• Published 28th Nov 2012
  • 25,181 Views, 749 Comments

Those Who Came Before - Biker_Dash



A mysterious metal object is found in the caverns beneath Canterlot, and it wasn't made by ponies.

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Arrival

Author's Note:

So everyone knows, this story, originally started by The Sentient Cloud, has been passed on to me for continuation. Due to his need to focus on a project that has deep importance to him, and I hope to be able to hold the results in my hand someday, he has decided to retire from writing pony fanfictions.

Yes, there is a year long space between each update so far, but rest assured, I will be uploading and publishing new chapters much more frequently, and I have high hopes for this.

“Oh my!” Rarity sipped at her teacup delicately, the towering and top-heavy mass of stitched fabric on top of her head bobbing energetically with every small movement. “I haven’t been to Canterlot since the wedding. I have so much to do!”

Twilight looked up from her papers briefly to glance at the white mare, before casting her eyes around the carriage to see if any of their friends would acknowledge the statement.

Applejack and Fluttershy, who were both sitting directly opposite to the fashionista’s position in the middle-most seat of the right aisle, refrained from speaking. Neither of them were looking at Rarity, although Applejack's mouth had turned down at the corners. Her frowning during a train-ride wasn't entirely out of the ordinary, but the timing couldn't be a coincidence. Fluttershy, on the other hand, was simply staring out the window wistfully, her eyes looking notably distant.

Rainbow Dash had also left Rarity's statement unacknowledged, although that may have been because she was simply too engrossed in the book resting on the seat beside her. The cerulean mare was sitting at the very front of the carriage with what was most likely a Daring Do novel, reading it aloud to herself, as usual. Even Pinkie had nothing to add to Rarity's comment as she continued to bounce lengths of the carriage, muttering ceaselessly to herself about trains, which was nothing out of the ordinary for the pink mare.

After a further pause, Twilight gave a little shrug and turned her head back down to her many papers on Pre-Equestrian culture. Everypony's manners normally took a hit on these unplanned trips, so one of Rarity's comments being ignored wasn't surprising in the least.

Unfazed by the lack of a response, Rarity lowered her teacup onto her armrest and attempted to continue her trail of thought. “Maybe I’ll have time to attend Fancy Pants' fundraiser once I've finished picking up supplies. I've got so many orders to fill, and having to drop everything like this has truly thrown me for a loop.” She gave a loud sigh before daintily picking up one of the multiple half-formed dresses resting on the seat beside her and beginning to slowly stitch the many fabric pleats it comprised together. “This has all got me feeling so very frazzled and irrita- Rainbow Dash, would you please stop that?”

The mare in question looked up from her book, breaking off mid-sentence as her reading was interrupted. “Huh? Stop what?” A confused frown flashed across her face.

“Reading aloud, dearie. It’s very distracting,” Rarity smiled sweetly as she chastised the pegasus in an uncharacteristically blunt manner. “I can barely hear myself think.”

“But we all can,” Applejack muttered to Fluttershy, who shrank into her seat slightly, not wanting to partake in any criticism of their friends.

Rainbow Dash’s look of confusion deepened considerably, morphing into an irritated half-scowl. It was unlike Rarity to be so undiplomatic in her criticism. “It’s just how I read,” she replied with an edge to her voice, adjusting her sitting position into one that struck Twilight as being rather aggressive. “Not like I can help it.”

“Oh, I understand,” said Rarity, her smile not faltering. “But surely you can read your book a little more softly, and give us all a little peace and quiet.” She blinked twice, either oblivious or indifferent to Rainbow Dash’s mounting frustration.

Twilight gaze flicked down at her own books before she brought her eyes back up to continue watching the exchange, sharing a glance with Fluttershy in the process as Rarity’s request took on a more brash tone. Was the white unicorn really unaware of what she was doing? Anypony else could usually tell when they were irritating Rainbow Dash. After all, it wasn’t as if the pegasus was subtle with her emotions.

This always happened on these short-notice trips, and normally in exactly the same manner. Having to drop all of their plans for the next week and catch the first available train to Canterlot never failed to put everypony on edge. Rarity was normally the worst hit, due to all the dress orders she had to either put on hold or bring with her, as she had been forced to do now.

Everything considered, Twilight couldn’t blame the white unicorn. Rainbow Dash’s reading habits were more than a little distracting, and when they were experienced in an area as cramped as a train cabin it was more than a little obnoxious.

“It’s just how I read, Rarity.” The harsh tone to Rainbow Dash’s repetition did a good job at grating on the ears of all those present, Rarity included. “I always-”

“I love trains!” Pinkie suddenly interrupted the brewing argument as she leaped into Rarity’s seat, shoving her face up close to the fashionista’s. “And when I say ‘love’, I mean that I really-really love trains! Like, really-really-really!”

“Uhh...” Rarity blinked in surprise, crossing her eyes in order to keep Pinkie in-focus as Rainbow Dash let out a little snigger at her discomfort. “...Yes Pinkie. You like trains.” She moved one hoof forward and gently pushed the mare's head back to a comfortable distance.

“Nooo…” The pink party-pony cocked her head to one side. “I love trains! I really-really-really love trains!” she took a few steps back. “In fact, now that I think about it…”

“Oh no,” Twilight mumbled weakly, her lower eyelids coming up in apprehension of the spectacle that the energetic earth-pony was about to deliver.

And yet, contrary to her expectations, Pinkie suddenly raised one hoof to stare at it intently. “I really-really-really-really… wait, I really-really-really-really-really…” Pinkie frowned as she thought over the lyrics that she’d almost belted out to her friends, drawing suppressed groans from both Rainbow Dash and Applejack. They’d been on the train for over an hour already, and both were starting to get stir-crazy.

“Uh, how many beats… wait – no…” Pinkie continued to mutter incessantly to herself as she quickly trotted to the end of the carriage and slid the door at the end of the carriage with her forelegs. “Just a second everypony. I need to get this right! I really-really-really-”

Pinkie's words were cut off as the door slid shut behind her, allowing the remaining five ponies to return to their activities. Twilight was simply happy that Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s mounting argument had been forgotten. After watching the door for a few seconds, a relieved Twilight returned to her books, only to be interrupted once more, this time by Rainbow Dash.

