The End War

by SC_Orion

Beginnings

Daring and Ancient stood beside one of the beds inside of the tent which served as a medical facility. Most of the beds were empty, save for ponies recovering from predominantly heat-related injuries. The one major exception was the isolated bed separated from the rest by the tan curtain they stood by. Twilight stared up at the fabric which served as the ceiling of the tent, resting. Her expression was restless, nervous, and cautious. Every other second, she fidgeted beneath the covers.

"Well, I can't find anything wrong with you," a unicorn wearing a pair of glasses and a stethoscope stated. The doctor levitated a chart in front of him. "We don't have access to as many instruments as an actual hospital would have, but still. I would have expected something to have shown up in the tests we ran. Vitals are all normal for an alicorn, and nothing seems to be amiss."

Twilight took a deep breath, then looked over at him with her jaw clenched. "Are you sure about that? I did just..." she trailed off, squinting.

The doctor studied the chart for several seconds, then looked at Twilight and nodded. "Yes. There doesn't seem to be anything abnormal. Blood work and everything is normal. No foreign substances, no lingering traces of magic, and no detectable physical injuries or other signs of stress or trauma."

Twilight shifted her weight under the bed. "Ponies don't just fall unconscious for no reason..."

The doctor nodded hesitantly. "Yes, Princess... but you should be fine. We'll keep an eye on you to be sure... although we don't have as many instruments for this sort of thing as an actual hospital would. I suppose that you could return to Canterlot and make sure that we didn't miss anything."

Twilight paused and grimaced. "Well... that's a three-day trip there, and then a three-day trip back..." she trailed off, sighing. "If there's something wrong, it would be best to leave now, but then if there's nothing wrong, I'll be missing at least six days here. And what could happen during that time? And of course, without me... you kind of can't do too much..." she trailed off.

"Princess, if you think you should go back to Canterlot to make sure you're okay, that's probably for the best," Ancient cautioned. "We can get by without you, it would just be slower..." she trailed off.

Twilight looked over at her and bobbed her head. "I mean... I feel fine- nothing feels wrong. The headache is gone..." she trailed off.

"You don't even have to go all the way back to Canterlot," Daring commented. "There are a few cities between here and there that you could stop by."

Twilight bobbed her head. "That's true, I guess..." she trailed off, then shook her head. She hesitantly used a forehoof to pull the cover off of her body. Her hoof hesitated as she looked at her chest; she could still see the phantom outline of the regalia there, even if they had taken it to study. "I guess we'll play it by how I feel... I really don't feel like I can just leave," she said tentatively. She looked over at Daring and Ancient.

"Well, we'll be sure to keep a close eye on you, Princess," the doctor stated. "I'll want to do more bloodwork tomorrow morning to make sure nothing's change."

"Right," Twilight replied. She slid out of bed and ruffled her wings, then tilted her head around a few times, stretching. She took a deep breath, then calmly exhaled. She scrutinized Ancient. "Have you learned anything about the regalia?"

Ancient smiled wryly and shook her head. "I'm afraid not, Twilight. We're having as much trouble getting a sample of the material as we were with the rest of the structure, so it probably is made out of the same alloy. Last I heard, there weren't any detectable signs of magic or anything to give any hints to its purpose. They were just starting a scatter analysis on the crystal..." she trailed off.

Twilight squinted and nodded. "The crystal which is mysteriously shaped like the central star in my cutie mark," she surmised.

Daring shifted her weight and took a deep breath. "Okay, seriously. Is anypony else interested in that? Why have we seen that symbol so much in relation to this ruin? And then you, the pony who has that symbol on her flank, is the only pony we know who can interact with this structure? I can't be the only pony who thinks that's... something." She shook her head slowly.

Twilight nodded slowly. "It's... a bit off-putting. Although, my cutie mark is symbolic of magic, so perhaps their symbol is also symbolic of magic. It could make sense, although I'm not sure what context there is to support that proposal. It could just be a coincidence, or perhaps this was, in a sense, intended- I have a lot of magic at my disposal, so perhaps it only reacts to me based on this."

Daring squinted. "What about your theories on destiny?"

Twilight pursed her lips. "Are you suggesting that this was destined to happen? That the symbol in the structure is my cutie mark? That this structure was..." she trailed off, squinting. "Meant for me, or something?"

