All that Glitters

by Starsong

Chapter 2

Just as the sun was beginning its slow descent into the night, a young brown buck in a proper cap and attire (and one ribboned scroll for a cutie mark) approached Dusty in the market. How he'd managed to come all that way without drooling all over the scroll was somewhat disturbing.

“Couldn't you just have used your bags?” Dusty inquired as he hefted the parchment from the messenger's mouth.

Once free, the young colt licked his lips. “Most ponies think you have somewhere important to be if you're charging about with a scroll in your mouth.”

Dusty could not help but laugh. “Fine,” he said, and pulled out a couple of bits. Much to his relief, he placed them in his bag proper. Then he pulled out another scroll and was on his way.

Ivory leaned in from her wheatgrass malt and raised an eyebrow. “He's reminds me of you.”

“How?” Dusty stared, agape. “Making a spectacle just to have my way...”

“Is it from the Princess?” Ivory managed to keep a cheerful expression.

He tugged the ribbon off with his mouth and carefully unrolled it on the table. A single brass key neatly hugged the curve beneath the script.

As per our agreement, I've enclosed the key to the Honeydew Estate, the former guild hall located in the Gate District. There you will find offered sundries and assets for your charter, including 500 bits. If any of the property is missing, please inform the palace immediately. Your first assignment will be arriving shortly.

Ivory leaned in over his shoulder the way most ponies her size could. “What do you reckon happened to the old guild?”

Leading Dusty to leer back at her. “They did not die horribly,” he insisted. “They just retired, that's all.”

“And by retired you mean gruesome fate.”

Dusty sighed and rolled up the scroll and key, tucking them away. “I don't think they would have just dissolved in that case. Word is they just... stopped about twenty years or so ago.”

Moving on never seemed to discourage Ivory from pressing the issue. “Why would an adventurer retire?” she asked.

“I try not to think about it,” he said. “But maybe... they just found what they were looking for after all that time.”

Ivory nodded. “Something to put their spirits at ease.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“The big sleep.”

“Ivory, we're not going to die...”

“Well I certainly won't.”

She kept on long enough that they passed the place at least once. It was old. Old enough to attain merit, at some point, and then old enough again to become forgotten in the backdrop of the city. Everyone was just used to it being there, another face in the towers and gilded cityscape of Canterlot. No one paid Dusty any mind as he delicately mouthed the key into the lock and gave it a twist. Old things came in two fashions, after all-- impossibly sturdy or about to break.

The lock clicked, a steadfast salute and he pushed his way inside. The princess must have had the place cleaned beforehand because it was immaculate, ancient but not dusty. Wooden floors in slats polished from a million hoofsteps and grooves in the floor that Dusty could only imagine became the favorite resting place of worn guests and stalwart adventurers.

Ivory made faster work of exploring, pacing through the back kitchenette, then upstairs. Dusty stopped over every little thing, feeling it with his hooves. The ponies that had been there before were real, full fledged adventurers.

“Well this is horseapples,” Ivory shouted from upstairs. “One bedroom! How do they expect us to get by with that? I thought this was a guild house?”

“Was.” Dusty flicked his ear towards the wall as the unicorn shuffled back downstairs. “Can't you tell from the architecture? About a fifty year difference between this wall and the rest. And, go on, listen.”

Ivory gave him a long, long look and then pressed herself against the wall. Even Dusty could hear a little bit of a din from the other side. “Voices,” she said. “And a bit of clamor.”

“We passed a cafe on the way here... the Rich family must have annexed a ton of this place. Suppose with it in disuse there wasn't much to say about it.”

“Which means we're down how many glorious private baths?” Ivory rubbed at her horn with a hoof. “Oh, it's not like we're going to be here that often anyway.”

And on proper cue, a flash of blue light came from the corner of the parlor. They scrambled over and, nexted between several stacks of books and cases, a single writing desk with a blue gem. In front of it sat a freshly written scroll.

“It's not magic, is it?” Ivory said, eyeing the device nervously.

“No, I figure you could tell if it was.” Dusty raised a hoof against it, finding it still warm. “But it's a proper conduit. Suppose this place used to be important enough to merit a permanent line with the castle.”