“So what are we doing, again?” The cerulean mare leaned back in her seat, closing and dropping her book into the vacant spot next to her, revealing it to indeed be the new Daring Do novel that had arrived at the library yesterday. “I kinda zoned out when Twilight was telling us all the boring stuff.”

“Really, Rainbow?” Applejack asked wearily. “Ya need t’ pay more attention.” She shook her head at the Pegasus the earth pony, before promptly returning to staring grimly out the window.

Rainbow Dash shot Applejack a dirty look, which the mare thankfully was unable to see with her eyes directed out the window. “Yeah. Really.” She poked at the book in front of her with one hoof. “Oh, and I was reading. Maybe you should try it.”

“Calm down girls,” Twilight interrupted before either mare could escalate the dispute further. “Okay Rainbow, what do you remember.”

“Uh… You…” Rainbow Dash put one hoof to her chin and pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Uhh… you got a letter, from the Princess.”

Twilight nodded, looking at Rainbow Dash expectantly for a whole five seconds before she realized that was all the cerulean Pegasus had to say. “Really?” She sighed quietly, and Rainbow Dash shrugged, before once again poking her book.

“I told you, I zoned out for the boring stuff... and, you know. Daring Do,” the mare chuckled ever so slightly as a hint of a sheepish smile found its way onto her face.

“Right.” Twilight sighed again, not knowing why she’d expected any more than that. “Okay. Well, I got a letter from Princess Celestia saying that they’d uncovered a strange metal object in the caverns underneath Canterlot. They were going to take it up to the palace for study, and she wanted me to come and help in the analysis.”

Rainbow Dash frowned in confusion, before turning her short attention span back to Twilight. “Wait, why does the Princess need you for that?”

“Well, because I like these sorts of things, and Celestia knows that.” Twilight smiled slightly. “But more importantly, because It's something new and exciting! I mean, we have no idea what it is, or when it’s from.” The lavender unicorn's smile widened, showing her happiness that somepony was actually asking her to explain something to them. “It could be something crafted by ponies in the time before the Equestrian Government was formed. There’s so much we could learn from it, and the Princess wants me there to help.”

“Sounds like it’s just some piece of metal,” Rainbow Dash suggested, shrugging as she lifted the Daring Do novel on her forelegs, flipping it open with the tips of her wings. “I mean, what’s it going to tell you that you don’t already know?”

“Oh-no.” Twilight wagged her right hoof at Rainbow Dash. “The Pre-Equestrian period of pony history is one of the worst documented sections of time we have! Most records were either destroyed in or lost because of, the Wendigo Blizzards, so we know next to nothing about the details of the time.”

“Uh-huh.” Rainbow Dash’s deadpan expression couldn’t make it any clearer that she’d lost all interest in the subject. Twilight, however, was already far too engrossed in her thoughts to notice.

“A careful analysis could reveal so much about pony culture at the time. Even the beginning of Equestria is badly documented, because everypony was too busy cleaning up after the Windegos; which is why we wrap up winter every year, by the way. The festival celebrates the day that the unified pony species completed their clearing away of the snow and were able to begin their society anew, but I digress.” Twilight stood up as she finished her tangent, and began pacing back and forth across the aisle of the carriage as she continued. “Just think about all this could do for pony kind! All of the fine details we could learn, like the metal-smithing techniques of the time, or the quality of the metal ore then compared to now!” She was practically bubbling with excitement, having energized herself with her own words. “There’s just so much to learn! Isn’t this exciting?!”

“Yeah. real exciting,” Rainbow Dash drawled, her voice so heavily layered with sarcasm that Twilight finally noticed, despite how engrossed she was in her thoughts.

“Huh?” Twilight looked up at the cerulean Pegasus, immediately taking in her resigned expression. A quick glance around the carriage confirmed that the three other mares were in a similar disposition, with each one of them staring blankly out of the windows. “Oh… sorry,” Twilight blushed, lowering her head in embarrassment as she returned to her seat. None of the others’ expressions changed, as they had most likely already tuned her out before she had apologized. Twilight stared at her friends’ stony expressions as Rainbow Dash attempted to find her page again. They normally weren't like this, and her babbling certainly wasn't helping the ‘situation’, if it could be called that. She sighed as she herself turned to staring out the window, which only served to treat her with a view of the mountainside passing by. The others may not agree, but for Twilight this discovery was one of the most exciting things she could think of, which was saying something.

Twilight had received some intriguing letters during her time in Ponyville, from the unexpected announcement of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s engagement to what she could only hope was a drunken letter from Princess Celestia herself which had simply read ‘I regret nothing. Those orphans had it coming’, but this was by far one of the most interesting. A metal object in the Canterlot Caverns… What stories could it tell? When was it from? Who made it? Why was it down in the caverns in the first place? If it was a part of some sort of archaic mining machine, then it could shed all sorts of light on so many different topics.

Twilight sighed again. They must be getting close to Canterlot by now. No more than five minutes away, for sure. If she hadn't been distracted by Rainbow Dash and Rarity, then she wouldn’t have lost track of time.

With that in mind the lavender mare started gathering up her different books and papers, organizing them neatly before placing them in her saddlebags. She couldn’t wait to get to the palace and start analyzing whatever the object was. What was even better was that she'd undoubtedly be working with some of the most brilliant minds Equestria had to offer.

Twilight wasn’t actually sure why Celestia had asked for all six of them to come along. It was most likely that she wanted the Elements of Harmony close in case the object turned out to be dangerous – but that would only be short term protection, as Everypony else had responsibilities that they’d needed to return to after a short while. The only reason Twilight could stay more than a few days was because Spike had remained in Ponyville to take care of Golden Oaks Library for her. If the object turned out to be a threat they had better hope its dangers were discovered before the others left Canterlot, otherwise Equestria would have a serious problem on its hooves.

