A Bridge Between Brothers

by Rammy

To Search(Reposted after completion)

Encase you missed it once again I had to repost after publishing this chapter in an incomplete form when I didn't want to... Why are the edit and publish buttons right next to each other??? I will be switching to GDoc or Word from now on to hopefully to prevent this from happening again.

ബഐബഐബഐ Twilight ബഐബഐബഐ

"So let me get this straight,"Rainbow Dash rubbed her forehead, 'You want us to not only go to the Castle of the Two Sisters, in the middle of the Everfree no less, but also go down into the catacombs? And all because somebody told you there might be something of value there?"

"Yes."

"Normally I'm all for adventures and exploring in dangerous and 'scary' places like Daring Do but don't you think this might be a ploy by Discord?"

"Ah have to admit Twi, it sounds very suspicious." Applejack admitted when I remained silent to Rainbow Dash's concerns.

“The Elements won't work on Discord and we have the threat of annihilation looming over our heads from the dragons. What would you do?” My irritation only grew when non of my friends would even look at me much less answer me. “WELL!?”

"Twi, darling, please clam down." Rarity flinched for a second when I spun around angrily to face her after she put a hoof on my shoulder. "We are just concerned. You have been a bit... uh, frazzled lately and we are worried it might be effecting your judgement a bit."

I..." I debated on whether to tell them that is was H.K. that told me but that would probably make it only worse... None of them ever met H.K. and the his dislike of Princess Celestia and liking of Discord would not help. "I know it's just... I worry for Spike and nothing seems to be working... and... then trying to deal with the dragons and Discord on top of that... at this point I would even risk that this is a Discord ploy..."

---

We have been searching the catacombs for hours with no luck in finding anything. I'm glad that Rarity had brought some thread and I had the wherewithal to enchant them so we could find our way back. The catacombs were, surprisingly, very extensive. If I hazard a guess it had to be at least twice the size of Caterlot Castle and the Castle of the Two Sisters combined. The only thing we did find in all that time was bat friends for Fluttershy.

Wait, the bats live down here maybe they would know something.

"Fluttershy do you think that you could ask the bats if there are aware of anything unusual down here?"

"Um, sure..."

"Why didn't we think of this earlier?" Rainbow Dash facehooved as Fluttershy spoke to one of the bats.

"I have know idea..." I agreed, shaking my head.

"Oh... um... thank you. Can you, maybe, um, lead the way?"

With nods of agreement we followed the bats for some distance and eventually into an area of the catacombs we had not even reached yet. How big is this place!? I think my earlier estimate was very low. They eventually lead us down a dead end.I could just make out a large engraving at the very end.

Getting a bit closer I could see that it looked just like the depiction of the Elements of Harmony in Predictions and Prophecies. Odd. It also appeared that the outer Elements could be pressed. Of course a puzzle to go with the maze like catacombs... at this point I wouldn't be surprised to run into a zombie pony. This, of course, had to be protecting the journal H.K. told me about. Now to figure out how to open this.

If the Element of Magic was the last to be activated maybe it was the same here but that still left one hundred and twenty different combinations I could go through all one hundred twenty but I can't tell if there isn't some sort of trap tied to it. The rest of the castle had traps but given my source's violent behavior I wouldn’t be surprised that this is trapped, and, unlike the rest, be deadly.

When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed. Could it be in order listed? No that book is fairly recent and these markings as clearly quite old. Of course that begs a question how did that artist depict this engraving so closely? There has to be more! Maybe only the elements can be used? I wished that H.K. had given me more hints other than the catacombs... maybe I missed something on this etching...

It was when I looked at the etching at an extremely angle that I noticed what I had missed, very faint writing. What I had originally though where the embellishing swirls around each of the gems was actually very stylized letters, and not only letters but whole words. Though the word order was off… If I reorder them...

"Press in order, speak the name." I think I know the order but what name? I couldn’t see any other clues, at least none that can be easily seen...

"What is that supposed to mean?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, frustration building in her voice. It sounded like she was getting antsy over the lack of progress. I don’t think she realizes just how much time in real life it would take Daring Do to figure this out. A lot can happen in a paragraph after all.

