The Unlikley Sanctuary

by Tie RoamingHooves

Daring Dash: Two Thousand Years of Sleep

Ok please don't be afraid to comment if something doesn't make sense. This chapter was a tough one to write for no reason at all.

Celestia went into the valley in the peaks of the Unice Mountains and swooped down in front of the entrance of the ruins. She walked in and noticed the large mural of humans in a park. She then looked to the top of the picture and gasped at the text at the top. It was ancient Equestrian.

Ancestral bonds broken by the plight of man, imprisoned for a thousand years and a thousand years again. But on this day a song was sung, how soft and sweet the sound. Behold this was the key, they were released... in time for her final battle.

She backed away and looked back at the picture noticing the human foal with purple mane. She looked up at the adult human who was holding her hand. The color of the mane was faded with time but it was definitely rainbow colored. She looked back at the entrance and noticed a second set of hoof prints. She ran into the ruins cursing herself for not coming here sonner. She didn't have time. Rainbow Dash could be in trouble.

---

For once in her life, Rainbow Dash felt genuine fear. She watched the rope fall from the flying machine and some creature slide down. She couldn't make out any features against the light but could tell the creature was walking closer. She clenched her eyes shut and braced for whatever was to come. She felt something grab hold of her and pick her up. She opened her eyes and looked up and saw the smiling face of a human who wore a helmet. It wasn't a malicious smile but a warm and understanding one... she had been scared for nothing. The human carried her over to a basket that was attached to the rope which was lowered from the flying machine. She was placed in the basket and the human shock its fist in a circular motion confusing Dash. Then suddenly the basket started to rise of the ground. When the basket reached the top of the flying machine she was again, grabbed by a human and pulled into the the flying machine the inside glowed an ominous red. The human on the ground was raised into the machine. The human then shut a panel on the side of the flying machine which effectively sealed them off from the outside.

"Miss Dash all your questions will be answered shortly when we arrive at base!" the human yelled over the sound of the flying machines engine.

"How the hay do you know who I am?!"

"Like I said your questions will be answered soon!" replied the human. "Pilot get us out of here!" Dash suddenly felt the entire machine lurch forward making her a bit queezy. She rode in the machine for about five minutes before she felt the machine begin to lose altitude. She didn't know what to think of it but guesstimated that it was landing. With the panel of the flying machine open and the sudden appearance of solid ground outside made her guess correct. The two humans disembarked the flying machine and one of them motioned for her lo follow. Reluctantly she did so and walked out to join the human.

"So what is this place?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"And what does that mean?

"I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Oook. So can you tell me your name?"

"David. Pleasure to meet you."

"Whatever."

"Where are you taking me?"

"I can tell you that. I'm taking you to speak to Star Swirl the Bearded."

"I heard of him. Wait that pony is still alive? I thought he lived like a thousand years ago."

"Well he is immortal."

"Impossible. Only the Princesses are immortal."

"I can't really tell you more than that. You should ask him yourself. I'm not really knowledgeable on the whole magic concept. I just work here."

"This is your job?"

"Yes I run and keep maintenance on the city to keep it in working order."

"The whole thing?"

"Yep, shes my pride and joy this city. I am head of maintenance."

David was leading the small group to a door. Dash looked up a the giant building she didn't notice while trying to figure out the human. The building was massive and went way past the clouds. Rainbows jaw dropped at the immensity of the building. She then realized what she came for.

"Hey do you happen to have some kind of thing that can bring somepony back from the dead?" she asked bluntly not wanting to beat around the bush.

David looked at her with wide eyes. "Not being sneaky I see."

"I like to cut to the chase."

"Well I am allowed to tell specifically you that yes we do." The group came to where three hallways met. The humans that David had refereed to as pilots and one other human walked to the right while David and Dash took the left path.

"Whats with all this 'allowed' stuff?"

"Just ask Star Swirl when you see him." he said sounding annoyed.

"Fine, but I have one more question. If you are the maintenance pony, why did you come to get me? Why not somepony else?"

"Well this is something better explained by Star Swirl. I'm not really good at explaining this kind of thing to anyone."

"So you've explained this before?"

"I tried at least." The duo walked to the end of the hall and the human pushed a button on the wall. The wall opened and revealed a small room. David walked in and she followed unsure of what to expect. She decided not to ask and continue with the conversation.