Twilight looked up as she was suddenly pulled from her thoughts by a loud crash, signifying Pinkie’s return from her lyric-brainstorming.

“Done!” the party pony standing in the doorway reared up proudly on her hind legs, a happy grin plastered across her face. Pinkie dropped back onto all-fours, giving a little giggle as she trotted into the carriage proper and beamed happily at her friends. “That was fun! Now I’ve got my train song ready for the trip home!”

“How wonderful, dear.” Rarity took another sip from her cup, drawing a second giggle from the party-pony as her freakishly large hat bobbed comically with the tiny movement.

Twilight observed the scene for a few more seconds, before continuing the task of packing away her various scrolls and books. There wasn’t much in them that she didn’t already know, but it never hurt to revise before getting to work, especially on something as important and intriguing as this. The books splayed out in front of her covered everything from archaic pony metalworking techniques to the papers on the original excavation of the Canterlot caverns and the reasons why it left so many gems behind. Having them all out at once created a huge mess, but allowed for Twilight to quickly switch between different articles as she tried to absorb as much information as possible.

There was so much to do, and so much to think about. Aside from studying the object, Twilight would also need to take some time to catch up with Shining Armor and Cadance. She hadn’t seen either since the wedding, although she’d heard that the honeymoon had been greatly enjoyed by both.

“Hey look! We’re here,” Pinkie suddenly spoke up, drawing the attention of the other five.

True to the pink mare’s word, the blank wall of the mountain on the right side of the train had given way to a view of the fields outside Canterlot. Twilight had never liked these fields, as they were mostly used for erecting one-time structures for elite parties, or special attractions for the Summer Sun Celebration. Aside from the fact that it was ridiculous for a city like Canterlot, which relied on imported goods to maintain its lifestyle, to just leave so much space unused, Twilight’s own problem was with how the fields only ever served as nothing more than a mingling-ground for the most snobbish ponies Canterlot had to offer. Princess Celestia had once convinced her to attend the Annual Canterlot Fair, which had resulted in her being mobbed by dozens of ponies looking to gain favor with the Princess’s protégée. Not fun.

“Finally!” Rainbow Dash stood up, lifting her book on one wing and tossing it to Twilight, who deftly caught it in her magical field. “I thought we’d never get here!”

“Here-here,” Applejack agreed, leaping to her feet. “Ah need to stretch my legs.”

“Here-here-here!” Pinkie exclaimed enthusiastically, drawing questioning looks from both Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The latter mare opened her mouth to speak, but then apparently decided against it.

With nothing better to do, the six ponies stared out the windows as the train slowed down to an easy pace, crossing the bridge into the city itself.

Twilight stowed Rainbow Dash’s book away and lifted the saddlebags onto her back as the train's speed decreased even further, and the view of the city outside changed once more, this time into the platform of Canterlot Station. With a little sigh, she connected the clasp on the bags and turned towards the others as the train ground to a halt. “Alright then. Everypony ready?”

The assembled mares each nodded in turn, responding with a chorus of affirmatives.

Twilight acknowledged them with a nod of her own, before trotting past the assembly to the exit door. “Okay. Let's go.”

The lavender mare blinked twice as she emerged onto the sun-lit platform. It wasn’t that much brighter than the inside of the train, but it was enough to surprise her nonetheless. The station was a hive of activity, filled with countless ponies milling around the multiple platforms as they waited for their trains, and the noise wasn't anything to scoff at either. With so many ponies all conversing at once, the air was constantly filled with an oppressive white noise that was frequently augmented by stray words from the nearest discussions.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy shrank back behind Rarity at the sight of all the ponies as the unicorn in question fanned her face with one hoof.

“Oh, there's so many ponies!” the white mare gushed. “And I'm already frazzled enough as it is. I'm just so overworked, I must be an absolute pain to be around.”

“Naw, it's fine sugarcube,” Applejack replied, if a little half-heartedly, which seemed to be satisfactory enough for an apparently reassured Rarity.

Twilight watched their exchange for a moment, before turning to scan the station. “This place looks packed. It's going to be hard to get-”

“Twily!” a male voice rang out across the station, cutting through the general babble of the ponies waiting to board and catching Twilight’s attention.

She smiled widely as Shining Armor and two guardponies approached briskly, blazing a path through the crowd towards them. “Shining!” Twilight stepped forward, giving a little giggle as her brother enveloped her in a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m your guide,” the white stallion grinned as they broke the embrace. “Princess Celestia sent me.”

“Why?” Twilight raised an eyebrow as her friends grouped behind her. “We don’t need a guide to the palace.”

“It’s not to the palace.” Shining turned and gestured to the two other guards with his hoof, who broke off and started to return the way they had come, keeping the corridor through the waiting ponies open. “Come on. I’ll explain on the way.”

“Sure!” Twilight fell into step with her brother as he started to walk away. “But first; How was the honeymoon?”

“Fun, but short,” Shining sighed happily as the crowd began to close up behind them, blocking the view of the train. “Those Istalian ponies really like their wine.”

“I heard. So where are we going? Down to the caverns?” For some odd reason, that prospect didn't bother Twilight, despite the circumstances of her last visit to the caves beneath Canterlot.

“Yeah.” Shining nodded as the crowd around them slowly began to thin out. “They uncovered more of the thing over night, but haven't been able to actually get it all out of the rock. I haven’t seen it, but the guards that have had shifts on-site say it’s big. Way too big to bring up to the palace.”

“Really?” Twilight exclaimed loudly, drawing surprised and irritated glances from multiple members of the crowd. “That’s great! It must be something really interesting!”

“I wouldn’t know.” Shining ducked his head slightly, which was the closest he could get to a shrug while walking. “I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with it though. Certainly sounds… interesting.”

“I bet we’ll learn so much about the ponies that made it!” Twilight bubbled with excitement, managing to control the volume of her voice this time. “This is so exciting!”

Her brother had nothing to add, leaving Twilight to silently muse at what the strange metal object could be.

