The End War

by SC_Orion

Just Another Backyard Dig

Daring Do wiped the sweat from her brow. The hot, dry desert air seemed to all but literally, sap the life energy right out of the pegasus. She glanced down at her tunic and lifted a hoof, then loosened it slightly. "I'm used to jungles, not deserts..." she muttered, looking back up out across the rocky plateau's yellow, weathered sandstone. The scorching sun glared down at them intensely, baking the rock and threatening a swift death from dehydration to anypony unprepared for the harsh conditions.

"Well, an ancient dig's an ancient dig, ain't it?" asked a cheery, pale brown unicorn from just beside her. She lifted her foreleg, then elbowed the pegasus in a playful, joking manner. "Besides, I thought the great Darin' Do would be able to handle whatever Equis could throw at her!" She chuckled a little. "Besides, that's why you're here. You're the best of the best. This dig should be right up your alley," she said more seriously.

"Yeah," Daring commented off-hoof. "Except most of the time, getting into the ruins is the easy part. The hard part is all of the magically-enhanced traps that have managed to survive for centuries," she said dryly.

The unicorn nodded. "They're making progress, it's slow going, but they're making progress. The doorway and walls are made out of a mineral alloy we've never seen before. We can barely scratch it with magic, so they're probing it to figure out how best to get in. If that falls through, there's always Plan E."

Daring Do looked at her warily. "E as in..?" she asked cautiously.

"Explosives," the unicorn answered, smiling innocently.

Daring tilted her head and opened her mouth, then closed her eyes and looked back at the dig site. She shook her head. "This is a serious operation you have going on way out here in the middle of nowhere if you're willing to use explosives to get into an ancient ruin, Doctor Ancient Knowledge."

Doctor Ancient Knowledge shrugged. "The ruin can handle it. Scans indicate that the interior is made up of the same material, but the ruins interior is also shielded after a certain point. The structure is completely intact, too. It probably won't come to explosives. I hope it doesn't. Having to blow open the doors would leave a bad taste in my mouth..." she trailed off, grimacing in discomfort.

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Daring muttered. "I could have gotten in their alone by now if you would just tell me what this is and what I needed to know. A full expedition is a waste of time!" she growled.

"I insisted on a full expedition," Doctor Ancient Knowledge stated matter-of-factly. "I contracted you because you're the best pony to assist in my endeavor. Once we get inside, of course."

"Of course," Daring snarked.

Doctor Ancient Knowledge took a deep breath, then slowly blew air out of her mouth, exhaling. "There's absolutely nothing out here around for miles... and yet somehow, this is here, and on top of that, we've never seen anything like this before! It's so exciting!"

Daring Do nodded and smiled brashly. "It makes you wonder what this place is and why whoever built it, built it here."

Doctor Ancient Knowledge beamed in excitement. "All the known civilizations which existed in this area don't match these ruins. The design, to say nothing of the materials, do not match. It's so fascinating..."

A pegasus walked out from a nearby tent, then took to the air and flew over to Daring Do and Doctor Ancient Knowledge, then landed. "Doctor, you're going to want to see this," he said. He reached back into a saddlebag on his back, then pulled out a pristine white sheet of paper and hoofed it over to the good doctor.

Ancient Knowledge swiftly picked the paper up from him with her magic, then read over the information, salivating at the prospect of whatever information it held as soon as her eyes read the title.

Mana-dating Report and Material Analysis
Dig 10-10-36B

6/10/1006

I ran the numbers three times to be sure. At first, I thought it was a fluke, but the results are conclusive. The forging analysis and mana-dating results are conclusive.

The material sent for analysis predates the Discordian Era by approximately 7,000 years, meaning that this material was forged over 10,000 years ago. This predates all known civilizations in Equis by 6,000 years.

I tried to account for this by adjusting the analysis means, or adjusting the variables, but the results under such adjustments were inconclusive and lead to even more bizarre results. Adding to the fact that the material sent for analysis is more advanced than anything we have currently available, this means the history books are going to need to be rewritten, Doctor Ancient Knowledge.