Ancient frowned. "What? What does destiny have to do with anything?"

Twilight and Daring both looked at Ancient. "When Daring showed up, I had just finished a lecture involving the Elements of Harmony, the Tree of Harmony, the connection me and my friends share with both each other and the Tree and Elements, and the possible role of destiny in directing this, possibly from the standpoint of a higher power being at work."

Ancient blinked and squinted. "Right... Higher power..." she trailed off and shook her head. "Maybe, but that doesn't explain how this society, even if they were alicorns, could see ten-thousand years into the future. That shouldn't be possible."

Twilight nodded in agreement. "It's just a theory," she noted.

Daring shook her head. She walked on towards the exit, leaving the alicorn and unicorn behind. "Well, I suppose we better get back to it and try to figure this mystery out."

Twilight nodded and casually walked over towards Daring, passing Ancient. Ancient turned and followed Twilight. "Although I suppose now that you mention it, I can see the link you were talking about. I'm not all that familiar with all of that, but I do see some connections there," Ancient commented.

Daring opened the tent flap with a forehoof only for Loose Translation to peek inside. Daring blinked as the unicorn looked around until she found Twilight. She smiled, then walked on inside, ignoring Daring Do and Ancient Knowledge. "Princess," she acknowledged.

Twilight smiled at the young unicorn. "Yes?" she asked.

"If you're feeling like it, could you come and change the screen for me?" Translation inquired. "I've copied everything on the display you left it on, but more text would help me figure out how to translate it quicker. Well... assuming their language is anything like ours. Notes can only go so far..." she trailed off.

Twilight nodded. "Sure. Are you making any progress?"

Loose Translation pursed her lips and squinted. "Well... the text follows the same general form as ours does, at least in terms of using characters to form... words," she stated. "Or at least it seems to. Their numbering system also seems similar to ours, but without more to work with, I can't figure out what each number is. Well... assuming that they were numbers that I found."

Twilight grimaced and nodded. "Can I see?" she asked.

Loose Translation leaned to the left and nodded. "Sure," she stated. he glanced back at her saddlebag, then levitated out a small, brown, leather book with a black stripe along the binding. She looked back at Twilight and flipped the book open to one of the pages towards the middle, then started towards the alicorn.

Twilight looked over the notebook, then as the unicorn approached, then took the book from her magic and levitated it over to herself and studied the page. All of the letters, words, and numbers were arrayed systematically, along with notes the unicorn had taken of them, written in pristine hornwriting. "What..?" she muttered. She blinked and frowned, then licked her lips. "This... this is what you've found so far..?" she asked.

Loose Translation nodded. "Yes... there are more pages of notes and copies of the text..." she trailed off, shifting her weight and staring at Twilight's creased brow. "Um...is something wrong?"

Twilight glanced up from the book. "Um... I... don't know..." she trailed off unsurely. She glanced at Ancient, then at Daring before finally looking back at the notebook. She pursed her lips and lowered the book down to chest level. "Well... um... I... let me just..." she shook her head and took a deep breath.

"You okay?" Daring asked. "You're acting..." she trailed off, bobbing her head. "Well, a bit loopy," she said bluntly.

Ancient shot Daring a glare. "This could be serious," she said in a firm, low voice. She turned and took a step away from Twilight, heading towards the curtain separating the room. "I'll get the doctor-"

"No," Twilight replied quickly. "It's... I'm just... not sure how to react to this," she replied.

Daring huffed. "Well, what is it, Princess? Or are you just gonna keep it to yourself?"

Twilight fidgeted on her hooves and glanced at the three ponies, biting her lip. "Well... um... I... can tell you what this says."

"What?" Ancient asked.

Twilight ruffled her wings and took a deep breath, then looked at Ancient. "I can read this," she stated.

Ancient frowned and strode over to Twilight. She grabbed the notebook out of Twilight's magic, then brought it close to her head and quickly looked over everything. "But this is-"

"Still untranslated, I know..." Twilight replied cautiously.

"So, wait. You're telling me that you can read that?" Loose Translation asked, cautiously taking a few steps closer to Twilight.