"But this place is hidden in a bucking mountain. How would anypony else find this place?"

"How did you find this place? They found it the same way. Apparently this city is a place of legend. To me its an everyday thing."

"Huh, thats neat... I guess." she said then hearing a beeping noise. The wall opened again and they walked into a spacious room with a desk near a wall of windows that had a clear view of the city. On the right were a table, lamp and a comfortable looking red chair all arranged next to a wall with a built in bookcase complete with a red rug with various designs. On the right was a featureless white area with an aquarium along the wall.

Looking back at the desk she noticed that sitting in the chair was a grey stallion with a white beard. He wore attire much like Twilight did on nightmare night. The difference is that his looked old. Really. old. The blue was faded and the hat had a tear in its brim. This pony, obviously Star Swirl the Bearded, looked up at the new arrivals and smiled warmly.

"Ah Miss Dash, Element of Loyalty and the performer of the legendary sonic rainboom, it is so nice to finally meet you. Please come in and have a seat. His horn glowed gold and a another red chair appeared in front of the desk. "David you are dismissed."

"Yes sir." David left with out saying another word.

"How do-"

"How do I know that? First off I am not a spy. I simply heard the stories of you when I check on Equestria from time to time." Star Swirl cut her off.

"Ok... then what is-"

"This is a place that the inhabitants call Valhalla." he interrupted again.

"What in-"

"I was just getting to that."

"How-"

"How do I know what your going to ask? Because I can see parts of the future."

"Like ma-"

"No. Not like Madam Pinkie Pie. And by the way this is as far as I got in this particular part in time. I know how awkward you must be feeling but I will tell you that it is over."

"Oook, Do you know why I came here?"

"Actually, yes I do. I am sorry for your loss."

"And that David guy was saying I'm not the first to come here. Were the others looking for the same thing?"

Star Swirl looked out the window and down at the city. "Sometimes they did, other times they came looking for treasure or other things along that line. I even got a scientist from the Zebrican Republic who chose to stay after finding this place."

"You never answered my question about what this place was."

"Oh this city was made for the people that arrive here."

"You mean humans?"

"Yes in fact. Here's an easier way to put it. What if I were to tell you that this world was nothing more than a drain?"

"What?"

"That's it simply put, but in fact our world is a drain for things and ideas from the humans world. For as long as our world has existed things have been sucked through portals which apparently cover both planets. The portals however all seem to be one way only bring things from there to here. This brings me to the next topic."

"When I first discovered this fact I had been working on a long range teleportation spell. It was in the early stages and was bound to misfire. When I began the spell I had channeled all my energy into my horn and... oh wait, how could I forget your a pegasus? You wouldn't understand anyways!"

"Hey! Did you just call me stupid? I may not be an egghead like Twilight but I am not stupid!"

"Hold on, I wasn't implying that you were stupid but rather that your simply not a unicorn and trying to explain magic to you would be like trying to teach it to a wall."

"Ok..."

"Anyways when I had the spell charged and fired it I instantly ended up teleporting to various places between this world and some how theirs. While I was jumping randomly I ended up picking up a few things I apparently had somewhere in the process teleported the inside of this mountain out because this is where I came to a stop. There were ponies and humans scattered in the mix that brought us here but for some reason there were more ponies than humans and since then I've been in charge. I may have told them that they came to our land which was true but what can I do? The ponies that were here aided in that in the fact that they all followed me from the get go. And just so you don't get the wrong idea I will have you know that everyone was free to leave at their own accord but since we were located under the peaks of the Unice Mountains no one could."

"Ok so let me get this straight, this is a city of humans and ponies?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Then why is the city empty? I didn't see anypony when I flew over the city."

"Ah yes, that. Well Miss Dash, this is where it gets complicated." he said with a pained sigh. "About five years into the history of this city, a disease broke out. This disease was called the H-virus. It only appeared in humans for a short while before it jumped species and started to affect ponies too. In an effort to contain the disease a part of the city was quarantined by my order. Those afflicted by the disease were sent there and were told they were to stay until a cure was discovered. But even that measure was hindered."

"What do you mean it's airborne?!" Star Swirl yelled into the radio.

