna and Celestia looked around in panic as sparks flew around the room before everything went peaceful again, "- 'system rebooting'...'speech control...online'... -these power surges are so annoying" Al mumbled to himself.

Celestia spoke up after listening contently, "I am sorry for the loss of your people, but there is on question on my mind."

"Okay" Al responded, "shoot."

"Are there any survivors in all of this, or is this all that remains of the pon- people that you speak of?" Celestia asked with a neutral tone practiced over hundreds of years.

Al turned to the machines on the other side of the room as they began flickering to life while information scrolled down them at speeds unreadable to the naked eye, "accesing databanks... 'data corrupted'.... running cleanup process... 'cleanup failed'... running through emergrency protocol nine-six... 'protocol...accepted'... right we are good on the data" Al spoke to himself while Luna and Celestia watched in amazement as screens flashed and sparked while masses of information flowed across them, "okay video footage is showing one survivor in the aftermath of the destruction... you might want to step back" Luna and Celestia took a step back and Al turned to the monitor again and flashed its hand accross, "...'beginning simulation'..." Al flickered out of existance as a new white, much taller version of Al appeared on a chair, the princesses watched in awe as it made its way up clumsily and collapsed again to the floor, Celestias natural reaction took over as she rushed to help it but just fell through the new hologram, what the... Celestia thought to herself, "this is just a replay of the events ten and a half thousand years ago, a hologram like me" Al's voice broke the silence startling the princesses who then shrugged it off to watch the hologram continue.

As they followed the hologram it became apparent by the way it was walking it had badly injured one of it's legs, as it stumbled around the complex before heading back out into the larger cave, Luna and Celestia were now looking around in awe as what was previously unlit had now lit up the cave interior revealing it's city like nature and the roof, which was flickering earlier was now half lit like a sky scrolling across the roof while the rest of the roof continued to spark, "you inadvertanly turned basic life support back on when you activated me" Al explained from what was like the void as his voice echoed throughout the cave.

Returning to the hologram it made it's way back to where Celestia had been staring into earlier and collapsed to it's knees before collapsing completely, "What's it doing?" Luna asked the air around her.

"This was the civillian bunker... everyone in it was killed by the Krell and whoever did survive was finished off by the weapon due to the doors being ripped open breaking the seal that woul have saved them." Al finished matter of factly.

Celestia stared into the room, mouth agape as a single tear rolled down her cheek as she imagined what pain the lone human must have had to endure, what monster could've destroyed an entire species. Luna moved up to her sister seeing that she had gone tense, despite her thoughts being on vengeance against these 'Krell', "were they all killed?" Luna asked in a firm tone.

Al caught a little off guard quickly responded, "unsure, they were a interstellar species so it is most likely they had survived our efforts to destroy them, however we are certain the attacking forces in our system were eradicated."

Luna let a snort out at the invaders and how they should be punished for their crimes for such an act, If I had been there, they would have perished more so, Luna thought as her brow knitted in anger.

"Who was he?" Celestia asked abruptly, whilst regaining her posture and staring at what was obviously the weeping human.

"His name is Aaron Gamble" Al shifted into a much more stoic tone, "he was our leader and in our time of need he was there, he was a hero to humanity and the only surviving member of the notorious Black squad and Commander to the 137th royal space fleet, he personally saved two thousand lives on the space station Alpha 9" Al paused for effect, "he IS humanities leader."

Celestia looked back at the hologram who slowly got up and began making it's way towards the entrance, after a short walk they found the hologram at the entrance looking into the darkness of the crystal caves before turning back into the complex and making his way back the way he came. Luna, now lost in confusion over Al's speech, "you said IS instead of was, why?", Celestia not picking up on the error sooner allowed a small smile to form at her sister's observation.

"You will see" Al finished very cryptically.

Surely he couldn't mean, Celestia and Luna looked at each other now thinking pretty much the same thing, but it's been thousands of years, theres no way he could still be alive. With hurried paces they made after the hologram as he disappeared into the smaller complex again, now following him down one of the unlit passages they found themselves at a small opening where a grime filled glass panel rested in front of them. Approaching the glass cautiously Luna and celestia tried to peer through the muck but couldn't see anything through it.

"Watch this" Al stated cheerfully again, suddenly a bar passed over the glass clearing away most of the grime, before passing a couple more times to clean the glass sufficently to see through. "Inside that metal container called a 'spaceship' is the final resting place for Commander General Gamble."

The two princesses looked at the ship which now had a mix of lights on it, the ship sat in a small opening just big enough and with the fallen rocks just missing it but trapping it in place. The princesses saw the ship and gasped in awe as it was revealed in it's slender curves and massive frame with one thought, the legends are true.

Author's Note:

Sorry it's taken so long to get a new chapter out, but work must be done.
Anyway hope you enjoy it, it's taken a while to get written and make the sure everything is consistent but it's getting there.

Things are finally getting started though and everything should just keep getting better from here on.
Don't forget if you like the story leave a big thumbs up and add to your library for more
(no self advertising at all)
The Flux Capacitor thing seemed like a fun thing to throw in there and more writing stuff that my brain can figure out... yadda yadda yadda, enjoy

P.S: Wow just read through this... my spelling is just uurgh insome places, fixed the worst now though

Comments

[Rygger]

awesome story man

[Cryptic-Dash]

5755864 Thanks

[Lurking Trickster]

Why is it ALWAYS just one human that survives?

[Austerx]

You should start making some chapters in which you better explain what happened in the past. The concept of this fiction is sort of overused but it is still good if done propperly. The grammar errors are a bit painful to go through though, please get some editor to review your material before you post it.

[Topaz Moon]

I like it so far.

[Cryptic-Dash]

5938350 Thank you

[Sir Appleslice]

Am i the only that is getting irritated by the AI using anyway over and over again?

[Thunder--Clash]

Please tell me you are still writing this story please

[Thunder--Clash]

IF I had the money I would PAY you to continue this story PLEASE CONTINUE IT I BEG OF THEE

[EdgeLordpone]

Any tips on a writer to be?

[Thunder--Clash]

PLEASE WE NEED A NEW CHAPTER

[Thunder--Clash]

Ok its a new year so PLEASE UPDATE!!!

[SomethingGeneric]

Dead? If not WHERE R U!!! Pls update!!!

[Pat_brony]

Ded

[Cryptic-Dash]

7285751 Actually, maybe not so, I have returned :3
Sometimes I even suprise myself, I'm sorry to those of you who were enjoying the story and never had it updated, I do plan to work on this again as the idea still appeals to me, I've been very busy and now summer is here, frreeedom~ ^^

[Cryptic-Dash]

6867440 soon, I'm glad you liked it so much and sorry I abandoned it, this shall be fixed

[Pat_brony]

7290419 oh ok. I understand

...

..

*HYPE*

[starship55]

INTRIGUING...I hope you will eventually continue this story.

[Joe Toon]

Soooooo...... Will this ever be continued?