Twilight reluctantly nodded, then pried the notebook out of Ancient's magic and looked at it again. She flipped a few pages back. "Yes... although it's... confusing... without context," she admitted. She shifted her weight, then levitated the book a little ways further out. "See this word here?" she asked, lifting a hoof and pointing at the text at the top of the page. Ancient and Translation looked at the word and nodded. "Without context, I can't give you much, but it basically is telling you which one- it means 'the'," she stated.

Loose Translation blinked. "The?"

"The," Twilight affirmed. "Do you remember what was after it?" she asked.

"No," Translation replied glumly.

Twilight sighed. "Well... that's not very helpful, is it?" she muttered, then shook her head.

"Okay, am I the only one wondering how this happened?" Daring asked, drawing the three ponies' attention to herself. "It's great and all that you can read that, but, you know, I'm just wondering, how? Since you couldn't exactly do that before you got trapped in that room and rendered unconscious."

Ancient pursed her lips. "Well... maybe the medical tests didn't reveal everything. The brain scan came back normal..." she mused. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. You can read their language, apparently, but we have no idea why. So, something definitely happened while you were unconscious, but we have no idea what." She looked at Twilight intently, studying her to make sure she looked okay. "Are you sure you feel fine? We know that something did happen then if you can read their language."

Twilight shifted her weight and took a deep breath. "Well... I feel fine. I don't feel any different from before. I guess if I start feeling off, I'll say something." She paused and looked back at the notebook, then flipped a few pages and skimmed the text. "Well... besides, now I guess translating will be quicker..?" she offered, smiling nervously.

Ancient nodded cautiously. "If you're sure you're fine.

Twilight sighed. "Well, ideally I would find out what happened that made me able to understand their language, but since none of your medical instruments discovered anything, and leaving would mean being gone for a week, I really don't want to do that..." she trailed off.

"Yes, Twilight, we all know you love learning," Daring mused, "even at the risk of your own life."

"According to my own scans, I should be fine," Twilight stated. She squinted at Daring. "And what does that say about you?"

Darign shrugged. "I'm used to adventures and I know what I'm doing whenever I'm exploring some abandoned temple in search of the artifact."

Twilight's muzzle scrunched up at Daring.

"Right, well..." Ancient trailed off. She looked around at the three other ponies and smiled. "Shall we go see if she can translate the text directly from the projection?"

"I don't see why not," Twilight commented.

"Well, let's go then," Daring said, turning to leave.

Twilight levitated the notebook back over to Loose Translation, who took it in her magic and tucked it into her saddlebags. After a moment, Twilight enveloped everypony in her aura, then teleported them and herself to the ruin's entrance. As soon as they arrived, Twilight started trotting inside, ignoring the blinking and confusion of the other mares.

Ancient shook her head. "What..?" she asked. "Did you just-"

Twilight glanced back at Ancient. "Teleport us all?" she asked. "Yeah. I uh... I was actually aiming for the Projection Room, but I couldn't sense it, so I ended up teleporting us here instead."

Ancient nodded absently. "You still can't scan the structure with your magic?"

Twilight shifted her weight. "Well, I mean I can sort of scan it, but there's still the same interference as before. The structure is, as we have discovered, resistant to magic, after all."

"Not very many unicorns can teleport..." Ancient commented.

Twilight nodded. "I only know of a couple, and I was one of them before I ascended..." she trailed off and turned to look down the hallway.

"Somepony moved the statue?" Daring asked.

Twilight glanced at where the statue had been. "I guess so," she noted.

Ancient squinted. "They must have decided it was in the way. They better not have crated it up again..." she muttered. She turned around and trotted back towards their camp. "I'm going to go make sure nopony crated it up and brought it back outside."

"So, just us three then?" Loose Translation asked.

Daring shrugged, then took the lead and started down the hallway. "I guess she's more interested in the statue than the translation work... I guess that makes sense. That statue's the only real artifact we've found. The translation can last, but the statue might not last in these conditions."

Twilight grimaced and started down the hallway, catching up with Daring, though walking a few steps behind her. Loose Translation waited for a second before hastily catching up to her. Twilight looked over the general area of where the statue had been, studying it. She felt a shiver run down her spine, making her ruffle her wings. She took a deep breath, then calmly exhaled and shook her head.