The material itself is some sort of crystalline alloy, but current analysis hasn't provided many insights into it. We are continuing to probe the material in an attempt to unlock its secrets, but it'll be some time before we learn anything of value.

Doctor Fluid State, Ph.D., Engineering, Material Science, Canterlot Institute for Material Science.

"This can't be right," Ancient Knowledge said, taken aback. She blinked her eyes and reread the report. "There has to be some kind of mistake!" she groaned. She turned to Daring Do and handed the confused pegasus the paper. "Here, read this," she said in a dry, serious tone.

Daring Do read over the report, and her frown only grew. "That's not possible," she stated, looking up from the report.

"Well, apparantly it is," Ancient Knowledge muttered, turning back to look at the ravine which housed the ruins. At the bottom of the large opening into the earth, she could make out the large, unassuming dark gray wall metal jutting out from the rock. In the center, there was a large, smoothly sloping archway with an inlaid door with no visible means to open it. The metal was smooth, yet had a property which caused it to only reflect enough light to render it a few shades above black, but the metal appeared to have a slight light pink hue to it. "Apparently there was a civilization which had the ability to create a metal which survived for ten thousand years which predates all known civilizations by six thousand years."

The ponies down by the door all jumped back. One of them, a pegasus, fell back on his haunches, then hastily rose back to his hooves. He spread his wings, then flew the thirty feet to the surface. "Professor!" he called. "You're going to want to see this! We got it open!"

Ancient Knowledge and Daring Do exchanged smiles. While Daring Do smiled brashly in eager anticipation of adventure, Ancient Knowledge smiled a cheery, excited, yet reserved smile befitting the bookworm that she was, and her eyes glistened with anticipation. "We'll be right there!" the called out in unison.

"I guess coming out to the Badlands wasn't a complete waste of my time after all," Daring mused. She spread her wings out, then ran forward and leaped over the cliff edge. She caught the air with her wings and glided toward the base camp set up at the bottom of the ravine, near the doors. Opening the doors apparently alerted everypony, as some twelve ponies of varying races were all gathered in front of the doors and geared up for adventure.

Daring swiftly landed and looked around at the ponies, then came to a stop and looked back at the path through the rock face that Doctor Ancient Knowledge was. Despite her eagerness to get down to the entrance, she wasn't prepared to jump over the edge, being a unicorn, and instead took a much safer land route. Barely two minutes later, the doctor and another unicorn came up beside Daring. "I have to get in there!" she exclaimed.

Daring raised a hoof and smirked. "Not so fast, Professor," she warned.

Ancient Knowledge blushed lightly and shied back. "Oh, um, yes, of course. Please, after you, Miss Do."

Daring Do shot her a smile, then walked around to the entrance. As she did, many of the ponies around turned their expectant gazes on her. She studied the path beyond, not sure what to expect, as it came into view. She frowned. There was a hallway made of the same metal alloy which stretched in about ten feet, then it came to an intersection, with a hallway heading to the left, right, and continuing on straight. Unlike all of the other ruins she had explored, this one had no pillars or columns, let alone writing on the walls to indicate anything.

Wary of all of this, she slowly made her way forward, then paused and looked down. Where the stone gave way to the artificial material was seamless, as if the metal, or the stone, had been poured in place after completion. The only noticeable difference was the effects of erosion, having worn away at the stone while leaving the metal to stand the test of time. The metal proved itself over the centuries, while the stone had not.

She looked back up, then took a deep breath, smelling the air. The smell was wrong for an ancient ruin, or maybe it was the desert air that smelt wrong. She decided on the latter after mulling it over for a few seconds. She lifted a forehoof, then stepped down on the metal. She recoiled in shock, lifted her hoof away, and stared down at the metal. Unlike the rock, which even in the shade was warm, the metal was cool to the touch. She set her hoof back down and looked up. She smiled brashly, then turned back and opened her saddlebag. She pulled out a flashlight, generously provided by the Professor, turned it on, then held it in her wing and cast the light into the dim interior. The metal somehow seemed to brighten and turn less gloomy under the glow of the magic-powered light.

