Light's Rising, Shadow's Fall

by jwizard

Chapter Twenty: The Caves of Memory

Equus, Caves of Memory, 05-06-05 A.N.M., 10:44 AM (After Nightmare Moon)

Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash gazed in open wonder as they passed into the cavern entrance. Almost immediately, Twilight noticed that the cave walls had a glow to them. Looking closer, she saw stylized hieroglyphs that glowed faintly.

Twilight frowned. “All of this has the look of some kind of runic; trouble is, I don’t recognize it.” Her frown deepened. “It’s not Pre-Classical, or even Post-Unification. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it even predates the Three Kingdoms, though without any samples to compare, I can’t be certain.”

Rainbow looked at the writing, blinking in surprise. “It’s all names Twi. A genealogical record of some kind.” She stopped to trace one of the hieroglyphs. “See how this one branches down from all of the others? These are names of pegacorns that have come before; what family and tribe they were.”

Rainbow traced one of the larger lines. She blinked in shock as her hoof stopped at a pair of hieroglyphs near the bottom. “I can’t explain it Twi, but this tree right here is your family line. Your family IS descended from Clover the Clever; she’s actually your grandmother seven generations removed.” Rainbow traced several hieroglyphs that had the same starting and ending symbols. “See, here’s her name.” Rainbow’s brow furrowed. “But this doesn’t make any sense; why would her name have the same bracketing symbols as this one?” She pointed to one further up the wall.

Twilight frowned as she studied the symbols. “I can’t make heads or tails of what you’re saying Rainbow. It just looks like runic to me. Rather simplified runic, but nothing special. This might be something to do with your pegacorn nature.” Rainbow shook her head at that.

“Twilight, this has nothing to do with me being a pegacorn. I’m able to read this because I know what to look for. You would too if you’d just stop going on what those stiff teachers back in school taught you,” Rainbow Dash said, a snap in her tone. Rummaging in her pack for a moment, she pulled out a pair of scrolls. “Here; this scroll contains the runic I got out of those books. And this one is the version you were likely taught.” She floated the over to Twilight. “Take a look and see what I’m talking about. If I’m getting this, then an egghead like you should have an easier time.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she rolled the scrolls open. Frowning, she saw that the two scrolls had more than just the symbols for each character; there was also a list of all the case and tense symbols used.

Twilight quickly saw what Rainbow Dash was trying to say. As before, the runic Rainbow had found in that book was a simplified version of what she herself had been taught in school. Twilight realized that the reason why she couldn’t read the hieroglyphic writing was because she was looking for symbols that weren’t there.

Working from the first scroll, Twilight started to read the runic on the cave wall. She was very quickly able to pick up on it, as it was far easier to match symbols than the form she was used to. Tracing down the list, she saw the runes that represented her, her brother, and her parents. She traced them back up the line to other lines.

Twilight blinked at two different names. Tracing further, she gasped when she realized the implications. “I never truly believed the rumors, but I have a pair of ancestors that are related to Celestia. If what is written here is historically accurate, then that particular rumor is true.” She gazed at the cavern wall. “But what does it mean? What’s so special about this cavern that it would have a record like this?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno Twi. Keep those,” she said as Twilight levitated the scrolls back to her. “I can write that up easy; that runic is like second nature to me now.”

Twilight nodded as she put the scrolls into her own bags. She frowned thoughtfully. “I wonder why that is? Runic does help unicorns cast more complex spells, but it does have its limits.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Angela said that because of our nature, runic helps us to stabilize our mana better.” She conjured the butterflies again as the continued walking. “As much as I make this sort of thing look easy, control of our magic doesn’t come naturally to pegacorns.”

Twilight nodded. “Cadance said the same thing to me.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I wonder if there’s a way for that to change.” Rainbow smirked. Twilight frowned at the expression. “What’s so amusing Rainbow Dash?”