"This place is a mess," Daring muttered, weaving in between the scattered boxes and crates of equipment. "You'd think they would have it organized better by now..."

Twilight grimaced and used her magic to slide the crates against the walls, leaving a less cluttered path for them to proceed down. "Well... we're still just getting started."

They walked on, undisturbed by anypony, until they reached the entrance to the projection room. Daring slowed and glanced around. "Where is everypony, anyway?" she asked.

"They're probably working on exploring and documenting the new section," Loose Translation replied. "For all we know, that could be an even larger area than the rest of this place combined."

Twilight tilted her head to the side in thought and walked on by Daring, taking the lead of the group as she headed through the hallway to the Projection Room. "That would kind of make sense, right? If that door was sealed, then maybe that is the main section of... this... facility."

Daring squinted at Twilight. "Facility..?" she inquired.

Twilight pursed her lips and her brow creased slightly. She walked on for a few steps, then tentatively nodded. "Yes."

Daring watched Twilight expectantly as they all walked into the large room. Eventually, she raised her eyebrows at the alicorn. "And..?"

Twilight blinked, stopped, and then looked back at her. "And..?" she asked unsurely.

"That's the first time you've referred to this place as a facility. We've called it a structure and a ruin, but not a facility," Daring noted.

Twilight frowned a little, then nodded idly. "So I did..." she mused. She blinked, then shook her head. "Well, this place served some purpose," she commented. She hesitated a second, then approached the projection.

"Yeah, but most of the time, ponies don't refer to ancient ruins or structures, even well-preserved ones, as facilities," Daring replied.

Twilight ignored her as her eyes went to work, studying the text, slowly crawling over each letter of every word. She took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Okay. So I can read this now."

"Well, that makes my job easier," Loose Translation noted. She walked over beside Twilight, then stood at her right side and watched her study the projection.

After a minute, Twilight tapped the button which brought it back to the first screen, displaying several more buttons. Her expression twisted into confusion as her eyes came to rest on the red text. She stared at it for several seconds, then blinked and shook her head. She looked back up and tapped the uppermost button with her hoof, then her eyes shot over the next screen's text. She licked her lips, then hesitantly turned her head towards Translation, though her eyes lingered on the projection for another second. "Do you have a spare notebook and a quill?"

Loose Translation nodded, then looked back at her saddlebag and levitated out a blank blue notebook, along with a purple pen. She levitated them around to Twilight, who quickly took them in her magic and then returned to staring at the text with an intense gaze, almost glaring at it.

Without looking at the book, Twilight opened it up to the first page, then clicked the pen and started scribbling out the text. As seconds passed, her eagerness faded into a frown. "Daring, can you get me a book on alicorn legends and mythology? There's a reference to a war, but I've never heard of any references to alicorns fighting a war outside of this text."

"I can go and look," Daring replied. She turned and headed towards the exit.

Twilight glanced back at the pegasus. "Thanks."

Loose Translation fidgeted on her hooves and licked her lips, then swallowed. "So um... does this mean that this society was an alicorn society?" she asked.

Twilight nodded. "Going by this? Yes," she stated. "This seems to be a personal journal of one of them. A lot of the text seems to be jibberish- it's like the data has been corrupted. Letters are here that shouldn't be in here, making the words indecipherable, or perhaps worse, changing the words entirely."

Loose Translation grimaced. "Think you can figure it out..?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "For the most part, I can still read it... it's like I can understand their language..." she replied in a quiet voice. Loose Translation frowned at her for a few seconds, then went back to studying the text. "She was... a scientist, of sorts. This was a research facility. They were studying two things here..." Twilight explained, trailing off and squinting at the text. "The needs of the future?" she asked. She blinked a few times. "There's a reference to something that they were monitoring... they were developing something, but then the war happened, and the 'needs of the future' became more important, whatever that means."

"Any ideas?" Translation asked.

Twilight pursed her lips. "Well... I'd need more time to study this. A lot more time. And I'd need to figure out a way to fix the data corruption, otherwise, it'll make understanding this a lot more difficult, since some of the words don't make sense in context. I suspect that they've been corrupted and letters have been replaced by different ones, changing their meaning."