She stepped forward in passed the doorway, then paused in the doorway, noticing that the doors slid back into the wall. The crevice which hid the doors were seamless, and if it wasn't for the depression in the walls, she wouldn't have been able to tell where the door was. "This level of perfection is unheard of. Ponies were able to do a lot, but this..." she trailed off, then walked on into the structure, weary of anything that her pegasus senses warned her about. To her surprise, everything felt fine. She let herself relax a little, then looked back. "Alright, come on... Let's figure out what in Tartarus this place is," she said.

She had halfway expected her voice to echo, but the silence was welcome. A few of the ponies, two unicorns, and four earth ponies, stepped forward with her. Doctor Ancient Knowledge and her companion also stepped forward. Her eyes glistened as she marveled at the engineering masterpiece. "This is incredible!"

"And this is just the entrance," Daring mused. "Might want to save that for later, Professor," she added. She looked back forward, then ventured on inside the structure. Her hoofsteps barely echoed, and before she knew it, she had walked the ten feet to the intersection. She walked out into the middle of it and cast her flashlight's glow down the hallway to the left. Along the hallway, there were two more doors. They were barely noticeable, save for having transparent, grayish blue crystals to the right of the doorways. The metal of the wall smoothly met the crystal, and it looked as if the rectangular, smooth crystals were designed to be removed. At the end of the ten-foot-long hallway, there was a door. Just above the door, there was what appeared to be an orange, transparent crystal similar the ones beside the other doors. Unlike the rest of the structure, the crystal seemed to have experienced aging, as it appeared to be shattered. Lowering the flashlight's beam to the floor, she affirmed what she knew, seeing shards of broken crystal at the base of the doorway.

Doctor Ancient Knowledge walked into the intersection, carrying her own flashlight in her magic. She stopped and stared down the hallway and scrutinized every spot with her flashlight. She turned and cast her eyes and light down what appeared to be the main hallway, the one which continued on straight from the entrance. There were no doors to the side, but the hallway continued to stretch on for about ten feet. The walls, like the rest of the walls, were smooth. She shined her light around, then paused on one section, seeing what appeared to be a break in the wall. She swept the beam of light up the wall, across the ceiling, then down the other side, noting what appeared to be a single crystal breaking the entire hallway. Looking more closely, she noticed more, even in the hallway to the left.

Daring turned to the right and found the hallway to be nearly identical to the hallway on the left. She turned back to Doctor Ancient Knowledge. "Where to, professor?"

"I say we keep going forward," she replied, then started walking straight.

Daring quickly took off and took the lead. The nine ponies continued down the hallway to the end, then came to a stop. To the right of the door was another one of the crystals. Daring walked over to it and squinted as she scrutinized it. "What do you suppose these are?" she asked, turning back to Doctor Ancient Knowledge.

The professor frowned and walked closer. Daring stepped aside to give her more room. "Well, they're crystals. I can tell you that much. They likely served a decorative purpose, however, some ancient cultures were known to use crystals to store magic like we do today. It's possible it was used for that, although I'm not sure what it would be doing out like this." She frowned. "We can store spells in crystals, it's possible that they could too, but unlikely, as the earliest recorded instance of a civilization being able to store spells in crystals was the Crystal Empire, and that was only about two thousand years ago, and the spells weren't very complicated."

"I don't suppose you can use your magic and figure out what they're for?" Daring asked. "Because it seems kind of like a trap to me. Placing crystals at eye level, although they're not hidden very well..." she muttered. "This place hasn't really shown signs of traps, though."

Ancient Knowledged grimaced. "That's good, but maybe we should leave the crystals alone then..." she said.

Daring shrugged and turned back to the door. "Help me out with this then, will ya?" She stepped closer to the door, then placed her hooves on it. She tried to figure out the best way to handle it, then decided to just push the left half of the door to the left. She grunted as she put her strength and weight into the door, hoping to budge it, only for it to remain still and unmoving. Two of the earth ponies stepped up beside her and threw their strength and weight into the doors, hoping to part them, only to fail. The two adventurous unicorns lit their horns, then added their magic to the door. Doctor Ancient Knowledge and her companion's additional magic was just enough to earn a creek from the door, which led to the sound of metal sliding on metal, a prelude to the door opening enough to slide a hoof in between the two slabs of metal. The earth ponies manage to push the doors aside with the better grip, then they stepped back, breathing heavily.