“Oh, just that the way to fix that is pretty obvious once you sit down and think about it.” She gestured at the flock of conjured butterflies. “This is a unicorn spell; if I wanted to cast this in the same manner as a unicorn does, I’d need to shape a portion of my pegacorn mana into unicorn mana to do so. But, once that starts, the only way to end the process is to balance the unicorn mana with earth pony and pegasi mana to.” Her smirk grew. “In other words, to cast magic as a unicorn does, a pegacorn has to ascend.”

Twilight frowned as the pair passed under an archway of stone. She blinked, thinking for a moment that Sol had just set. She shook her head to get it back into the halted conversation. “That doesn’t make any sense; I’ve felt your mana change. While it is a lot more wild than my own, I can tell that it’s quite similar. Unless you’re flying; in which case it’s the same as it always was.” Rainbow nodded at that, grinning.

“Yep. When I fly, I shape my mana just like I always did when I was still a pegasus. At that point, it is pegasi mana. I’m just far more aware of it now than I used to be; that’s all thanks to your training Twi.” Twilight blushed at the compliment.

To distract herself, she gazed at the runic on the walls. “Is this more of the same as before Rainbow?” she asked. Rainbow shook her head after glancing at it.

“All of this is just a list of who did what. It reads like a ledger actually.” Twilight giggled at Rainbow as she wrinkled her nose. “I wouldn’t think this has any bearing on what was written before, except that the names at the top of each tree show that what was done had a larger impact than just planting crops or building cloud houses.”

Twilight frowned. “What about building towers? Because I know that some of those listed were unicorns.” Rainbow snorted again.

“Twi, do you know anything at all about history? Pre-Classical unicorns didn’t do anything; they considered the movement of Sol and Lune to be their only duties, and being in charge their rights. Oh sure, they designed towers and such, and the carvings were all likely theirs; but for all intents and purposes, the actual towers were built by earth pony stone-masons. I have no interest in any history other than pegacorn, and even I know that much.”

Twilight frowned. “That’s an oversimplification; there were unicorn stonemasons that lived during the Pre-Classical era.” Her frown deepened as she thought about her more recent historical studies. “Granted, most of them- well, almost all -were artists of some kind…” she trailed off, sighing. “You’re right Rainbow Dash; it’s even known that eighty percent of the current Canterlot skyline was built by earth ponies for the unicorns. It was the chief seat of power for Unicornia. But you made it sound as if it was all slave work.” Rainbow shook her head.

“Not all I don’t think; the unicorn nobles wouldn’t be willing to trust their most secure locations to be built by ponies that had reason to hate them.” Rainbow stopped suddenly, pointing at a particularly longer list. “Actually, that’s a list of structures that had been built by earth ponies in the Pre-Classical Era. Going by the date stamp on top, this was a couple of hundred years after Equis was founded.”

Twilight gazed at the hieroglyph, shaking her head. “Okay, something really strange is up with this cave. Granted, I understand that there should be a record of what had come before, but some of what’s here is far too new to have been recorded when the older stuff was.” She sighed in frustration. “I also can’t sense if it’s the cave doing it; for some reason, those spells are being blocked.” The two ponies started walking again.

As they continued to walk forward, something that Rainbow had said finally registered. "Rainbow Dash, if Clover the Clever is an ancestor of my family, then whatever this is wrong; seven generations is too small." Rainbow nodded, grinning.

"I wondered when you'd catch that actually. I should have said pegacorn generation; one of those is a quarter of a millenium." Twilight blinked at that, then shook her head, deciding to just deal with that bit of information later.

For the next few minutes, Twilight and Rainbow gazed at the lists on the walls, Before too long, they came to another stone archway. Twilight blinked as she felt Lune rise, but didn’t say anything, thinking her senses were off.

The purple alicorn blinked in surprise; instead of more runic, there were now pictures on the walls. She was able to tell without much effort just what it was she was seeing. “This is all history! It’s the history of events of things on all of Equus that has been influenced by pegacorns!” She pointed to the first pictograph. “Those are proto-equines; the only things we have left of that culture are desiccated skeletons and a few mummies.” She pointed at another. “Those are Anubi; the ancestors of the canid races.”