Loose Translation looked at Twilight with a smile. "How can I help?"

Twilight tilted her head in thought and studied the text. "I'm not sure. Seeing as though I seem to be the only pony who can understand this language, and I seem to be the only pony capable of interacting with the projection..." she trailed off, pursing her lips. She waited a few seconds, then looked at Loose Translation. "I'd appreciate the company, and we could bounce ideas back and forth. And I can try to teach you the language."

Loose Translation smiled and nodded. "Well, since you know the language, teaching me the language shouldn't be too difficult. And then that should make this easy."

The sound of hoofsteps approaching from the hallway drew their attention. "Sorry, Princess, they don't have any book on alicorns with them. Which, you know, is kind of unbelievable all things considered," Daring commented dryly.

Twilight grimaced. "Well... I'll need one to refresh my memory on the legends, can you see about-"

"The professor said that the next resupply should have some books about alicorn mythology in them, but that might be a couple of days," Daring replied.

Twilight grimaced, then her expression returned to normal. "Well, I guess that might not be a bad thing, it'll give me more time to work on translating this-" she waved a forehoof at the projection.

"Ancient was curious about how that was going, and I went ahead and told her that you could read it. She seemed really excited, though frustrated cause apparently they misplaced the statue and she can't seem to find it," Daring stated.

Twilight looked at Daring quizzically and squinted at her in disbelief. "How exactly did they misplace a statue?" she asked in an accusatory voice.

Daring shrugged. "I guess-" the room's lighting flashed red, and an almost aggressive chime rang out through the air. The crystal beside the door emitted a rapid beeping, and the inner door started to close. Daring winced and grimaced. "Ah, not again..." she muttered, bobbing her head. She rushed over towards the door but stopped before leaving the room. She glanced back at the alicorn and unicorn. "Twilight!" she called.

"Get the professor!" Twilight ordered. She pressed her eyes closed and enveloped Daring in her magic. In a flash of light, the pegasus disappeared, only to reappear outside of the door, just before the door shut.

"Princess, what's going on?" Loose Translation asked. She fidgeted on her hooves, and her head swept around the room, her eyes darting about and scrutinizing every surface.

Twilight shifted her weight and grimaced at the red lighting. "I'll figure out what's going on and get the door opened, give me a minute..." She tapped the screen with her forehoof, and in just a few taps and swipes, a new display emerged. "It's an emergency lockdown," she stated. A second later, she frowned. "Containment?" she asked.

A chill crept down Twilight's spine, and a section of the wall towards the top of the room split into two pieces and pulled apart. No sooner had the doors stopped than a large figure shot out of the vent, lurching towards Twilight and the unicorn beside her. It landed with a heavy thud and crouched down in an instant, then jumped upward horn first, impaling the unicorn on its horn. Loose Translation let out a timid squeak before the figure violently jerked her head, throwing the injured unicorn aside. The attacker flared her wings out and stared at Twilight with a primal intensity, her eyes burning a brilliant shade of crimson, sharper than the sharpest of knives.

A dominating, low tone rang out throughout the facility.

A sharp, cold and calculated voice spoke to her, coming from the alicorn staring her down. She spoke quietly, but firmly. Her voice was powerful, filled with vast knowledge and seething with hatred. The language was ten-thousand years displaced, never spoken nor heard for thousands of years. The sound coming from the alicorn's mouth was as ancient as the facility itself, predating known history. There was no possible way for anypony to know what the alicorn said, yet without a doubt, Twilight knew what she said, and the coldness of her voice made her shiver.

"You..."

Author's Note:

Before you go and say that Ancient called the structure a facility, you're right, she did, and I went back and corrected it to structure.

I had to rewrite this chapter following the advice of my prereader. You should thank him for this, because otherwise this chapter would have had some major glaring problems. This is why I keep him around! Thanks KeyChain!

I apologize for this chapter being late.

Comments

[Fangren]

Ah, finally the statue comes to life! I look forward to hearing what it has to say...

[lishmael]

Sounds interesting, if a bit slow-paced. Some action at last. Looks like my first theory about the plot was not correct, so... Keep going.

[Dragon of Shadows]

i just had a thought. what if that dead alicorn is twilight only she was sent to the very distant past