The Mural of Ancients
Rainbow Dash flew through the rampant snow storm as quickly as her cyan wings would allow. Her eyes tried vainly to see more than a foot ahead of her as only white snow and a whiter haze was forced in front of her. All she had was the direction she was ordered to follow, discerned by a millennium old compass, an equally old map and the word of a young scholar.
This was a constant that went on for some time. It saddened the others to know that they could do little to aid their friend in their high flying travels.
With nothing else to do, the other mares and baby dragon kept their spirits warm through idle chatter. They talked of days long since past, their ideas for the future, as well as their hope that a conclusion to their adventure was fast approaching.
Too enthralled by their own playful tales and discussions, the four friends did not notice that one was absent from their inner circle of communications.
Twilight leaned against the side of the balloon basket, looking out into the thick veil of mist and snow that blocked any perceptive gazes. Occasionally her gaze drifted down toward the compass in her magical hold, making absolutely sure that Rainbow wasn't veering off course, as she sometimes did.
But the menial task as navigator did little to quell the piling anxieties that silently attacked her mind. Her own inner turmoil rampaging through her psyche on what they were approaching. Though she didn't know exactly what was coming in any physical sense, the end result was already played through her mind more times then she could count.
It was all she could do to not break down and allow her rising concerns to be known to those around her. She had made the decision to keep what she knew a secret, letting their journey take its course to the dreadfully bitter end.
But the facade of everything being picture perfect was wearing her down terribly. The tail at her backside and ears atop her head sagged down with her nonexistent enthusiasm, flowing lifelessly in the powerful winds like a flag in a stormy gale. A frown creased onto her lips and remained as her sculpted expression. Even her breathing had lost its natural rhythmic flow, coming out as irregular as a track star galloping through a mile race.
The others began to notice the differences in their intelligent friend. There was nothing that they could do however. With the unknown lost to them, their concerned questions only elicited a meaningless “everything's fine” from the unicorn. And they accepted it, having no reason to doubt her, not knowing of the truth that was withheld.
With the sky hidden away from the impenetrable layer of clouds, time lost all meaning as the rise and fall of the two great bodies that overlooked them was unable to be determined. It made the trip feel longer to some, and shorter to others. But it also made their distance traveled a mystery to them, having no idea how far or how close they were to their goal.
Their blind flight lasting so long, it soon became a shocking change as the adventurers began to notice that their sights were improving. Slowly but surely, the misty haze that impeded their view began to break. Though the powerful winds and everlasting snowfall still impeded their vision, it was wonderful change for them to finally see past their own noses.
Then, Rainbow Dash let out a gasp. The others all looked out over the edge to see what their pegasus friend had seen. There, looming over them with its enormity, was a mountain larger than any they had ever seen, putting any others to shame.
Twilight quickly scanned Typhoon's map, cross-referencing it with the most modern map she had available for the frozen wasteland. “I think the tower is supposed to be here,” Twilight shouted for all to here. The young unicorn hid away her anxieties deep within herself, forcing herself to be the composed leader that her friends needed.
Rainbow Dash headed for the rocky, snow capped slopes of the mountain, her eyes scanning every inch she could see for any sign of a structure. It soon became apparent however that coming across any form of building in such a wide area would be near impossible without some form of assistance.
“Maybe you can try that one spell you did before, Twilight,” Applejack suggested, remembering how they had located the hidden temple.
A look of dejection crossed the unicorn's face as she looked to her friends, meeting their gazes as they wondered what was wrong. “I... I don't think I can,” she said, turning away from them as she did. “The cold... it's too much, I can't concentrate on a spell.”
It was true. Even under normal circumstances, the location spell required a great deal of magic and effort from the unicorn preforming it. The overwhelming cold that constantly thrashed at her made it difficult for her to concentrate on any spell at all. And there was also the matter of the inner turmoil the mare was feeling, making it a chore just to keep her levitation spells steady.