Daring took a deep breath, then exhaled calmly and proceeded into the next room. "Ah, now here are the pillars and columns!" she exclaimed. She hurried into the room, and Doctor Ancient Knowledge walked in right behind her. They swept their lights around, breaking the darkness and studying the room. The room was large, with a ceiling probably fifteen feet high. Eight pillars of granite rose up to the ceiling at the opposite side of the room, and in the middle of the innermost two, there was another hallway.

"The amount of stone they would have to have excavated..." Ancient Knowledge muttered. She frowned a little and bobbed her head. "This would have been hard work... It's not that hot in here right now, but back then..." she trailed off.

The room appeared to have only one entrance, but the continuing on ahead could have led to another entrance or exit. As Daring and Ancient Knowledge swept their lights toward the hallway ahead, both of them froze, scrutinizing the two statues, one on each side of the door, which led into the next room. The winged, horn statues were made of a light pink crystal but had the texture of rock. "Alicorns..?" Ancient Knowledge said quietly, surprised. The alicorn statues looked to be the size of Princess Celestia, and they faced each other. Both of them were reared up on their hind legs, and their wings were flared out. The alicorns looked proud as they stood guard of the entrance, forever watching over the structure.

"It's not uncommon for ancient cultures to have worshiped alicorns," Daring commented, then frowned as she walked forward. "But what is uncommon is for more than one to be depicted, although both of these are identical, so they're probably based on the same alicorn," she stated. She came to a stop, squinting. "I don't recognize them. They're not Princess Celestia or Princess Luna."

"This structure predates the princesses by several thousand years," Ancient Knowledge commented absently.

Daring looked back at Ancient Knowledge and shined her flashlight in her eyes, making the unicorn recoil and shield her eyes with her hooves. "Nopony knows the true age of the Princesses. Most of history was lost prior to the Discordian Era. For all we know, these could be one alicorn, or maybe two, who were alive back then," she said, then turned back around. "Even though they're identical statues," she added as an afterthought.

"She might have been the ruler of the land," Ancient Knowledge acknowledged.

Daring Do nodded, then walked on toward the hallway. She paused and looked back at the additional ponies accompanying them. "You should go ahead and start setting up camp inside the ruin," she said, "if it can be called that," she muttered. "But be sure to stay clear of areas we haven't explored yet." Two of the earth ponies nodded, then headed on back out the way they came from.

Ancient Knowledged walked up to Daring. "Shall we proceed?" she asked warmly.

Daring nodded quickly, then continued on into the hallway. Scanning the walls revealed them to be much alike all the other walls. There were no doors along the hallway, but there were crystal breaks in the wall every few feet. As they came to the end of the hallway, the area opened up, revealing a small room with one door. Two crystal alicorn statues dominated the room, much like the prior two statues.

Daring and Ancient Knowledge swept the room with their flashlights. Ancient Knowledged paused, her light illuminating a symbol above the doorway. "This symbol," she started, frowning, "I haven't seen it before. Nowhere in the place besides here, and I haven't seen it anywhere else before. On top of that, it's more colorful than the rest of this place combined," she said. "It looks familiar somehow..." she muttered.

The symbol appeared to be a six-pointed, bright pink starburst, with five smaller six-pointed white starbursts surrounding it. Daring swept around and gazed at the symbol. She frowned. "That does look familiar..." she acknowledged. She stepped forward, then came to a stop. "Where have I seen that symbol before?" she asked herself. "A six pointed pink star, with six white spokes coming out of it, and five smaller white, six-pointed stars surrounding it..." she muttered to herself. "I don't think I've seen that in any of my other treks, but... wait..." she trailed off, her frown deepening in confusion. She turned to face Ancient Knowledge, looking bewildered. "Isn't that Princess Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark?" she asked uncertainly.