“Well, as I understand it, our mystery object hasn’t even been properly unearthed yet,” Rarity spoke up as they cleared the mass of waiting ponies entirely and emerged onto the street, taking advantage of the momentary silence. “So unless there are any objections, I believe that I will be on my way. I have quite a few supplies to collect.”

“Uh... sure.” Twilight turned her head to smile sweetly at the fashionista, despite how much she would have preferred it if the white unicorn was coming with them. “Have fun, Rarity.”

“I’m positive that I will.” Rarity returned the sweet smile as she broke away, heading up the street. “And you enjoy your trip to the caverns. Ta-ta, darlings!”

Twilight nodded, watching as her friend trotted away. It would have been nice if Rarity was coming with them, but Twilight could appreciate her wanting to get a few things done instead of standing around and waiting for the object to be completely unearthed. At least she’d still be nearby if anything went wrong.

“I don't really think that she should... uh...” Shining paused for a moment as Rarity departed, before suddenly turning to one of the two cream-colored guardponies accompanying them. “Sun Blast, she'll need a guide to the entrance when she's done.”

“Yes sir,” the stoic unicorn nodded briskly, before promptly taking off at a canter to catch up with his charge.

Twilight paused briefly to watch the two unicorns depart as her brother began to move up the street once more, before quickly moving back up to walk beside Shining Armor. “So wh-”

“So where are we headed?” Rainbow Dash interrupted her, posing the exact same question that Twilight had been forming. “How far is it? Can I stretch my wings first?” The mare flared her wings as she stepped in front of Shining, bringing the procession to a halt again.

“Uh, it isn’t that far,” Shining replied awkwardly, clearly unsure of how he should address the cerulean pegasus. “The entry’s been set up in a building near the city walls, so I suppose you have time-”

“Cool,” Rainbow Dash blurted out, cutting him off. “Seeya soon.” Without waiting for any form of reply, she gave one powerful flap of her wings and took off, quickly shrinking to a little pony-shaped smudge of slightly off-hue blue against the sky.

“Huh. She really likes flying,” Shining commented, craning his neck to get a better look as Rainbow Dash began a series of over-complicated and flashy aerial manoeuvres.

“Yeah.” Twilight tapped her hoof impatiently as Pinkie and Fluttershy started letting out little cooing noises at Rainbow Dash’s acrobatics. She was eager to get going, and the pegasus’ showing-off was doing nothing but holding them up. “So are we gonna get moving or not? I want to see this thing!”

“Oh right!” Shining’s head came back down as he suddenly broke into a trot. “Yeah, we need to get going. Princess Celestia’s expecting you.

Twilight smiled as her and the others also set out at the same pace. The faster they moved, the better.

ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ

Shining came to a halt as the rest of the procession filed into the narrow atrium. “And this is where I stop. I've got a lot of my other duties to take care of, so I can’t come with you.”

“Really?” Twilight pouted, taking care to exaggerate the curl in her bottom lip.

“Don’t worry, kiddo.” Shining reached up one hoof to slightly ruffle his sister’s hair; an action that could have very well given Rarity an aneurysm, had she been present. “I’ve got the afternoon off, so maybe me and Cadance can come down and see what all the fuss’s about.”

“Sounds like fun.” Twilight dropped the pout, once again reminded that she had not yet reached her destination. “Don’t forget, B.B.B.F.F.”

“I won’t, L.S.B.F.F.” Shining Armor smiled weakly as Twilight chuckled, once again reminded that her brother had gotten the short-straw on their acronyms. “Seeya later, sis.”

“Bye!” Twilight waved enthusiastically as the stallion departed, leaving the remaining guard to take up a position against the wall. She smiled brightly at her friends, before taking some time to look around the atrium. What had previously been a splendidly decorated hall of some sort was now coated in dust and littered with construction debris and mining supplies. One corner was stacked to the ceiling with crates, while another was flooded with hard-hats and pick-axes. There were wood and rock scraps littering most of the floor, due to the fact that a large hole had been torn through the floor, as well as the rock underneath it, at the far end of the building to form a slanted tunnel down into the mountain beneath it.

Twilight grimaced, realizing that she was now glad Rarity wasn’t present. If the fashionista had even caught a glimpse of the dust and dirt in the building, she would have flown into a rage.

“It’s… uh… really dirty…” Fluttershy spoke quietly, glancing at the three guards stationed in the room to make sure that she hadn’t somehow offended them through association.

“No kidding! This place looks wrecked, like someone attacked it with a dragon,” Rainbow Dash complained loudly, despite the fact that she produced an arguably worse effect every time she visited Golden Oaks Library.

“Somepony needs t’ go through here with a broom,” Applejack agreed. “What’s so darn interesting about this metal thing tha’ they can’ even stop and call fer a janitor?”

“We’ll find out soon,” Twilight replied with energy that could match Pinkie Pie – who was in the process of doing a bounce-lap around Fluttershy and Applejack. “Come on. I can’t wait any longer!”

Without waiting for a response, due to the fact it would most likely have only been another chorus of affirmative answers, Twilight set off at a canter once more, humming merrily as she closed the distance to the hole in the floor. Entering the hole, she cantered right past a thin looking unicorn stallion, who barely had time to blurt out a surprised, “They're expecting you,” as she passed. Twilight wasn't troubled in the slightest. She just wanted to get down into the caverns.

The first thing she noticed about the tunnel was how 'sharp' the rock looked. It had been mined out quickly and without much planning, as was evidenced by how some parts of the walls had been mined too deeply, while others had not been mined quite enough, which produced a very oddly shaped tunnel, rather than the standard ‘cleanness’ that a proper mine would have to the walls of its innards. Despite the crooked shaping of the walls, the passage was brightly lit by hanging floodlight every five yards, which served to dispel the claustrophobia of the thousands of tonnes of rock bearing down on the tunnel’s wooden supports. The tunnel carried straight for the first twenty yards, before taking a sharp right and slightly increasing its angle of descent. It carried on like this for a good fifty yards or so, before dropping down to a much softer incline, with the walls losing their sharp fresh-cut edges for smooth time-worn curves. This only served to excite Twilight further, as she realized that she had reached the upper tunnels of the Canterlot caverns.