Her friends held similar looks of sympathy among them. None of them could understand what it was like for her, none except for Rarity. Even then, the fashionista wasn't completely aware of the full scope of unicorn magic.
“It's all right, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully. “We can do this the old fashion way.” Jumping up high, the fluffy maned mare of pink landed atop of the edge of the basket, balancing effortlessly as she stood on her hind legs and pointed off toward the mountain. “Full speed ahead, Captain Dashie!”
Rainbow Dash smirked enthusiastically as her wings began to flap harder. “You got it.,” she replied, heading for the side of the titan of rock and snow.
Just feet away from the mountain's jagged cliffs and treacherous slopes, everyone kept their eyes peeled in search of anything out of the ordinary. But as Rainbow Dash continued her path around the mountainside, everything held the same bleak nothingness to it. There was no visible sign of any sort of tower, and the sheer size of the area they needed to cover was daunting.
Even Spike's own burning resolve felt a painful wavering flicker.
The young dragon looked out toward the mountain, imagining himself simply sweeping his claws across the stony surface and brush the mountain away until only their target remained. But as he gazed upon nature's greatest immovable form, he was struck with the most foreign sensation he had ever experienced.
It was the strangest feeling, Spike couldn't explain it, and yet it felt so right to him. Looking down the rocky mass, he felt a pull or natural inclination to investigate a specific spot near the base of the mountain. The young assistant didn't know exactly what it was, instinct, dragon's intuition, or just a fool's gamble. Despite all the uncertainties to what he was experiencing, he had a physical need to search that place.
“We should look down there,” Spike said, pointing a claw down to the exact spot he had locked onto.
Looks of skepticism passed between the ponies as they matched the dragon's sights to where he was pointing. Though they had their reasonable doubts, there was no ignoring the unrealistic certainty their scaled friend's voice. And it quickly became an agreed notion between them as they realized something, they had to start somewhere.
“Okay, Rainbow,” Twilight said, “take us down there.” With a firm nod, the cyan pegasus turned and sharply plunged in a downward angle, aiming for the base of the mountain and where Spike was so eager to get to.
In no time at all, they found themselves scanning the bottom of the mountainside. All they could see was large blankets of white and the occasional grey stone where gravity prevented the snow from covering it.
They searched and searched the area, but they could find nothing. No structure of any kind, no marker to point the way, no cave to hide away in. Spike's excited gaze began to droop down, his innate certainty looking like an idiotic impulse.
“Ooo, looky looky!” Pinkie Pie shouted, extending her hoof out toward a far side of the mountain. Following Pinkie's directions, the others looked at the spot to only see a large dark patch of mountain that the snow neglected to fall onto.
The others frowned at the mare's overexcited reaction. “Pinkie,” Rarity said, “that's just another wall.”
But Pinkie Pie wasn't convinced as she gave her friends astonished looks. “How do you guys not see that?” she asked firmly, extending another hoof to doubly show them.
Feeling that they wouldn't see the end of it if they didn't hear their friend out, they each cast their gazes into the dark corner. Time ticked by slowly as their fixed stares went unchanged. Then, as if by some trick of their minds, the darkness itself seemed to deepen the longer they looked into it.
Rubbing their eyes to make sure they weren't seeing things, they again looked to see that the wall wasn't a flat surface. Instead, it was an opening, a large opening that was barely recognizable among the similarly dark rock.
“Already on it,” Rainbow Dash shouted, cutting of Twilight as she opened her mouth to direct her. The pegasus' curved toward the opening and flew straight into it.
Immediately, a relieving sensation washed over them all. The harsh elements of the outside world were nonexistent within the cave. Though the air was chilly, it was immensely more acceptable without the pounding wind forever against their spines. Even the snow couldn't reach them, the rough rocky walls and roofing keeping them safe from the continuous assault of white flakes.
As they flew through the cavernous depths, the six adventurers were struck into speechlessness as they saw a towering structure looming over them.
