The Escapades of Lord Corn Wall

by Megatron

The Expedition

The wasteland sun scorched the caravan, forcing possessions and ponies alike to swelter under its oppressive glare. These wastes seemed barren at first glance, but hid valuable treasures if one knew where to look. It was the promise of these treasures that had brought Lord Corn Wall out here in the first place. Nearly three days ago he had received a letter from a prospector in Appleloosa named Brass Dawn. Brass Dawn had reason to believe that there were ancient ruins in the vast empty deserts east of Appleloosa and asked for help and funding. Corn Wall agreed on the condition that he is allowed to take a quarter of the treasure for himself. Now he was part of this great expedition, searching for the signs of a lost civilization among the barren dunes.

Suddenly the wagon in front stopped and Corn Wall looked out from under his wagon’s covering to see what the problem was. What he saw was one of the most amazing sights in his life. Before his eyes stood a massive stone structure built into the side of a great mountain. At the outer doors stood statues half buried in the dunes by centuries of dust storms. And right beside them, a camp was being hastily put into place.
“Wake up, we’re here!” Corn Wall barked, startling Fire Star back out of his peaceful dreams.
“We’ve reached the ruins?” inquired a dazed Fire Star.
“Yes, and the others are setting up the camp as we speak.”
“Well let’s go meet up with Brass Dawn again!”

As they exited the covered wagon they realized just how much time had passed. The sun was low in the horizon and it was obvious that they would only have a few hours of sunlight left. The exploration would have to wait until tomorrow. Brass Dawn was overlooking the ruins, discussing how to breach the sealed doors with a demolitions expert. When the noble reached them the demolitions expert went back to his tent so that Corn Wall and Brass Dawn could talk.
“Ah there you are. I was wonderin’ if y’all would like to come with us down to the tomb.” Said Brass Dawn. Lord Corn Wall had to think for a few seconds in order to understand what he was just asked (this is the exact reason he didn’t bring Zap Watt along, he had learned the hard way that too many accents in one place could end in a titanic explosion).
“This place is a tomb?” asked Corn Wall
“Yep, this leads to the burial chamber of Empress Sand Heart.”
“Well then, we would be happy to go along.”
“Great! We’ll be headin’ out tomorrow so set up your tent and wait ‘till sunrise.”

The noble and his bodyguard left, to get the tent up and rest for the day ahead. These tents were made to be as utilitarian as possible, and as such were simple to set up despite their size. Once all the belongings they had taken with them were inside, Corn Wall closed the tent and let a few candles to provide light in the rapidly darkening enclosure. The two ate a quick meal before heading straight to their beds on opposite sides of the tent to rest for the day ahead.

The two ponies were awakened not by the sun or an expedition member, but by a startling boom. They rushed outside to see that this noise was the result of the tomb entrance being blown open by several tons of dynamite. Prospectors didn’t like being subtle. By the time they had reached the blast site, the dust had cleared and the team led by Brass Dawn was preparing to enter the dark monolith.

The light from torches revealed amazing carvings all around the tomb depicting the great battle that had won Sand Heart her mighty empire. Scattered across the gargantuan room were stone tables and chairs that had clearly been made to stand the test of time. At the end of the room a giant throne sat empty that rivaled Celestia’s in sheer beauty. In front of the throne there was a Sarcophagus of pure gold, decorated with carvings of the empress that was entombed within rising over the temple to rule the entire world on it’s flat surface. Even more noticeable than this however, was a glowing blue orb that sat on a pedestal above the surface of the Sarcophagus. The blue light within the orb swirled endlessly like a storm raging eternally in the sky.

Everypony starred at the orb for several minutes, seemingly unnerved by the spectacle. Corn Wall got a flask out of his pack and took several large swigs before Brass Dawn stepped up to the pedestal and grabbed the orb. When he did so, his eyes seemed to turn the same shade of glowing blue for a second before returning to normal.
“We need to get back to the camp so that we can eat some lunch.” The prospector said in a deeper voice and milder accent. With those words all in the room could feel their stomachs grumbling and agreed that they needed to return to camp.

