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1 - Taking an Assignment2,197 words
2 - Timid Steps2,028 words
3 - Younger Objections1,519 words
4 - Fellow Statesmare1,974 words
5 - Forgotten Past1,926 words
6 - Group Chat2,001 words
7 - Draconic Fury2,119 words

7 - Draconic Fury

Raven trotted through the forest. Her time with the Young Six had helped her understand the young adults, but they were not what was consuming her thoughts. What consumed her was Luna. She had known, intellectually, that Luna was an intelligent pony with a talent for seeing through to the truth. But there was a difference between knowing something and being made to feel foolish.

She felt very foolish indeed. Luna had managed to trap her in an arrangement that gave these younger ponies some say in her project.

But was it an act of malice? Raven shook her head softly. "You want this to succeed." She had to remind herself. Luna was part of the project, and seemed to be behind it. Of course she would be a part of the solution.

Her musings were interrupted by a loud crash.

Raven scrambled into action, pushing through the undergrowth with her magic and coming into a clearing with a deep hole in the ground, dirt scattered about. A dragon stood atop of it, her mouth open in an angry growl.

"Why?!" The dragon roared.

"The answer is obvious." Luna walked up beside Raven. "You've dug too deep, and I assume you've found what you were looking for."

The dragon shook her head. "No! I dug correctly. It's not here!"

Raven rubbed at her head with building confusion. "Luna, Your Highness, what is going on here?" She turned to look at her with furrowed brows.

"Ah, yes, your preparations did not quite involve Raven." Luna's voice became distant as she mused. "Raven, this is Scoria, a good friend of mine, and apparently some sort of digger today."

Scoria glared at Luna. "Only because you told me to dig." The dragon shook herself off as she climbed free of the pit. "And it's not even here! You said you knew where it was."

"It is here." Luna waved a hoof out across the clearing. "The only question is how to reach it." She took a look around. "We're very close to it, in a spot that we knew very little about."

Scoria put her palm to her face. "You're kidding me." She turned her attention on Raven. "Maybe you can talk sense into her. She can't just mean 'somewhere around here.'"

Raven smirked faintly. "Unfortunately, that may well be exactly what she means. Luna has her ways. If I may ask, what is it you're looking for so eagerly?"

"A scroll," Scoria declared. "One that doesn't belong buried in a ditch!"

Luna put a hoof up to her chin. "That's not incorrect."

"A scroll?" Raven hummed softly, scanning the area. It was no great surprise that no scroll was in obvious sight. "What manner of scroll? Was it dragon in origin?"

"Nope!" Scoria grinned a toothy smile. "It was written by a pony. They called it 'The Prophecy of the Map'."

Raven frowned. "I admit my knowledge of the scriptures is weak." But she smiled just as quickly. "But if it is a scroll, of pony make, I may be able to—"

Scoria grabbed Raven with a huge smile. "You can?! Do it! Do it now!"

"Patience, new acquaintance." With firm hoof and pushing magic, she slid to the ground. "I have a spell that may assist."

She placed her ear to the ground, and began her spell. It was a simple spell, she thought, but it was immensely helpful in her work. Locating specific paperwork was of immense help. Even if the papers were organized it was often not clear where it was, and not everypony was organized.

Normally it would be a problem if she did not know the contents of the paper to locate, but she would be reasonably confident that if she found any paper–”Here!” she called out, raising her head back up, and pointing straight down.

“Good!” The teenage dragon pushed Raven aside roughly, diving at the ground with her claws first, and started digging at that area instead, tossing dirt up into the air.

As the dragon eagerly dug, Raven picked herself up off the ground and backed up, brushing off the dirt on her white coat. She wrinkled her nose. “So, what exactly is going o–” She was interrupted by a dull thunking coming from the hole.

“Found something!” Scoria’s voice came from the newly dug pit.

Luna smiled a mysterious smile. “Well, let’s not keep her waiting.” She took into the air and hopped into the pit, leaving Raven to frown. She wasn’t going into the filthy hole of mysterious danger, was she?

Hearing Luna make contact with the bottom fairly quickly, she knew the answer was yes, and Raven slid down the side of the pit into the unknown.

Which was a cave, but she had been expecting that. She lit her horn and peered around. This was not one of the areas that had been cleaned, which meant that it was relatively undisturbed by the ponies, and there was a surprising amount of dust covering all the surfaces.

Luna nodded at the unformed surroundings. "We have truly set hoof into the unknown. This predates the completion of the castle above. We could seal it away."

Scoria made a face at that. "You did not call me down here just to turn away from what you found."

“The decision hasn’t been made.” Luna turned to Raven, but only briefly. “But if it were to be made, we could make it now, before more is unearthed.”

Raven knew this was Luna prompting her to act. But… “I know next to nothing of this area, though. What is this scroll? Why is it here? How dangerous is this area.”

Luna smiled, and scanned the area. “Well, unfortunately, records about this area are fairly hard to come by. We came here because a recently discovered missive from Clover the Clever mentions that she hid this particular scroll near this area, that she knew was important to her teacher.”

“Sure, but where’s the scroll?” Scoria scoured the surroundings. “You are describing an old juicy dragon’s horde just made by someone not as cool as a dragon but nothing’s here.”