Twilight continued to examine the pictographs in detail. While many of the images were peaceful in nature, there were more than a few that showed far more violent scenes. One in particular stood out; a conflagration with a giant dark-winged form in the forefront that was under attack by three alicorns.

Twilight shuddered. “I’m not sure I like the darker ones, but if this is some kind of magically-generated record of past events, then it makes sense for them to be recorded as well.” Rainbow nodded at that.

The two soon came to a cavern that was wider and shorter than the others. Interspaced between yet more pictographs were alcoves that contained statuettes. Twilight walked over to one, trying to puzzle out the inscription underneath. “I can’t read this runic as quickly as you can Rainbow Dash,” she said in irritation. Rainbow just shook her head.

“That’s because you’re still looking for the start cases; this runic doesn’t have them,” Rainbow said. Twilight huffed.

“Rainbow Dash, all runic has start cases; how in the hay are you supposed to tell one word or word set from another?” She stomped a hoof in emphasis. “I get that this is a style I’m unfamiliar with, but it should follow the same rules that are taught for all runic.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she joined Twilight next to the statuette that she was examining. “Twi, I already showed you the differences between the two; what’s got you stumped this time?” She read the inscription underneath the artifact. Abruptly, the polychromatic pegacorn facehoofed. She gazed at her friend sheepishly. “I forgot to add a few symbols.”

Pulling out a piece of parchment and a filled quill, she quickly sketched a few symbols. “The characters should read the same, but these are the bracketing symbols used to separate each set. I put under each what they stand for.”

Twilight took the scroll and quickly read the symbols. “Hmm, they look similar to the case symbols I’m used to reading. One for objects, one for elements, one for a proper noun, one for verbs..” she trailed off, frowning. “Rainbow, what’s the first one? It’s an alteration of the first one on the main list.”

Rainbow nodded. “It basically means ‘ascend’ or ‘apotheosis’. The book says that it’s used interchangeably when a subject is either a pegacorn or alicorn. It’s even used for those pony tribes whose ascension differs from the three main tribes.” She scratched her head. “That’s why I was confused a little bit ago; it doesn’t make sense that Clover the Clever would have those symbols bracketing her name.” She yipped. “Oh, that reminds me! The runic I’ve learned from that book has those symbols at the start and end of each set, just like how the spell runic you taught me does when manipulating energy forms.”

Twilight nodded absently as she used what Rainbow had written to decode the runic under the statuette. She gasped as she read the name again, looking closer at the statue. “This is Lord High Hoof! He’s supposed to be legend; there’s never been any confirmation of any of his discoveries!”

Rainbow looked at the statuette with terse satisfaction. “Huh, well, he must have been real then. Granted, I already knew that; he’s part of House Dash. A branch House.” Rainbow scowled. “The only reason why none of his discoveries were credited to him is because he was born just before the end of the Pre-Classical Era. It didn’t help none that he married one of Hurricane’s daughters, becoming a branch of my House.”

Twilight frowned. “Rainbow Dash, I know that a lot of bad stuff was done by Pre-Classical unicorns, but that doesn’t mean anything in this case. A lot of his discoveries were found out much later than he claimed; there’s been no real confirmation.” Rainbow Dash just snorted.

“Twi, my grandfather has three of his journals that give detailed descriptions of what he found.” She waved her hoof in the direction of Rainbow Falls. “I know for a fact that he gives a description of a little known pool at the Rainbow Falls that isn’t on any map. I’ve been there several times, following the precise trail he left.” She stomped her hoof. “Every single time a pegasi or earth pony made a discovery up to a couple of hundred years Post-Classical, the unicorn historians would shoot it down or deny it. No grand conspiracy; just horn head nobles wanting all of the glory for themselves. You should know that better than I do.”

Twilight scowled at her friend. The two glared at each other before Twilight broke eye contact, sighing. “I shouldn’t swipe at you Rainbow Dash. I just don’t like finding out that what I was taught in school by ponies that had every reason to be right and no reason to lie are in fact wrong.”