Strangely, when they got back and began grabbing small meals, Brass Dawn went straight to his tent and starred at the orb until everypony else had finished eating and was ready to go back. He put the orb deep within his pack before leaving as if it were to valuable to leave in his personal tent. The rest of the day was spent scouring the tomb and surrounding ruins for treasure and artifacts. Any items of historical value were to be sent to the Canterlot archives and other items were given to Lord Corn Wall in return for his funding. Brass Dawn spent this time looking at the Sarcophagus and the carvings above. By nightfall all had fallen into a deep sleep after the days work, all except for Brass Dawn who was once again staring at the orb intently.

Like the day before, the noble was awoken from his slumber by loud noise. These sounds were not the work of explosions but rather, the sounds of a struggle. Again Lord Corn Wall emerged from his tent and saw that Brass Dawn had overpowered several other expedition members who had tried to restrain him. Before anypony could react, Fire Star rushed towards the prospector and in an instant, he was thrown back as well.
“What in Celestia’s name are you doing?” the noble shouted.
“The will of my empress.” Brass Dawn responded, his accent now completely gone.
“Whom are you talking about?”
“Empress Sand Heart, the rightful ruler of this world.”
“But that’s impossible! She died centuries ago!”
“My queen lives on in the orb and only requires a physical form to create a second Empire of the Silver Dunes! And your Princess Celestia is the perfect vessel!” With those words Brass Dawn pointed the orb up into the sky and a bolt of thunder struck the area in front of him and summoned forth a spectral carriage to carry him forwards. Once onboard this carriage immediately headed north towards Canterlot.

Corn Wall rushed towards Fire Star, who was picking himself up and putting his hat back on.
“I say, are you alright?” asked Corn Wall.
Fire Star quickly glanced around before answering, “yeah but that’s not our concern, we need to stop that prospector!”
“Agreed, but how are we going to get there?”
“Simple we take a wagon and go to appleloosa then take the train to Canterlot it’ll be a lot faster.” The two then immediately departed for Appleloosa at full speed.

This plan wasn’t guaranteed to work due to the fact that trains arrive at set times, but thankfully the train was waiting for them when they arrived. They hopped onboard and hoped that the train wouldn’t breakdown along the way. After an uneventful journey they had at last made it to Canterlot with not a second to spare. They could see Brass Dawn running at full speed towards the palace and they had to try and beat him there.

Upon entering the palace gates the elite royal guard left unconscious across the tiled floor. Knowing that Brass Dawn was near the throne room, they rushed forwards as fast as possible. They had been making a classic mistake, thinking that Celestia was defenseless. If anything the opposite was true and the princess would have used her amazing powers to destroy the Empress and free the poor prospector that she had mind controlled as a pawn. Fortunately what Fire Star did worked just as well (though Celestia’s method would have been amazing see). Once he was close enough, the bodyguard leapt towards the prospector, knocking him over and causing the orb to fly into the air and shatter onto the ground. Upon breaking, a phantom with the visage of Empress Sand Heart rose from the broken orb like smoke from a fire and let loose a howling wail before vanishing in an instant.

After seeing all this the princess (who hadn’t yet been able to figure out what was happening asked, “What the hay was that?” No response was given, as neither Brass Dawn nor Lord Corn Wall knew the answer for themselves. Brass Dawn was in fact, unable to recall any of the events after he had touched the orb. The three of them simply apologized for what had happened and left the palace as quickly as they could. They would return to the campsite where they would try to explain to everypony else what happened before taking all of the items they had recovered to Appleloosa. And then, Lord Corn Wall would return with new trinkets, ready to return to the eternal struggle of the noble houses once more.

Author's Note:

This chapter was inspired by the Halls of Origination dungeon from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (which was still the current expansion when this story was written/published). I used to play WOW all the time (I still absolutely adore Warcraft as a setting, but I personally feel that the current version of the game is simply way too grindy for my tastes, so I stopped playing a while ago), and I know that had something to do with the inspiration of the story, but I can't remember anymore than that.

The descriptions of the desert and the heat were based on the fact that I was born and raised in Arizona (I was still living there when this story was written), and while I'm overwhelmingly glad that I've left that horrible place behind in favor of a new, much more pleasant state, the experiences of 110 degree summers will likely stay with me for the rest of my life, hence why there's such an emphasis on desert heat in this story.

-Lost_One, 8/7/19