It was a tower of stone, hiding away in a massive alcove on the far end of the cave. Even from their distance to it, they could clearly see the details made into it. The spire stretched far into the air, just as large in size as the Canterlot Castle. There seemed to be no top, instead the tower just ended as it connected to the ceiling. Large archways circled around the sides of the tower as well, looking as though they were windows though they had no glass. It's architecture was similar to that of the temple they had visited before. The structure itself even appeared as if it had been carved from the very mountain itself.
“Wow,” Rainbow Dash breathed in awe, involuntarily flying closer to the magnificent structure.
A hearty chuckled escaped Applejack. “Lucky guessin' there, Spike,” the farmpony said, rubbing the top of the dragon's head playfully. The assistant couldn't even believe it himself as he gazed upon the tower, paralyzed by its very presence.
Unbridled excitement propelled them forward as it took only moments for them to feel the hard surface of rock underneath their hooves. No time was wasted in untieing Rainbow Dash and securing the balloon in a safe position.
As everyone was eager to head inside and see what was waiting for them, they paused as Twilight looked up at the imposing building. “Well... here we go,” she murmured, her tone laced with false joy. But the others didn't notice it, too lost in their own wonder. Neither did they notice as the lavender librarian gulped forcibly, swallowing the lump in her throat. Though her friends were happily imagining what they might find inside the ancient place, she was dreading it.
But, she knew what had to be done had to be done. So, with one hoof forward, Twilight led the way through the doorless opening at the base of the tower.
A cruel sense of deja vu struck them quickly as they encountered the bare emptiness of the opening chamber. It all just seemed abandoned. Considerably large, the size only made the fact that nothing was in it all the more blatantly obvious.
“Not this again,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she floated about. “This place is just as empty as the temple.”
“Don't fret none,” Applejack said reassuringly. “Ah'm sure we will find somethin' to help keep us goin'. If that Typhoon was here, he might have left another clue for us to follow.”
Pinkie Pie nodded rapidly, wholeheartedly agreeing with her fellow earth pony. “Oh yeah! Maybe it'll be a giant sign that says 'Answers you need are here. Enjoy!' And it'll be in bright, colorful letters and spray confetti everywhere when anypony walks in.” A squeaky stream of giggles bubbled from her mouth. “I bet that's it.” There was a long, awkward pause as everyone was left to stare at the cotton candy maned pony. “What? That's what I would do.”
They continued to search through the chamber. But nothing of interest could be found. What they did find however was a large stairwell that led to the next floor of the tower.
Much like what they expected from a tower, the next chamber was equal in size compared to the width. The difference within it were the walls that criss-crossed through the chamber, separating the large room into many smaller ones. But once again, nothing could be found. Nothing of interest, not a shred of a clue, no sign of what might have happened.
It continued on like this for some time, the six friends taking their time as they scaled the tower, making sure they didn't miss a thing. All that they were greeted with was more emptiness. But not everything was seen by them. None of them noticed as their hooves echoed across the empty tower, the long scratches running across the stone floor. They also couldn't see the similarity to newly placed scratches made by their scaled companion, left as his clawed toes scrapped across the ground.
Concerned looks crossed the ponies from time to time, thoughts of their journey coming to a screeching halt swimming in their minds for moments at a time. At least the temple had signs of their ancient pegasus guide, but there was nothing within this tower.
Spike on the other hand, held no such worries in his mind. All he could feel was the bursting excitement that threatened to make him squeal in merriment. After having been through so much, he felt certain that a conclusion to their adventure was just around the corner. His heart pounded rapidly against his chest as his eager gaze darted across every room, his excitement flaring for a moment as his eyes played tricks on him and he would swear he had seen something out of the ordinary. As his bristling anticipation was becoming too much for the little dragon to bear, they came across the most unique room the tower had to offer.
After seeing the uniform design room after room, the six friends immediately became aware of the differences in the chamber.
Like the first chamber they had entered, it was just one large large room. It was just as empty as the previous ones, holding nothing but a large space. But there were several differences the room had to the others.