The two broke off the conversation after that. They spent some time examining all of the different statuettes for awhile. After a few minutes had passed, Rainbow sat on her haunches and pulled out a pair of trail bars and two bottles of water. She gave one of each to Twilight.

The two decided to take a short break. As before, Twilight and Rainbow Dash both thought that taking their time was preferable than rushing ahead. So they decided to rest for an hour or so.

Twilight used the time to study the scrolls that Rainbow had given her, familiarizing herself with the new runic. To her surprise, she was grasping the fundamentals more quickly than normal. Rainbow Dash used the time to practice her conjuring, becoming more acquainted with the practical side of runic.

Twilight blinked as her time sense went off. “Well Rainbow Dash, we’ve had our first break. Let’s move on; I’d like to see what’s at the end of these caverns.” Rainbow nodded, and the two made their way deeper into the cave.

For the next few hours, the two ponies passed under numerous archways, encountering more statuettes interspersed with the more common pictographs. As they walked, the two discussed how what was recorded here differed from the history that they had both been taught in school

Rainbow Dash was surprised at herself. She had slept through a lot of her history classes, yet she seemed to be able to recall so much of what Twilight could. Twilight smiled at that; she knew that it was due to some of the more recent books she’d been reading that was furthering Rainbow’s understanding of history.

Twilight blinked as they passed under yet another archway that led into an even larger cavern. This time there were no pictographs on the walls, or statues in alcoves along them.

Instead, there were many far larger statues on pedestals scattered all around the cavern, leading up to an archway that opened up to a set of finished stone steps. Twilight and Rainbow Dash gazed at the statues; each and every one depicted a pony with both wings and horn.

Twilight was able to read the runic plaques under each of the statues with little difficulty. One of them caught her eye; it was virtually identical to the statue of Clover the Clever that was in the gardens of Canterlot Castle. The only differences were the fact that it was both larger, and had wings.

Rainbow nodded as she too examined the same statue. “This confirms it; Clover the Clever is an alicorn.” She waved a hoof at the path they traveled through the caves. “I saw her name listed a few times, always with the ‘ascent’ symbol bracketing it.” She read the inscription underneath it. “Huh, that’s new; first time I’ve seen both the ‘ascent’ and ‘ascended’ symbols to describe the same pony.”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m willing to believe many things, but there’s no way that both Luna and Celestia wouldn’t have known that Clover was a pegacorn. I mean, her body was never discovered; she simply walked off into the Everfree one day. That’s the day marked as her death. Besides, even though she was the picture of health, records show that her mane had grayed out.” Twilight frowned pensively. “Then again, this is Clover the Clever we’re talking about here; she would have had the skills needed to hide her nature. But why would she?”

Rainbow stroked her chin as she considered her answer. “Well, House Sparkle was a minor House until after her death. I think that had something to do with it.” Twilight shook her head.

“No, I need more than those three things before I’m willing to accept that Clover the Clever was a pegacorn in disguise. A spell that only a pegacorn or alicorn could perform would be enough…” she trailed off. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a far different scroll; this one was embossed on the edges. The ribbon was also embroidered with gold. Twilight unrolled it and read its contents, her muzzle wearing a deep frown as she did so. She quickly rolled the scroll up, snorting.

“Well, not only is it apparent that Clover is an alicorn, but that ‘Star Swirl’s last unfinished masterpiece’ wasn’t even his. That spell not only takes the Elements to perform, but also works with the nature of the ponies who wield them. A balanced number of all three tribes; only an alicorn or pegacorn has any hope of casting such a spell successfully.” She paled at the implications. “If I hadn’t been a nascent; I would have done more than swap marks; you and the other girls could have had your internal wellsprings swapped as well.” Her eyes flashed as she stomped her hooves. “Celestia and I are going to have words if she ever tries another pile of horseapples like that again! I’ll see to it that she faces an Inquisition for her Throne and right to live in Equestria!”

Rainbow saw that Twilight’s coat darkened briefly, though this time it barely registered past her own anger. “Though I agree with you, we can’t do anything about what has already happened. Anyway, let’s just look at the others.” She gestured over to the center. “Those ones seem just as interesting.”