“Or they want to keep an eye on us.” Ivory sighed. “Go on then, open it.”

Dusty already had half the parchment in his mouth. He pulled it down with both hooves. This time inside there was a proper map of Equestria and the surrounding territories. Pretty standard stuff. But Dusty noticed a few things that weren't supposed to be there. Oddly named landmarks, like Gryphon's Teeth and Standing Stones of Whitehorn. One of these, a cavern marked Galehooves Rest was circled.

“Gryphons don't have teeth,” Ivory noted.

“It probably wasn't a gryphon who named it.” Dusty rolled the map aside. Another short letter.

Many explorers have sought the lost caches of Galehooves Rest, but the greatest of them still remains. The Guardian Statue of Galehoof once provided protection for a clan of ponies, but now is forgotten in the dark. I would place it in Canterlot so that it may be known and the families of the plains remembered. If you succeed, may our relationship be fruitful and everlasting.

Best of Luck,

Princess Celestia

Dusty shivered. To see the Princess' seal again, for sure. But the name of that group of ponies sounded familiar. To double his luck, the bookshelves were filled with old tomes of lore and history about the surrounding region. A perfect reference for ruin delvers of all colors. Whoever arranged the guild house had been kind enough, he noticed, to place the Galehoof Histories on top of the stack. He promptly pulled it down and opened it.

“Sounds like a standard dive to me,” said Ivory. “Too easy?”

“I think she wants to make sure we're capable.” Dusty shoved a hoof at the page. “Bloody.. they're thin. Do you think you could help me?”

Ivory sighed and tilted her horn. It gave an odd sparkle and the current page wobbled a bit before it turned. Dusty probably could have managed himself, but he tried to push Ivory into using her magic whenever she could. If she didn't use it on enchanted things or interact with other unicorns, she could usually pull off simpler tasks. Even that was a bit of a strain.

It's just... different, she explained when in a particularly forgiving mood. I'm surprised I could even do it at all. The school just figured I was a dunce... I don't want to think what they'd do with me if they knew something was wrong with me.

And that was that. Ivory had gotten into the groove of shifting page after page comfortably now, quickly enough that Dusty almost missed the chapter heading he was hoping for.

“Back a pinch,” he said. “There. Thank you.”

“It's just a cavern,” said Ivory. “Right? So why not just go and get it? If other ponies have scoured the place, I'm sure it can't be that bad.”

The pegasus smoothed the page down under a hoof. “If they haven't found what we're looking for, it's probably hidden deeper than any of these books know. But maybe there's a clue in here. The thing is, we've poked around in Galehoof territory before. Nomadic ponies. Couldn't carry a lot around with them back then, so they'd cache things for safekeeping or to share with other groups.

“We knew that, but this particular respite was founded by Grace Galehoof, the matriarch of one of the wandering groups. Became kind of a meeting place in happier times and a haven in the winters. Eventually they just... ceased to be.”

Ivory shuddered. “What could have caused that?”

“Life.” Dusty shrugged. “Once Equestria was founded, settling became more popular. And those that didn't have a taste for it moved on to explore the rest of the world. Some blended in, others left, and... I suppose the winter got to some of them.” he sighed. “Point is, no one comes around these caves anymore. And it's probably right the guardian is moved to where the descendents of Galehoof can find it.”

“Awful noble of you,” Ivory teased.

Dusty smiled. “Well, some things are meant to be found.”

The treasury, a single chest in a closet, Dusty found opened with the same key that went to the doorway. Inside was a freshly minted pile of bits. Enough to stock up for the expedition. He and Ivory spent the rest of the day stocking up on supplies. Flint and tinder, bedrolls, spikes, spurs, bags of dry food. A whole grocery list that they moved through automatically. And they barely made a dent in their resources, in spite of their spontaneous dinner at the adjoining cafe.

For Dusty, the night before the departure was always the worst. Imagining each step, each scenario, each outcome and conversation and the sheer excitement of being out the door the next day made the present seem frustratingly there. And while he normally would lay out under the stars, the nightly patrols probably would not take too kindly to his loitering.

So he found the polished groove on the floor and laid his bedroll. Ivory set herself on the adjacent sofa and curled her legs underneath herself.