As their hooves brushed against the floor, they noticed how much smoother it was than before. Examining it, they realized that the stone floor that matched everything else around them was different. They were tiles, made up of a stone unlike that of the rest of the tower. And where everything else looked like one big piece, the tiles looked as though they were added in for some unknown reason.
Looking out toward the walls, the six adventurers saw that the walls were made up of large pillars. Perfectly sculpted and holding up the floors above it. Between each pillar was a glassless archway, they could look out to the caverns they had entered before, even seeing their balloon down below.
But those meager differences were nothing, quickly lost to the group of friends as their sights were snared by what the chamber truly had. At the far end of the room, a magnificent piece of art waited to be seen in the dismal place it was left.
Their eyes widened to their full size as their mouths hung open to gape at the large mural before them. Its beautiful colors and flawless condition made it a masterpiece, it looked as though it was just made the other day. But it wasn't the beauty of the mural that brought on their reactions, it was what it depicted, dragons.
Large, scaled creatures were shown in their own equal spaces. The dragons looked different when compared to ordinary ones, either through oddities in their colors or how monstrous their bodies looked with their abnormal spines and claws. Besides the dragons, the very sides of the mural had strange looking symbols etched across the edge of it all, having no discernible purpose to them.
A dark purple scaled dragon was shown in a cavern covered in sparkling gems, it's maw was opened wide as it prepared to eat a frantic sheep. One dragon lacked any sort of spines or horns, covered in white scales in a frozen wasteland, nearly blending in with the snow in the background. There was only one dragon who seemed to be given more space, and it seemed to be for it's massive size alone. No real visual depiction was shown for it. Just jagged, black scales, a razor sharp maw of fangs and eyes of the deepest crimson that seemed to stare down at the six adventurers.
As they continued to look at the dragons shown in the mural, their traveling eyes soon stopped in their tracks as they saw the very bottom. Another dragon was shown, it's eyes narrowed into a fierce glare while it's maw stretched wide to allow a violent torrent of flames to spew forth and down on top of a small village before it.
The expressions of the ponies and dragon all turned to horror as they looked at the small houses being swallowed by the flame. The scene of destruction and brutality was only worsened as they looked at the dragon more. All their eyes could look at was the dragon's back, looking for something that just wasn't there. The dragon was wingless.
“No...” Spike whispered, wanting to take his eyes from the sight but unable to do so. The others felt the same, having their gazes bolted onto the sight, breathless from their emptied lungs as their hearts sank deep from their places.
The only one who reacted less than the others was Twilight, the ancient dragon never left her gaze as she stepped closer to the piece of art. “So this is the Mural of Ancients,” she murmured.
Within a fraction of a second, five pairs of eyes were glued to the scholar, mixed expressions of shock and confusion added to the stares. Twilight gulped once again, the action not being lost on her friends as they watched her intently. Beads of sweat formed on the unicorn's brow as she felt her breathing turn rapid and the beating in her chest fluttering erratically.
“Twilight...” Spike said, eying his caretaker with a gaze filled only with a crushing sadness.
Knowing she had no choice, the lavender mare opened her saddlebag and brought out one of Typhoon's old journals. “In his last journal,” she said, gazing upon the booklet with fear and dread, “the entry we read about this tower wasn't his last... He wrote another... it was after his trip here.”
Without waiting for him to respond, Twilight levitated the journal toward Spike. Snatching it from the magical grasp, the young dragon began searching through the journal feverishly. He flipped passed the many notes the pegasus had made, he flipped passed the crude map that had led them to where they were now, he stopped on the final page he had seen. Pausing on the entry that Twilight had read to them in the hold, Spike's shaking hand slowly turned it, revealing one final entry that had been kept hidden from him.
25x17x823
How foolish I must seem.
To think, I had actually held hopes that dragons could be anything besides the primitive beasts we see today. I was right about one thing though, the tower did hold the answers I wanted.
