Far over in the continent of Zebrica, in the southern arid deserts of Anugypt, a group of field archaeologists of different stripes, colors, and species are coming over to excavate a never-before-explored site. The credit is due to some random colt throwing a rock at some obscure cave in the mountains, hearing the sound of pottery breaking down, and then discovering that the cave was more than met the eye.
Donkeys, mules, ponies, horses, zebras, and the local Anugyptians who have turned into jackals make up the team as they enter the cave, carefully going over the jars and picking up the scrolls to ascertain their contents and meanings. It is not just the scrolls that catch their attention: the designs on the jars themselves, the precious metal found in the ancient coins, handling the tools held by humans thousands of years ago….
“So this is the kind of work you really do, huh?”
Earth’s A.K. looks at Equestria’s Yearling with a nod. “Yup. When I said I was an archaeologist first and a writer second, this is what I meant. Given how the world’s changed so much, I’m just glad we can still do this like we used to. Besides, everyone’s paying more attention to it these days since we’re now stepping into a bygone era in more ways than one.”
Yearling takes her counterpart’s words into heart. Her keen eye scans the caverns of jars and carved-in shelves where more of the scrolls have lived away from human contact. “Hmm… no magic artifacts?”
“Here’s hoping there isn’t.”
Yearling reveals a little smile for her flustered friend. “Come on! There’s magic on Earth now. Back in Equestria, finding magic artifacts is like finding your house keys in the morning. It’s an everyday archaeologist thing.”
A.K. returns the smile but pays the words not much heed as she picks up a coin and dusts it gently. She puts it down on some cloth to take careful pictures of later.
“That may be an everyday thing for your kind… but I guess that’s why archaeology in Equestria isn’t much of a big deal like you said back on the way here. I say, from what I’ve read of your world, there’s already ancient relics of dark power alongside evil monsters just around the corner… and then you told me about how archaeologists need to go through boot camp just to be on the safe side.”
“And it’s just smooth sailing here,” Yearling replies. “Not that I’m saying there’s no danger to it. It’s just….”
“Normal,” says A.K. in between picking up coins, tools, and other things that have fallen on the ground and stayed there for centuries. “Mundane, even. Maybe for your pony archaeologist friends, it’s boring, but it is what it is. Plus, it was good ol’ humans who made these things in the first place… there are traps, sure, but that’s super rare. No parkour, no riddles, no mystic rings to rule kingdoms with, no self-destructing hidden Shangri-Lamb, no descendants of some Marenaissance explorer….”
Yearling follows the rambling A.K. closely, doing her bit to help by taking down the pots gently, dusting off more artifacts, and taking discreet pictures of each item uncovered while writing an exhaustive description for it. She even chips in her own ideas on what the scrolls could mean since they have turned out to be written in a rather localized ancient language that not many truly understand.
Lunch break comes and the crew come over to the mouth of the cave to eat their packed meals away from the precious but fragile scrolls.
Over hay sandwiches, A.K. looks at Yearling with a smirk as they eat at easy-to-assemble tables. “So, what do you think of how we do archaeology here? Oh, and that’s just the field work, by the way… I may not look like it, but I’m more of the office type.”
“I see.” She takes a bite of her own hay sandwich: an essential to pack in long journeys to the temples of treasure. “Well, I wouldn’t want to just say, ‘Whatever floats your boat—’”
“Oh, sure you can! Our worlds are different… in many ways, still.”
Yearling shares a chuckle with her counterpart, and with her mouth full, too, before swallowing. “To be honest with you, Daring Do’s pretty much a reflection of how we ponies do archaeology anyway.“
“As in your world is threatened by ancient evil forces every day?”
“Not exactly. If that’s the case, then Princess Twilight Sparkle and her best friends are also archaeologists just because they use the ancient Elements of Harmony.”
“… good point. Seriously, though: you’re saying that you archaeologists are a lot like action heroes, then?—saving the world and all that jazz?”
“Not to the level of Daring Do. Around ninety-five percent is an exaggeration. Still, if I told someone the tale of Daring Do without saying it’s just a story, it wouldn’t be that far-fetched.”
A.K. takes the last bite of her hay sandwich. “And you still do things like consulting archaeologists just to be sure your story is not too far-fetched?”
“Yes. I make sure to get consultations for each and every book from archaeologists, paleontologists, and even the occasional anthropologist or two.” Yearling, the adventuring archaeo-paleo-anthropologist Daring Do herself, has broken no sweat in telling this lie.
“Hmm… wait. Rainbow Dash was there in that one book and she’s no scientist in any field—“
“She taught me a lesson on not working alone,” Yearling cuts in, acting a bit too confidently for what is technically the truth. “I’ve extremely dramatized it so it fits with the story, of course, but still… she brought me through more slumps than one. I wouldn’t say she’s a close friend, but she’s the closest she can get these days.”
That raises A.K.’s suspicion. “You’ve got no best friends? In a world where friendship is literally magic?”
“Rainbow’s a loyal and dependable pony. She’s one of the few rabid fans I let into my secluded abode.”
“Heh, I can relate. And to think the Rainbow Dash here is just some student… who, okay, saved the world once or twice, but still….”
The two share a laugh over their respective Rainbow Dashes out in the middle of the desert mountains.
I do wish these were longer. Every chapter is such an enticing little snippet of my favorite subgenre of any sort of timetraveling or world-hopping story. Just getting to see characters (identical ones, at that!) talking and comparing universes hits all the high notes for me!
Sadly, looks like (Earth) Yearling will have to deal with boring old realistic archaeology. Oh, well...
Yeah, with magic a recent development, there's no way to get millennia of ancient curses, impeccably maintained temple traps, and so forth. A lot more tiny little brushes than brushes with disaster. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a lot less thrilling as novels.
Dead sea scrolls eh? that's quite a find, lucky A. K.
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Vignette Valencia also had a pretty weak reason for acting out too, to satisfy her vain desires, so at least Juniper is not alone in that.
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I just checked and, apparently, Clancy Brown is the voice of Mr. Krabs and is the actor of that gray-beard DHARMA guy from Lost.
I would like to see some nuances in the moral alignments of the counterparts here, especially the villains like Tirek. I don't know what I'd do with Chrysalis and Sombra since they are most likely in prison and may not show much potential when it comes to storytelling... though that does give me an idea....
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Well, the reason behind why they're so short is because I looked at the lengths of the Group Precipitation chapters, saw that they were very short, and saw that I could easily maintain such chapter lengths as my side project to tide me over the main stories such as the Crystal War Story and Their Darker Purpose while not bogging those main stories down too much. I also find that, in relation to readers, they're like a box of chocolates: short, sweet, but dull if not nauseating if you eat everything in a minute.
I wouldn't really call A.K.'s brand "boring old archaeology" even if it was true because I believe A.K. has a point there. Plus, A.K.'s pretty much grown up mundanely: while Yearling got her start as the adventuring archaeologist Daring Do which she then chronicles in her books, A.K. gets her start as a typical/normal archaeologist from which she gets inspiration for an actionized Daring Do book series. Maybe A.K. even added the action bit because some executive told her that reading realistic archaeology is too boring for readers to eat up.
A good point is raised with how recent magic is, something that I did not really think about consciously while writing this. Could be a new fountain of ideas and story scenarios there.
And, yes, I took heavy inspiration from the Dead Sea Scrolls for this one.