"We have 13 reports of ponies with the virus. mostly pegasi if that has any significance." said the human on the other end of the radio. Star Swirl looked down at the city from his office. All his hard work, could be gone. "We also have confirmed the mortality rate of the disease. It is ninety-five percent." Star Swirl was horrified. The city of Valhalla had a population of over thirty million people and ponies, leaving only 1.5 million immune. So many will die if a cure is not found and its been over a year since the H-viruses appearance. To save many a last ditch plan was to be enacted. He logged onto his computer with his magic and began to type up a simple one page document that would seal the fate of the infected. It would also mean the survival of healthy. He printed and signed the document then calling his assistant into the office.

"Paper Crease, I need you to have this sent out to every hospital, and police station in Valhalla. I also want a copy sent to Fort Langston. It is important that you do this now. Do you understand."

"Yes sir. I will get right on it." the yellow maned pink mare said before swiftly rushing out the door."

Looking out at the city he cared for for so long, he continued to explain. When the virus became airborne I knew it meant that time was short. I had to do something drastic."

"Where are you going with this?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Did I fail to mention not only did I teleport through space but time as well?" Dash gave him a blank stare. "Its seems I did forget. Well in the process of myself teleporting uncontrollably through the humans world and ours, I picked up various technologies and things from our future and theirs. At one point I ended up picking up a human device called the cryogenic freezing chamber and a human engineer skilled in the field of science that revolves around the device."

"A cryogenic freezing chamber basically freezes someone or somepony and halts all aging until they are thawed out. And on that note I would like to ask you to follow me." he said trotting to the wall and pushing a button.

"So why are you here if you have all this technology?"

"Well there is a limit to what technology can do." The wall opened up and the two walked in. he pushed another button with his hoof and the doors closed. "Like this elevator for example. It can only take us up and down. That is its limit. It can't go side to side or any other direction for that matter." Rainbow felt the elevator decelerate.

"Ok I still want to know what happened to the ponies and humans of the city."

"Thats what I'm getting to." The doors opened and Dash's eyes widened. "Rainbow Dash, I would like for you to meet the citizens of Valhalla. They've been frozen for two thousand years." Dash walked into a massive blue and foggy room filled with large cylindrical metal containers for as long as she could see. "In a last ditch effort to save the population I had ordered those who were not infected to be placed into cryogenic hibernation to sit out the infection. I was forced though to leave the infected to their fate. It was a very necessary evil and I've never forgiven myself for doing it although it had to be done. Those in cryo sleep have been sustained through a mix of technology and magic."

"T-t-this is everypony?"

"No not all of them. As you can imagine making this many cryo tubes would take a long time. Even with duplication spell at my disposal it took me, human engineers, and a hoofful of unicorns a little over two years to do this. During those two years millions died from the disease. You looking at about ten million survivors, of coarse this is just the top floor of the cryo levels out of hundreds. The humans you saw earlier were the offspring of those who were immune and didn't want to go into cryo sleep. They help me keep the city in working order as their families have for generations.

"Two thousand years is a long time to be frozen. Why didn't you unfreeze them sooner?"

"Ah, that is where the problem lies Miss Dash. I can't bring them out of cryo sleep without a code or password of some sort which for some reason wasn't taught to me before the engineer who made it went into hibernation. I've spent most of my time trying to crack this code but even after two thousand years I still haven't done it. It is a voice password so I tended to stay down here until I lose my voice trying to figure it out." he said chuckling. "But anyways Rainbow Dash, It looks like we've reached our destination." The two walked through double doors and were in a room with a large machine in the middle. The machine was completely new to here and she really couldn't compare it to anything she had ever seen. "This my dear Rainbow Dash is the machine that will answer your greatest wish at the moment." He then looked at the mare and seemingly stared into her soul. "Now tell me Rainbow Dash, how would you like to defy the laws of nature?"

Comments

[SoullessDCLXVI]

Lookin' good.

[Nightmare]

Aperture Science RECLAIMS HIS BELONGINS

[Deathpony]

good chapter

[Menoshe]

"Now tell me Rainbow Dash, how would you like to defy the laws of nature?"

Oh god yes.

[Tie RoamingHooves]

924898 I thought that line was a nice touch.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Bonbon_grin.png