The tower was a dark place. It reminded me much of the temple I had visited before. I'm sure that they were made by the same beings, whoever they might be. Other ponies or maybe a race we have never seen? I'm not sure. Not much was there, not much to find. I've collected a few tattered notes and old booklets, though I doubt they have any real value to them. It was that mural that told me everything.
A large mural right in the center of that tower. Though it looks like a simple piece of art at first glance, I noticed the old writing that runs at the sides of the mural. It was the same writing that's in the tome I had found at the temple, the same tome that led me to the tower in the first place. Though it was difficult to decipher it to read, I was shocked at what I found.
Called the Mural of Ancients, it shows the old dragon ancients as they were seen by whatever created these structures in the first place. They were all there, even Serilex. Apparently, this civilization fought against the dragons, trying to protect themselves as the beasts saw fit to destroy everything they had.
Serilex himself was the same as all the others to these people, saying his powerful flame made up for his lack of flight, which he used to burn away their homes and turn their lives to ash.
I'm not sure what happened to this civilization, probably eradicated by the dragons, but I really don't care. Dragons are my field, not lost cultures, I'll most likely send the information to Canterlot, see if those magic users care to look into this now that I'm done here.
Now that it's all over, I'll leave the hold and return to Cloudsdale. Will need to give my full report to the commander, I'm certain she will be as disappointed as I. Her hopes for this were just as high as my own.
My head is still reeling from coming to such an unsavory end, I could swear I can hear the powerful wing beats of one those scaled beasts right outside these stone walls.
Spike's shaking voice began to crack as he finished reading. The journal trembled in his grasp, just as his hands did. The black lettering of the entry became blurred as warm tears lined the dragon's eyes. But all he could feel was the hollow pit in his chest, where his joy and happiness once resided.
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Well, that's depressing. . .
Poor Spike. . .
1001124
20? Ha!
Try 760!
For God's sake, help me.
1266861Um spike is almost as old as twilight
So you've decided to make the Dragons into ruthless beasts something that's been overdone so many times, way to stay ORIGINAL by the by, and decided to give zero justification to them.
I'm disappointed in this. I really am.
Thanks to you, I have to go finish Skyrim with Odahviing and/or Durnehviir just to clear my mind of this.
Also, count yourself lucky the dislike button doesn't seem to be working. I know, I've tried.
1397037
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/27932517.jpg
1397083 Don't even try to call me out on that.
The difference: he makes ALL of the Dragons in his story, save for Spike, into monsters whereas in Skyrim there are SEVERAL Dragons that have helped me. And the vast majority of evil Dragons are followers of Alduin.
Unlike his story, I am far more justified in my statement.
1397179 We'll see. Story's not done yet.
1397214 I certainly hope to see something more original in this story.
In Skyrim, Odahviing even says how he and countless other Dragons have begun to question Alduin's reasoning, yet none have dared to openly defy him out of fear.
1397026
No he's not Twilight was at lest 5 when she hatched Spike and there is a difference between dragon years and pony years as well
1397355 Spike grew up around ponies though. Therefore he has the mindset of one. If Twilight is around 20 yrs old, then Spike is at least 12-15 years old.
1397507 it still doesn't change biological factors (I hate year 11 health but what you learn doesn't leave you
) just because someone is autistic and thinks there still 5 doesn't change the fact that they are 17. see biological factors vs mental factors
1397683 good point. Its all nature vs. nurture
I'm hoping serilex did a parthunax and is chill on a mountaintop somewhere
1397179
It was a joke, didn't really mean it.
1400324 I'm not too fond of people getting the wrong idea and thinking of me like some hypocrite. I apologize if I sounded angry at you, I'm just displeased.
1397037
I like to think that at some point the other is going to either have them meet Serilex or some sort of complicated descendant thing who will actually talk instead of being a mindless beast. Besides the author has been basically telling us that dragons built the temple and tower, or at least lived there.
1402544 Most dragons are evil, sorry to say but it's true.
It's sad to say, but it's true that in most stories dragons have been protrayed as evil (with few exceptions).