She could hear her friends following behind at the same pace, the clumped sounds of their hooffalls completely out of time with each other. The sound would have been maddening if Twilight herself had not been contributing to the ruckus and using it to reassure her that the others were still following.

After another two-dozen or so yards, the passageway started to get even wider, expanding from twelve feet across to a good eighteen as it led up to a point where the walls stopped, almost definitely opening out onto a large cavern.

With a little, and unmerited, cry of victory, Twilight leaped through the opening and into the light provided by an overhead floodlight set into the rock above the gap. She found herself on a short rock shelf, which had been extended by a large wooden platform jutting out in front of it. After a brief pause for breath, Twilight trotted onto the platform, which was littered with multiple crates, boxes, and a few tired-looking earth ponies, to take a look out at the cavern.

The resulting image was nothing short of spectacular, boasting a breathtaking view of the cavern floor a good seventy feet below. From what she could tell, the ground was littered with even more crates, along with excavation machinery and even more floodlights. On Twilight’s left was a ramp to the floor which sloped halfway around the cavern on its descent to the bottom, hugging the wall tightly and yet still maintaining at least nine feet of width. So far as Twilight had noticed, not a single point in the tunnel or the ramp had been thinner than that, which meant the work crews must have brought down some heavy machinery. One part of the vista drew her attention almost immediately. A large chunk of rock at the base of the far cavern wall had been relocated across the cavern and reshaped into a pile of rubble, revealing a large strip of metal embedded in the stone. Twilight couldn’t get a proper look at such a long distance, but the already uncovered section appeared to be quite large, and it looked like there was still more underneath the rock cladding. Dragging her attention away from the captivating length of metal, Twilight took a few seconds to search the bottom of the cavern, managing to locate the imposing figure of Princess Celestia – whom she couldn’t wait to speak with – talking with a pair of unicorns.

“Twilight!” Applejack called as the four other mares arrived at the cave mouth. “Slow down there, sugar-cube. What’s the rush?”

“The rush?” Twilight exclaimed incredulously, turning to look at the tan farmer. “This is a new discovery! I can’t just stand around and gawk at it! Things need to get done!”

“Calm down, Twi.” Rainbow Dash’s face was apprehensive, clearly showing her concern at Twilight's evident obsession. “You’re starting to act like Pinkie when she’s had coffee.”

“Did somepony say ‘coffee’?” Pinkie, who had been busy ogling the scenic view from the edge of the platform, perked up.

“Nope,” The cerulean pegasus replied quickly, drawing an immediate 'Awww' of disappointment from Pinkie. “Twilight, can we just hurry up and get down there?”

“Done!” Twilight cried happily, needing no further prodding to get moving. Her horn lit up immediately, glowing and crackling as she charged it for a magic-heavy spell.

“Now hol-” Applejack raised a hoof in objection, but was cut off as the five mares disappeared in a flash of purple light and reappeared at the bottom of the cavern with a loud ‘crack’, the sound subtly augmented by a quiet ‘eep!’ from Fluttershy. The farm-pony fell silent for a second and looked around in confusion, before turning back to Twilight and pointing her hoof at her accusingly. “Consarn it Twilight! Why don’t ya ever ask before ya do stuff like that?”

“Sorry Applejack!” Twilight called insincerely, already galloping across the uneven surface of the cavern floor towards Celestia, who had turned to greet the incoming ballistic missile that was her student. “Princess Celestia!”

“Twilight!” Celestia greeted the lavender mare warmly as she practically skidded to a stop. Her voice was tainted with fatigue and a small amount of frustration, which would have caught Twilight's attention had she not been so overexcited. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“So am I! This is going to be amazing!” the words spilled out of Twilight’s mouth rapidly, mashed so closely together that they sounded like one long stream of garbled Equestrian.

“Indeed it is, my faithful student.” Celestia smiled softly, keeping her composure despite the noticeable bags under her eyes. “The excavation crews have been working non-stop since yesterday morning to have the site in order and get the object uncovered.”

“Really?” Twilight grinned. “Wow! Just how big is it?”

“We don’t know,” Celestia replied, turning to look in the general direction of the topic of their discussion, which was hidden from view by one of the larger rises in the floor of the cavern. “But we’ve already shifted dozens of tons of rock.” Her gaze shifted to the pile of rubble and boulders. “Luna seems to be getting some entertainment out of it.”

Confused, Twilight glanced at her teacher, who only nodded at the rubble pile. Following Celestia’s gesture, Twilight turned to look at the rock pile, and was treated to the sight of multiple earth ponies slowly but diligently breaking the bigger rocks apart by pummeling them with jackhammers. One of the ponies, however, was not working quite so seriously. Princess Luna was leaning on her own jackhammer, not applying any downward pressure and instead allowing the chisel-head to simply bounce and skip across the surface of the boulder, which in turn made Luna herself bounce up and down rapidly in an extremely comical fashion.

“They’re breaking up the boulders, to see if there’s any other objects inside them,” Celestia spoke conversationally, despite the tired lines under her eyes, while she watched her sister play with a piece construction machinery as if it were a toy. “Nothing so far, but it never hurts to check.”

“Is that safe?” Twilight asked, watching the Princess of the Night, who was clearly enjoying herself.

“I doubt it.” Celestia’s deadpan voice clearly conveyed that she had already argued with Luna about her reckless conduct on the dig-site. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who won.

As if sensing their attention, Luna looked up from her ‘work’ and grinned broadly at the two, lifting one foreleg from the handle of the Jackhammer and waving it energetically. “Sister! We very much enjoy this game!”

Celestia let out a weary sigh at her sister's immaturity. “A thousand years of isolation can cause quite a bit of regression. Never again.”

“She’s going to hurt somepony, your highness.” One of the two unicorns Celestia had been speaking with added, his voice concerned. “Is there any way you can make her stop?”

The Princess rubbed at her temple with one hoof, before turning to Twilight. “Well, I need to go talk to Luna. In the meantime, I’m guessing that you want to see ‘it’.”