"Well the pressing in order mostly likely refers to the order of the outer elements, probably in the order of the phrase ‘press in order, speak the name there’. As for the ‘speak the name,’ however, I have some ideas but nothing concrete..."

With nothing left to lose I went ahead and pressed down on each gem as indicated then hesitantly called out. “Magic?”

"Well, that worked..." Rainbow Dash snarked when my attempt failed.

I rolled my eyes at Rainbow Dash. At least it appears that nothing terrible happened and it even looks that the remaining element buttons stayed pressed. But what is the name that is needed? “Elements? Elements of Harmony? Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Magic?”

Again nothing! I must be missing something else... but WHAT?!
"Why does every immortal being have to use wink, wink riddles?!!!"

"Twilight?" Fluttershy squeaked out worriedly after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"I'm fine." I reassured her and the rest of my friends. "I just needed to vent for a second."

Okay, think. Princess Celestia had merely told me to make friends when I warned her of Nightmare Moon which was what was needed to defeat her. Then when Discord hid the Elements and told me how to get them back with a riddle that I ended up over thinking... So I am probably overthinking this and something that H.K. said would be the key. What was it that he said?

"I knew that you were special Twilight... I knew it the night I saw you with Spike... But, then again, Tzirüstele Atülāja did choose you..."

Why would he say 'Tzirüstele Atülāja?' Until then he never once spoke anything other then Equestrian except a few words to Zecora in her native tongue. He also directed me to the catacombs and clearly he wanted me to find something here... I wonder...

"Tzirüstele Atülāja...?"

That must have been the 'name' needed as the ground rumbled a bit and then the wall with the Element engraving slide into the ground.

"But, wuh?" Rainbow Dash sputtered out her jaw dropped. "You just spoke gibberish and now it opens?! What kind of idiot makes a puzzle like that!?"

I shrugged I had no idea either why it opened now either. H.K. was quite vague as it was and I never heard anything like 'Tzirüstele Atülāja' before. Whatever language it was was not know to me and I heard a quite a few different languages during my time in Canterlot.

"Oh great, we went through all this trouble for a book?" Rainbow commented as we walked into the small chamber which only contains a nondescript pedestal with a book upon it.

I growled in frustration. Normally I would get after her for that but I think she it was just her being disappoint that it wasn't something more along the lines of an artifact a la Daring Do. I don't think she realizes that good spellbook could be just as valuable as an enchanted 'bobble.' I held a hoof up to make sure that no pony got too close. I alone approached the pedestal readying a shield. Just because we got this far doesn't mean that there wasn't something at the end.

I turned green when I got closer and realized that it wasn't bound with faux leather but real leather. Please let it not be pony. Unfortunately, and maybe thankfully, I couldn't tell for sure. I looked around the pedestal and couldn't detect any traps or other mechanisms. The hidden location, the puzzled door, and the leather biding, the protections for this particular book was exceptionally fiendish. I just hope that this was worth it. We desperately need something that could help us with Discord or the dragons, or both. H.K. may have faith in Discord but I don't.

I carefully touched the book and quickly withdrew it. Yep, I saw right, it was real leather, but more importunately nothing seemed to have happened. I slowly reached out again and opened the book. Once again nothing. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I approached a bit closer to see what the book contained.

At first it seemed to just be a journal filled with various notes on a wide variety of subjects, which in of its self was interesting, it was the hoof writing that caught my attention the most. A hoof writing that I knew more than Spike's or Princess Celestia's! This was.... this was...

"Great, Twilight's eggheading out again..."

I blushed at Rainbow Dash's remark. I must have zoned out again. "Sorry about that, but this journal contains notes from Starswirl the Bearded, one of the greatest spell inventors of all time! If there was a pony that ever lived that could help us now it will be him!"

Now, I just need to figure what in here H.K wanted me to see. For that matter, why a bound journal filled with notes from Starswirl? Starswirl did explore a bit when he was young discovering many magical artifacts... Could there be something that Starswirl found that he only wrote about in here? It was possible, a lot was lost in the years during Discord reign over Equestria...

Author's Note:

3 negs in a row? Come on!