Ancient Knowledge's expression turned blank, then she lit up with recognition. "You're right... that... but... that doesn't make any sense... this structure is ten thousand years old! How would they know anything about an alicorn ascending ten thousand years into the future!?" she demanded in exasperation.

"Maybe their ruler or somepony could see the future with magic," Daring mused.

Ancient Knowledge wanted to retort the pegasus, but she clamped her mouth shut instead. "It's possible... it's the only thing that makes sense..." she muttered. "But still... Prophecy magic is advanced and predicting the future that far ahead is supposed to be impossible..." she trailed off, then turned to Daring, smiling warily. "You think we can get the Princess out here?"

Daring grinned. "Are you kidding? I've met her before. She'd love this," she answered.

Ancient Knowledge lit up in excitement. "Then it's settled! I'm sending you back to contract the Princess's assistance with this dig!"

Darign winced and shifted her weight. "That might be a bit difficult..." she mumbled. "Considering that she's, you know, a princess," she said dryly.

"Oh, well I'm sure you can interest her if you tell her that we found her cutie mark in the ruin," Ancient replied.

"Yeah, maybe," Daring tentatively agreed. She turned her attention to the doorway and scrutinized it, along with the sides, searching for any way to open it. There was another crystal on the right side of the door, at eye height, but unlike the other door, it didn't look like this one was going to be opened physically. Daring grimaced. "Maybe she'd be able to help us out here with the excavation," she commented. "I don't think we're going to get through this door with anything short of an alicorn. I'm not sure if Plan E would even work on this door."

Ancient Knowledge frowned, then reluctantly nodded in agreement upon further scrutiny of the doorway. "I think you're right..." she grumbled. She sighed and hung her head, her ears folding back. "We should probably go send word that we managed to get in, along with what we've found. And you, Daring, have a train to catch," Ancient Knowledge said with a smirk.

"Yeah," Daring said with a roll of her eyes. She turned around and started walking back the way they came. Ancient Knowledge and the rest of the group followed close behind. As they continued on, they encountered ponies carrying in small crates of equipment and setting up magically powered lights to illuminate the ruin. As they stepped out into the canyon, they shielded their eyes from the bright, unforgiving sun, and the warmth once more sapped the life from their chilled bodies.

Author's Note:

So it begins... A story I've envisioned for over a year, one I am finally sitting down to write...

Chapter 2 is mostly complete, it is also over twice as long as this chapter. Barring anything unforeseen, such as ending up having to rewrite sections of it or something coming up which prevents me from finishing it, I plan to release it next week.

Does this catch your interest? Also, at the start, I envisioned the professor with an Australian accent. After they gained access to the ruin, I kind of stopped that and turned her into a total nerd.

Comments

[Sir Budginton]

You know I haven't read any daring do stories before and I'm not entirely sure why.

But this story has piped my interest and if it's good (which I'm sure it will be) I may start reading other daring do stories.

[Fangren]

Hmm, well, this has definitely caught my interest, I'll tell you that much.

[Kalizecora]

It caught my interest, please send us more.

[Cross Lament]

Twilight's butt is SO famous they knew about it ten thousand years ago!

[Ebonysdagger]

Ancient Knowledge swiftly picked the paper up from him with her wing, then read over the information, salivating at the prospect of whatever information it held as soon as her eyes read the title.

Wasn't Ancient Knowledge a unicorn?

Ancient Knowledge frowned, then reluctantly nodded in agreement upon further scrutiny of the doorway. "I think your right..." she grumbled. She sighed and hung her head, her ears folding back. "We should probably go send word that we managed to get in, along with what we've found. And you, Daring , have a train to catch," Ancient Knowledge said with smirk.

Should be you're.

Well this hooks my interest at least. Now to see what happens.

[SC_Orion]

8333734
Darn typos! Wait... Oh, oh dear... I accidentally made an alicorn OC... Gonna have to fix that... Let me go grab a pair of clippers...

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't notice that in my re-reading to look for errors!

[Ebonysdagger]

8334027
Glad to help. You aren't the first I've pointed out to have turned a unicorn into an alicorn by accident so no worries.