“Uh – yeah!” Twilight exclaimed jubilantly, every last one of her queries fleeing her mind as the prospect of going and seeing the enigmatic object took hold. “Yes please!”

“Go ahead then.” Celestia tilted her head towards the rise between them and the object. “I’ll be along soon, and then we can get to work.”

“Right! Thanks!” Twilight reared up on her hind legs as she turned, ready to start galloping off before Celestia stopped her.

“Oh, and Twilight?”

“Yes Princess?” Twilight dropped back to all-fours, turning her neck to look at Celestia once more.

The white alicorn smiled slightly at her pupil’s enthusiasm. “There’s some sort of machine set into the stone beside 'it'. I’m not sure what, but some of the engineers have been looking it over for the past couple of hours.”

Twilight nodded feverishly, her vast reservoirs of curiosity once again tapped. “I’ll see what they've found.”

“Thank you, my faithful student.” Celestia stood and watched as her pupil galloped away, leaving her friends to mill around awkwardly. “I’ll be along shortly.”

Twilight barely listened as she crested the rise. “Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh! I get to see it!” She came to a stop at the apex of the hill, staring down at that which she'd been unable to stop thinking about for twenty-four straight hours.

It looked stunning. The entire section of rock, and the object that it harbored, was bathed in brilliant white light from half a dozen floodlights, erasing any trace of a shadow from the area. Once she got closer, Twilight would be able to hunt down every last detail of the object's surface. The metal itself looked to be very dusty, and was colored in a mixture of silver, yellow and black. The latter two colors were prominently featured as a sequence of slanted stripes along the bottom, while the majority of the object looked to be a dull silver – although it was better defined as being grey with a slightly glossy sheen to it, which was partially masked by the coat of dust it bore. Moving closer, Twilight realized that the surface was not flat. Rather, it seemed to have two pairs of vertical grooves indented into the object's face, along with eight yellow circles arranged in two straight rows of four, each one slightly protruding out of the rest of the object. The entire uncovered section was nine feet tall, and eighteen feet long – about twelve feet of which was metal and recessed four inches further back than the remaining three feet of stone on either side of it. The stone surrounding the metal appeared to be some sort of light grey and flawless rock which reminded Twilight of the sidewalks of Canterlot.

“Wow...” Twilight muttered breathlessly as she stepped forwards, now only a few yards from the subject of her attention. “This is amazing...” The image was captivating. She'd never seen anything like this. The metalwork looked so strange, radiating an aura of sturdiness and, oddly enough, power. It certain didn't look like anything that could be created by modern ponies.

There were at least a dozen ponies gathered around the strange looking hunk. Some of them were wearing extremely out-of-place labcoats, while others were dressed in standard safety gear. A few of them called 'hello's at Twilight as she approached, all of which were ignored as she absorbed more details about the metal surface.

There was no doubt about it. This wasn't an object; it was a device – which meant it had been designed to do something. Apparently it had been built as a permanent fixture, based on the cement-like rock above and on either side of the metal section itself. Twilight finally came to a stop, staring in awe at the strange device. What was it? Why was it colored like this? Why had it been encased in stone?

“Wait a minute,” Twilight muttered, taking a step back. Suddenly intrigued, she took a second to reabsorb all the details at once; the way it was set a third of a foot into the surrounding solid-stone, the yellow studs protruding two inches from the rest of the metal, and the slanted black and yellow stripes along the bottom. If she didn't know any better, she'd say this thing looked like… “...A door?”

“You're right. It is a door,” A mare spoke beside from Twilight's left, startling her.

Ah!” Twilight took a step to her right, twisting to look at whoever had startled her. “What are yo- Wait, Lyra?”

“Yeah! Heya Twilight!” the mint green mare standing in front of her grinned widely, before pointing at the object. “Okay, so look; the metal's recessed into this cement stuff, right?”

“R-right.” Twilight followed Lyra's gesture with her eyes, feeling extremely confused. What was she doing here? She wasn't an archaeologist.

“Well there's more of the cement stuff above it as well.” Lyra raised her hoof to point just above the metal surface. “It's a door frame, and the metal in the middle's the actual door. A couple of the engineering colts are saying that there's no doubt about it.”

“So it really is a door?” Twilight inspected the shape for a few more seconds, before turning to look at Lyra. “Then what's behind it? Does anypony know?”

“No clue,” The green unicorn smirked as she turned to the left of the door, where four ponies were clustered around a particular stretch of the stone frame. “That's what we're gonna find out. Come on. You've gotta see this.”

“Wait, hold up a second.” Twilight raised a hoof. “Lyra, what are you doing here? You play the lyre.”

“Uhh...” Lyra grinned sheepishly, turning back to face Twilight. “Well, history was always a hobby of mine, and I did minor in it in college. The really-really old stuff. Pre-Equestrian. Pre-Pony as well. It's easy stuff to get into, because, you know, we don't know much about the times, so there isn't much to learn.”

“Really?” Twilight frowned. She, like everpony else in Ponyville, had heard things about some the musician's hobbies; mythical creatures and old stories for the most-part, but there'd never been anything about her being a history enthusiast.

“Yeah!” Lyra nodded vigorously. “I've written a few loose articles and stuff like that. Nothing too major, though a few professors at the University of Manehatten have taken some notice. Anyway, it turns out that most Canterlot scholars spend their time studying magic, and all the best ancient historians are in Manehattan. Apparently I’m only pony in the area with any knowledge on ancient history, and I take my hobbies way too seriously, so they called me in. It's just... well, really lucky for me that I was visiting some friends in the city, or else they probably wouldn't have bothered.” She grinned sheepishly. “But of course it’s only temporary, so I've got to make the best of this before the team from Manehattan arrives and kicks me out on my flank. If we can get this thing open and I can sneak a peek inside, then I'll call that mission accomplished!”

“Well Lyra,” Twilight gave as exaggerated an eye-roll as she could while pondering the fact that the University of Canterlot really needed to diversify its subjects. “I'd rather have you here than some Manehattan University snobs.”