“If you squint, the moonlight through the cracks kind of looks like stars,” she said helpfully.

Dusty laughed. “I suppose. But that couch does not look like a bed, and there's a perfectly vacant room here.”

“It's too old and too weird to be alone.” Ivory curled up a bit tighter. “What about you? We could afford to stick a big spread in the corner and you're camping on the floor like a fresh colt. What's next, the floor is lava?”

He couldn't help but laugh again. She had that effect on him. One of the reasons he didn't mind her being so close all the time. “Just looked like someone probably spent the night here a lot. Why do you think that is? Maybe this place used to be crowded enough even when it was ten times bigger. Or someone they didn't want to leave even though it was less comfortable. Or maybe they just had a bit too much cider and couldn't make it to their room most nights.” He folded his wings over himself and closed his eyes. “Whatever, whoever, I think I would have liked to know them...”

Ivory didn't respond. Typical when he got a little carried away with himself. Then he heard the delicate hum of a snoring filly.

And that was music enough to his ears to make him fall asleep.

* * *

The two ponies made the long journey west. There were no stops between Canterlot and Appleloosa, so they had to hop off at the closest junction and walk. The two of them seemed to enjoy the long stretches of wild and quiet that ensued. Dusty kept watch from the sky, and even occasionally modified the weather patterns to make their journey more pleasant. Thankfully, Cloudsdale never found out. One way trip to a cloud prison. Dusty didn't know how it worked, and he did not want to find out.

Canterlot's grasslands eventually gave way to rolling hills and beyond that, as the kingdom's influence and interest waned, the wastes began to creep in. Cracked patches of dirt and weakening flora until all that was left was dirt, dust, and cacti.

Three days and nights they traveled. Dusty checked their map again, made sure that they were headed towards the right cluster of rocks. Then with a bit of pencil in his craw he stroked a line from the castle to the cave while humming an adventurous jaunt.

Ivory just raised her eyebrow and stared.

“Just think. Only generations ago, there were still ponies who made this journey their entire lives. They must have had to stay really close...”

“We're hardly a herd, Dusty,” she said. “But I think I know what you mean.”

Odd. Landmarks always had that inexplicable feel to them. Some attracted pegasus clouds for no explainable reason. Others just seemed out of place. Galehooves' Rest was in the belly of a red-rock mountain too craggy to settle upon. Its trenches wove about it like dark veins leading into the cracked earth. Fortunately the path worn by hooves long and far still remained, showing them the way to the proper opening.

As they paused and looked on in the usual wonder, the wear of travel began to ache into their hooves. Ivory lifted one and rubbed it at her chest.

“Tell me again why we didn't rent a ship?” she sighed.

Dusty frowned. “There's no telling how well this is going to go. No sense in blowing our entire budget on the first excursion.” He paced near the entrance, and turned his gaze towards the crags.

“Besides... it's a dead giveaway where you park.”

A bright red balloon sat on one of the ledges. Secured and empty. Dusty traced the tracks leading down, and counted the fresher ones before they faded into the packed down dirt.

“We might not be the only ones looking for the statue,” he said. “We need to hurry.”

The two ponies strapped their gear on tighter and approached the mouth of the chasm. Ivory's horn flickered and sparked before producing a dim pearl light, revealing only rock and the breath of warm darkness.

Comments

[Starsong]

Uuuugh sorry for not replying for so long. Life ate me. But I am back and updated! I also am structuring/planning enough that I actually can finish it in foreseeable time. Also it was REALLY WEIRD starting this fic and then getting the Read it and Weep announcement, haha. *scrabble*

157797

Thank you! I am trying to keep tabs on Ivory's power as the whole thing was designed as a concept flaw, not a weird-flank workaround. Sort of a unicorn 'birth defect.' Mostly there to design unique problems, not cheap solutions. I always appreciate the feedback, so thanks for following. ^^

158151

Likewise, thanks! And you think Dusty is a common name? Very early on in the fandom I went with Aurora... now there are a BAJILLION Auroras. It's an awesome name. :D

I suppose I'll have to wiki some specific stuff on Rogue, but from what I remember the parallels make a lot of sense.

[Oryutzen]

I like this.
But please try to not make us wait so much