Twilight nodded, tearing her gaze from the statue of Clover. She and Rainbow Dash trotted over to where a set of statues were close to the center of a plaque that stood dead center of the cave. Twilight blinked at the statues surrounding it; there were only four.

Twilight gazed in stunned disbelief at a life-like representation of herself. Underneath her statue was a plaque that was different than the others. “‘Princess Twilight Sparkle, Ascendant of Magic, Guardian of Shadow, and Princess of Friendship.’ I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

Rainbow Dash was gazing at one of the other three. Unlike all of the others present, this was one of the two that seemed somehow unfinished. “‘Ascendant of Light, Guardian of the Paths, Prince/ss of the Aurora.’ Huh, that seems like a mouthful. I wonder who this is supposed to be.”

Twilight glanced at the statue. “I don’t know Rainbow Dash, but it’s not the only one like it. I’m more interested in this one though. ‘Princess Nightingale, Guardian of the Kingdom of Exiles, Ascendant of the Triad.’ I’ve read that phrase here a few times; I wonder what it means?”

“That’s Pre-Classical for the three Elemental Forces that make up the fabric of our world; Light, Darkness, and Shadow. These four alicorns represent each one, with one representing all three.” Rainbow walked over to the plaque in the center. “Um, Twi, I think you’d better come here and read this,” she said. “It’s pretty important.”

Twilight walked over to where Rainbow was standing. Her eyebrows rose as she read what was written out loud; by now, she was able to translate the runic almost as well as Rainbow Dash. “Let these Caves of Memory stand as a place to preserve the history of those Sworn to Protect. The Blessings of Chronos and Serenity be upon this place; Guarded by They of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding.”

The purple mare abruptly sat down. “This is the Caves of Memory,” she said faintly. “That explains why Star Swirl went to great lengths to secure the trail.” She pulled the tome out of her bags. “We weren’t meant to come this way; both Chronos and Serenity guided us here in order to show us this. The question is, why?”

Rainbow pointed at the archway that led to the stairs. “Maybe the answer is there Twi.” Twilight nodded.

The purple alicorn pulled an ornate hourglass from her bags. She yelped as she looked at the beads around it. “We’ve been in this cave for more than a few hours Rainbow; every time we passed an arch, we crossed a day. Fourteen archways equals fourteen days.”

Rainbow’s mouth gaped at that. “What, did we just skip over two weeks?!” Twilight nodded.

“Over that, once we pass that last archway there. There’s a very good reason though; there’s a real heavy storm front that passes over the Wastes; we would have walked right into it had we gone the way we were supposed to.” Twilight sighed as she put the hourglass away.

“Well, I think we’re about to reach wherever we were supposed to go Rainbow Dash. You ready?” Twilight asked her friend. Rainbow nodded.

“Let’s go Twi; we shouldn’t keep Fate waiting.”

---

Author's Note:

Here it is; the penultimate chapter to a fic that I started over a year ago.

I'm sorry that there wasn't much action, and that this turned into a big expo piece. Unfortunately, there wasn't any way to do this without making this go from one chapter into several. Everything here will have tie-ins to other fics down the line, as well as a bit of foreshadowing.

As far as Clover is concerned, making her a pegacorn/alicorn was always in the back of my mind. It wasn't until after I started writing this chapter that I decided to go that route.

A fair warning; the next chapter will be long. Also, there will be no epilogue, as the events of LRSF segue right into Chapter Three of PSDAL.

See you next chapter; I hope to have it done by the weekend.

Edit: December 24th, 2018: Made an edit to fix a continuity issue. Seven generations is far too short of a time if you go by standard generation measurements. Hence, one pegacorn generation is averaged at a quarter century. Edit: August 9th, 2019: Having looked at that issue further, one quarter century is still too small, as that's only twenty-five years instead of twenty. One pegacorn generation is the same as twelve-and-one-half of an average generation. An average generation for ponies is about the same as it is for humans, around twenty years.