“Indeed, good madam,” Lyra smirked as she adopted a stylized upper Manehattan accent for a few seconds, before promptly dropping back into her normal voice. “Now come on, you'll love this.”

“I will?” Twilight jumped forwards as Lyra turned away, moving alongside her. “Why? Is it the machine Princess Celestia mentioned?”

“It is.” Lyra led Twilight over to the segment of wall that was still captivating the attention of the four stallions. “One side, gentlecolts. Celestia's student on the scene.”

Twilight blushed slightly as three of the stallions complied with Lyra's order and moved aside to give them access. “Lyra, you don't need to do that. I know a lot of the ponies here – oh, hi Poppycock,” She directed the second part of the statement at a red unicorn with a blue mane as he passed her a bright yellow hard-hat.

“Good morning, Miss Sparkle. Can't be too careful, right?” Poppycock nodded, before taking another step back.

“Yo, Star Bright,” Lyra questioned boisterously as she reached the machine taking up what remained of the limited space in front of it. “What's happening?”

“Just... clearing out... the dust blockage...” he grey unicorn with a telescope cutie mark replied slowly, his speech staggered as he concentrated on his task. “Just a... second...”

Twilight shuffled on her hooves behind Lyra, impatiently waiting to see what this mystery machine actually was. The anticipation was maddening. “Just what is this thing?”

“Uh-uh.” Lyra held a hoof out to her side to silence the lavender mare. “No spoilers. Just hold up a second.”

“Ugh.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she donned the hard hat, taking a moment to poke her horn through the provided hole in the cover. Lyra loved her theatrics. “Fine.” She continued to fidget on the spot for another minute, watching eagerly as Lyra leaned in to examine whatever Star Bright was doing. “It looks pretty clean to me. Oh, I see.”

“Yeah...” Star Bright continued in the same faltering speech pattern. “It's... all under... the keys... nearly done.”

“What keys?” Twilight asked desperately in an exasperated voice, only to be promptly shushed by Lyra. “Ugh.”

After a further twenty seconds, Star Bright finally straightened up and shifted to the side. “There. It should work fine now.”

“Awesome.” Lyra barged forwards to occupy the newly vacated position in front of the machine. “Come look, Twilight.”

Not needing any further prompting, Twilight leaped forwards to take up the spot Lyra had just been occupying, giving her a clear view of the machine.

“Wow.”

Recessed five and a half inches into the stone was what looked like a sheet of opaque glass, measuring roughly ten inches across and seven up. The bottom surface of the recessed area was slanted diagonally, presenting its face to the two mares, and set into the face was what looked like the keyboard of a unicorn-structured typewriter. Leaning in to get a better look, Twilight realized that it didn't just look like a typewriter keyboard... it was a typewriter keyboard. The keys were laid out in the same fashion, and the the same symbols engraved into the surface. There were the ten numbers, followed by the standard top row: 'QWERTYUIOP'. “It's... it's like a typewriter,” Twilight spoke quietly, unable to keep the bafflement out of her voice.

“I know. Isn't this amazing?” Lyra turned to look at Twilight, an excited glimmer in her eye. “Whoever built this had typewriters, even though they were only made two decades ago. That means that either this entire thing's a lot younger than it looks, or we're dealing with an ancient civilization that wrote in Equestrian and invented typewriters as well!”

“Both of those seem very unlikely,” The lavender unicorn replied doubtfully.

“Hey, Time'll tell, right?” Lyra turned her attention back to the machine as Star Bright spoke up.

“The entire space was clogged with dust when I got here. We had to clean it all out, discovering that the keyboard's been engraved in Equestrian in the process, and then I went through and removed any blockages underneath the keys so that we can use them.”

“Really...” Twilight inspected the keyboard. It didn't look like a standard typewriter keyboard. The keys were all square and flat, set flush against the surface of the stone. She couldn't see any levers underneath, and some of the keys around the edges of the keyboard looked confusing – 'Ctrl', 'Fn' and 'Alt' being among them. “Do you think it works like a normal typewriter?”

“Doubt it.” Lyra shook her head. “I only recognize the letters and stuff. A lot of these other things look way different. If we're going to start anywhere, then I say we start with this.” She gestured with her horn at a circular button set apart from the rest of the keyboard, which had been labelled with the engraved words 'Computer Start'.

“A computer?” Twilight frowned, thinking of the giant monster of a machine sitting in the basement of Golden Oaks Library. “This doesn't look like any computer I've ever seen. Where's the rest of it?”

From what Twilight knew, computers were giant machines capable of very limited tasks like recording text in their tiny memory banks. If she remembered correctly, their biggest use was as parts of automated printing-presses at newspaper and book companies, where the text was entered into the machine and printed automatically, or something to that effect. What this particular computer did was still a mystery – and one that Twilight was eager to solve.

“It’s probably hidden inside the wall,” Lyra shrugged. “But this thing looks different to anything I’ve seen. So do we start it?”

“I think we should wait for the Prin-”

“Boring.” Lyra shook her head, before craning her neck forward and bringing the tip of her horn down on the small button.

“Lyra!” Twilight glared venomously at the green unicorn. “What do you think you're doing?!”

“Getting this show on the road, of course,” The mare replied with a cocky grin. “We aren't going to get anywhere if we stand around and get tied up in red tape. Oh, look.” Lyra gestured at the computer, which had started to come alive. Most of the little engraved letters on the keyboard were glowing ever so softly, with several of them flickering feebly, and several more not lit up at all. The opaque screen was also glowing softly, as if there was a very dim light set behind it.

Twilight listened attentively as her ears picked up a very faint clicking sound. It was low in tone, and was accompanied by what sounded like a low-pitched and unsteady whine. “It sounds like a machine...” she spoke slowly, gazing cautiously at the screen and keyboard in front of her. “But what’s the screen, oh!”

The device had cut off her question even as she had been phrasing it, as several lines of white text had suddenly appeared in the center of the dark screen.