“Well, you said the scroll was straight down, right, Miss Inkwell?”

Raven nodded. “That’s right, but this chamber doesn’t appear to have it.”

“So, there must be a way down.” Luna shone her own light brightly. “Look for an exit to another chamber.”

Scoria watched as the two ponies began scouring the area, and looked straight down. “I betcha I could just…” She brandished her claws. “Keep going down.”

“No!” cried out Raven, who darted over.

“Excuse me?” Scora raised an eyebrow.

“We have no idea how stable this area is.” Raven pointed a hoof at the dragon, who, while she was not a particularly large dragon, she was realizing was still significantly larger than she was. But undaunted, she continued, “I won’t have this project jeopardized because we accidentally caused a cave in underneath the castle!”

Scoria snorted soot. “Who died and made you princess? I was asked to find the scroll, and I’m going to.”

“She is the one in charge here,” Luna’s voice rang out. “If she believes it is too dangerous to dig further, then we will find the passage.”

Scoria brought her claw back down, the edges of her lips twitching. “Fine, but don’t complain to me if we’re stuck here all day.”

The three of them did indeed succeed in finding the passage, and they began to go through a fairly winding cave, spending a while navigating the area, until the winding of the passages opened up to another larger cave. Exploring the area, there was a clear something in the center, which Scoria rushed over too. “Aww, score. There’s a chest and everything!”

It was indeed a treasure chest, although it was hardly in good shape. What was once probably a shiny bronze frame was now corroded green, and the chest itself was badly cracked and rusted, the hinges missing. It had been a long time, perhaps as long as it had been since the writing.

Raven frowned, and took a step forward. "It looks as if it could simply fall apart at any moment, and that bothers me." She curled a hoof to her chin. "Namely, I think it should have fallen apart. What is holding this together?"

Scoria rolled her eyes at the hesitation. "Who cares? Let's just grab what's inside it." She strode forward with wriggling fingers. "I'll take care of it."

Luna stepped between the dragon and the treasure chest. "Stand back. We do not know what awaits us inside."

"Aw, c'mon!" Scoria threw her hands up and stomped back a few steps.

“So, should we open it?” Luna said, lighting her horn.

“If we weren’t expecting to open it, why are we here?” Raven asked.

“Just because we’re here now doesn’t mean this is the correct or only answer.”

Raven blinked. “Fine, let’s think this through. There is a mysterious chest beneath the castle, we are probably somewhere above the original location of the tree of harmony. Inside is purported to be a scroll of… what is probable importance.” She looked over at the chest. “The fact that this has not fallen apart probably indicates the presence of magic. Magic that still exists. Can the magic be washed away in some way?”

Luna shook her head. “That is not how this works. Perhaps there may be a counter charm, but that would require access to Clover’s own notes. And there are no such counter spells in her known works. We are at one of her last unknown works.”

“That makes this a very important historical document.” Raven tapped her chin. “Can you do something to stop any dangerous kinds of traps?”

Luna nodded. “I am versed in a variety of protective magics.”

Raven nodded. “Excellent. Even if we left it here, if it had dangerous magic someone would find it sooner or later. This was also created by a good pony, and we found no warnings of dangerous Equestria threatening magics, so while there is a risk of something happening, it would probably happen sooner or later, and probably won’t curse our insides to become outsides or anything… so we should set up magic and open it up.”

Luna turned away and nodded. “That seems like a fine plan. I shall open it, and be ready for protection.

Luna approached the chest, her magic lighting up the way, and she created a dome shield around it. With her own magic she flipped it open, and light flooded out of the chest, becoming blinding in the darkness of the cavern.

Raven shielded her own eyes, flinching away. If something were to happen it would happen now, but the bright shine became a dim glow, and Luna brought up the shining object. It was a finely crafted object, to be sure, a scroll case that would be an envy of any scholar. And more importantly, it was not tarnished at all. It didn’t even appear to have dust upon it.

Scoria was the first to Luna, though. “Just look at it. It’s literally glowing. That’s the coolest hoard item that could ever exist.” She approached, her eyes glinting in the light. “Let’s open it.”

“Not yet,” Raven said, recognizing it was time for more direction. “We should wait until we’re outside. Also I must remind you this is a pony relic.”

Scoria snorted. “I know, but if I can’t have it I need to look at it.”

“Then let us go,” Luna said, lifting the Scroll case high.

As the three of them turned around, there was a small noise from behind, and Raven looked back. The treasure chest, tattered and worn after a millennium of waiting to be discovered, had fallen apart. “It’s amazing that the chest lasted this long.”

“Well, since there was no trap,” Luna mused. “Perhaps instead the magic was being used to protect the scroll, and the chest that contained it.”

“It must be..” Raven said, before there was another noise in the same area. The sound of a small pebble clattering, and a crack noise. She lit her horn brighter and leaned down. There was indeed a crack where the chest formerly was on the cave floor. Raven made a thoughtful noise, and before her eyes, the crack widened.

She stared at it a moment, gears turning in her head. A protective spell holding together the scroll and affecting the area around it. A cave she had a bad suspicion about, above other caverns in an area that was once tremendously treacherous, probably overrun once with magical roots that grew over time which are now gone…

Her eyes widened. “Oh no.”

Author's Note:

Radical did most of this one, but here we are!

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