Recovery Protocol M-38 in effect.
- - -
External Radiation: 1.54 Millisieverts P.A. (Acceptable)
External Temperature: 24°C. (Optimal)
External Air Pressure: 0.988 Earth Atmospheres. (Acceptable)
External Air Composition: 74.68% Nitrogen. 23.13% Oxygen. 1.34% Argon. 0.9% Carbon Dioxide. 0.07% Neon. 0.06% Helium. 0.63% Other Gases. (Acceptable)
- - -
Press any key to continue.

“Wow…” Twilight pushed slightly closer, positioning herself so that both her and Lyra were side-by-side in front of the terminal. “It’s not just glass. It’s a… a light display. Oh wow. This is amazing!” She moved her face slightly closer to stare at the text. It was clear that the words were not substantial. They weren’t made out of actual text, so much as they were compromised out of what looked to be hundreds of micro-lights, like extremely small versions of the large LED’s on her massive polygraph back in Ponyville. It was also apparent that the machine wasn't in perfect condition, as several of the tiny little lights appeared to be broken, or they simply wouldn't light up. “I’ve never, ever, seen anything like this,” Twilight spoke under her breath, awed by the technology in front of her. “Using a set of... oh wow, I think these are micro-lights. This thing uses micro-lights as a display! It’s ingenious!”

Lyra was staring at the screen with an equal amount of fascination. “A display made entirely out of lights? How much power does that use?” She paused. “Okay, this is awesome, and way beyond anything we have now. Who do you think made this?”

“I don’t know, but this is more than I ever hoped for. Imagine what we can learn from this!” Twilight glanced over her shoulder, noting that the group of ponies behind them had multiplied, with more ponies coming to stare at the strange machine as it was started up, which they couldn’t really do with Lyra and Twilight both literally filling the recessed space with their heads as they studied it. After a brief pause, she turned back to the computer and backed away a half-step. “Lyra, I think you need to move back. Nopony else can see.”

“Just a second.” Lyra’s head had dipped so that she could scrutinize the keyboard. “I’m just checking to see if there’s an ‘any’ key.”

“I doubt it.” Twilight glanced at the screen once more. “‘Any’ isn’t capitalized. I think we just need to press something.”

“I know, but better safe than sorry.” Replied the mare that just a few moments ago had started an ancient machine without knowing what it actually was. “Maybe whoever built this doesn’t use nouns and all that stuff the same way we do.”

“It doesn’t really matter right now. We shouldn’t be-”

“Nah. There’s nothing,” Lyra cut her off. “So I guess we just,” her head bobbed again as she struck the space-bar with her horn, which replaced the current message from the screen with an ellipse, “press something.”

Twilight shook her head aggressively, rather concerned by her companion’s complete disregard for the dangers the machine could pose. “Lyra, we should really be waiting for somepony better qualified for this. Neither of us has any idea what we’re doing.”

“Then we’ll be waiting all day for the Manehattan snobs,” Lyra replied curtly. “And then I’ll never get to see inside. This is way cooler, and way more exciting.” The mint-green unicorn gave a little shiver, emphasizing her point. “There’s so much to learn. This could be the greatest, or at least the most interesting, accomplishment of my life, and there’s no way I’m going to just stand around and wait for somepony else to come along and push me aside so that they can do it all themsel- oh! Look!”

Twilight turned her attention back to the display, which was displaying a new message that was nearly identical to the last.

Recovery Protocol M-38 in effect.
- - -
Interior Radiation Levels: 0.98 Millisieverts P.A. (Nominal)
Interior Temperature: 19°C. (Optimal)
Interior Air Pressure: 1.28 Earth Atmospheres. (Acceptable)
Interior Air Composition: 99.48% Argon Gas. 0.45% Carbon Dioxide Gas. 0.07% Oxygen Gas. (Warning)
- - -
Exercise caution before entering.
- - -
Press any key to continue.

“What…” Lyra peered at the screen. “Nearly all Argon? That can’t be right. I mean,” she looked up at Twilight, her eyes filled with confusion. “animals can’t breath anything but oxygen, right?”

“You’re right.” Twilight examined the screen herself, reading through the facts again. She’d never heard of ‘radiation’, but she knew of the gas that took up most of the air inside the structure. From what she understood, it was actually very rare, and it must have been extremely difficult to collect so much in one sealed space. “There’s no animal alive that can breathe Argon,” Twilight frowned thoughtfully, “but because it’s an inert gas, it can be used as a long-term preservative. Whoever built this structure must have filled it with Argon to stop decay and rusting.” Her eyes stopped to let her eyes linger over the statement 'Recovery Protocol M-38 in effect'. What was that? How did it apply to a machine?

“But why’d they do that?” Lyra frowned. “Do you think there's something in there that they’d want to preserve?”

“I don’t know.” Twilight raised a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “But this is all fascinating. I could be wrong, but I'm sure that this must fly in the face of everything we know about the Pre-Pony Era.” She looked up at the screen for a third time, once again looking at that strange readout regarding ‘radiation’. “I wonder what radia-”

“Dunno. Don’t care. Next,” Lyra cut her off, once again leaning forwards and tapping the space bar with her horn.

“Lyra!” Twilight snapped yet again, starting to get angry. “Stop that! It’s dangerous. We can’t just keep blindly hit-”

“Shh, Twilight,” The green mare, who hadn’t been listening anyway, interrupted her once more, staring at the screen. “Look. Look!”

Twilight let out a loud and irritated grunt as she turned back to the screen, which had changed its readout yet again. “You are unbelievable.”

Recovery Protocol M-38 in effect.
- - -
Begin entry procedure?

Yes/No

Both mares stared at the question sitting on the screen.

“It’s… why is it just letting us in? Where’s the security?” Lyra sounded slightly exasperated. She seemed frustrated at the unexpected attributes of the strange find and it's even stranger computer.

“I don’t know.” Twilight took another half-step back. “But I think this is where we stop.”

Lyra paused, lingering by the keyboard for a second more. “I… yeah. You’re right.” She reluctantly stepped away as well, turning to look at Twilight. “Okay. Where’s Princess Celestia?”