> Ruins of a Forgotten Time
>  by Tekket
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 - The Expedition
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clean Slate ran for his life.

His coat matted in sweat, the light from his lantern bouncing over the cavern walls, his breathing loud in his ears, his galloping echoing off the rocky corridor, he ran.

He dared not look back, if only to prevent himself from seeing just how close his pursuers were. If he looked back once more, his fear would surely petrify him and he’d be taken in a heartbeat.

He was chased by an army of nightmares.

Although they were much quieter than he, they were getting close now. He could hear their ragged breathing, feel the way they scratched the walls and ground as they ran. Every now and then a sound halfway between a hiss and a scream would make its way to his ears, spurring him along further.

Reaching a fork in the tunnel, Clean Slate barely glanced at the direction with the faint red markings scratched onto the wall before bolting down in that direction. If there hadn’t been a lantern hanging from his mouth and he weren’t breathing so hard, he might’ve laughed at how similar the chalk looked to blood. As it was, he barely had time to form the thought before it was snatched away… as were a few hairs from his tail.

Eyes widening even farther than he had thought possible, Clean Slate suddenly felt a renewed surge of energy and plowed forward, just out of reach of the long, snatching claws that were almost upon him. A sudden tremor could be felt through the tunnel, and the earth pony stallion tripped, his lantern flying from his mouth to shatter on the cold stone floor.

This is it. They caught me. I’m dead. I’m going to die. Any second they’re going to catch up to me and tear me to pieces.
Clean Slate stayed where he was for several seconds more, before he was overcome with curiosity at not being dead yet. 

Slowly, he uncurled himself from where he had fallen and looked around. Without his lantern it was nearly pitch black, but not as cold as it had been only moments before. In fact, it almost felt… pleasantly warm. Getting to his hooves, he turned around and stared off into the darkness from where he had just come, trying to discern any shapes. Slowly, slowly, the stallion’s eyes adjusted to the gloom and began to pick up the forms of his pursuers, standing just a few hoof-lengths from him. As soon as he noticed them, he recoiled visibly in shock and horror, seeing the creatures that could only be described as living nightmares close-up.

He could see only three or four in the narrow tunnel, but heard several more as they shifted around behind the ones in front. A low hiss escaped the one closest to him and he took a couple of steps backwards.

His eyes had adjusted quite well by now, which perturbed him, as there should be no source of light down in the tunnels now that his lamp had smashed, and yet, the whole corridor that was hosting the strange stand-off was now noticeably getting brighter. Another hiss escaped the lead creature and it took a tentative step backward, and only then did Clean Slate realize the tunnel was slowly brightening with a pale orange light coming from the next intersection. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that one side of the fork in the road up ahead had red light spilling out of it and heard a great scuffle come from the nightmares. Turning back to look at his would-be killers, he barely made out the shape of the last monster as it ran back into the gloom.

His face blanched and his knees felt weak. He had been so close to escaping, and now…

Now he was just as dead as if he had been caught by the horde of monsters.

The red glow was quite bright now, and as he watched and waited with bated breath, he couldn’t help but feel slightly cheated. For a few glorious seconds he had thought he was going to make it, that the monsters had decided to stop chasing him and he could leave this place and never return. But it was not to be.

His hope had been torn away as soon as he had noticed the red glow. He stared as the red glow slid into the tunnel and it got noticeably hotter. He had simply traded one fate for another.

Then the world was consumed with the brightest light he had ever seen, and a tremendous blast of heat, and Clean Slate was no more.

***

“Are we there yet?” an impatient Scootaloo asked, hanging her head over the ship’s railing.

“For the fifteenth time, not yet, so please stop asking,” came the stern reply. Scootaloo glanced over to the speaker, a sea foam-green unicorn with a harp cutie mark on her flank.

“But Lyra, I’m bored!” the orange pegasus replied, crossing her forehooves over the rail and ‘harrumph’-ing very loudly, “Apple Bloom’s still sleeping and Sweetie Belle’s working on her project. There’s nothing to do!”

“You know squirt, some ponies say ‘It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey getting there’.”

Scootaloo shot her a bored look. “Since when does that apply to you?”

“Oh it doesn’t!” Lyra said, giving a small laugh, “I only said that some ponies say it. I for one am bored out of my mind too, but that’s why I’ve been finding things to do on the ship to pass the time. Why don’t you go ask Whitebeard if he could use any help?”

“I already did. And he told me the same thing he tells me every time I ask.” Squinting one eye, Scootaloo stuck her bottom jaw out and curled her lips over her teeth, doing a rather accurate expression of the elderly ship captain. “’Why doncha wait till yer a bit more ‘sperienced before ya try going an’ getting’ yerself killed doin’ somethin’ meant fer full-grown ponies. An airship ain’t no place fer anypony that tries ter show off.’ I mean,” she dropped the act and spoke her words with an exasperated sigh, “how am I supposed to get experience in anything if he won’t let me do anything!?”

The green unicorn mare threw her a sly look, “Why, Scootaloo! What about all the fun times you’ve had with Rusted Wrench? Or Chrome Clock? Or…” she scooted closer to the grumpy pegasus mare, “what about that Trickwing fellow? He’s kinda cute, isn’t he?”

The effect on Scootaloo was immediate.

Standing up straight, the orange mare went rigid and instantly started blushing, while turning her head every which way to make sure the young stallion in question was nowhere in sight before giving Lyra a terribly obvious confused expression.

“Wh-what? Trickwing? Me? Think he’s cute? You-you’ve been reading too many of Bon Bon’s romance novels! I don’t think he’s cute. He’s, well, I mean, he’s a nice stallion, and he always has terrible jokes, and he always seems to be there to open doors for me, and he… has… a really nice mane…”

Lyra gave the pegasus a playful nudge, who had become the victim of a glazed look as she forgot exactly what she was supposed to be denying. Jumping a bit at the sudden contact, Scootaloo gazed out past the railings of their expeditionary airship, and towards the sun that was just poking out over the cloud layer, like a sunrise on a white, fluffy ocean.

“I-I-I-, how did you know? That I like him, I mean?” Scootaloo asked, scrunching up her face in embarrassment.

“I didn’t. But now you just told me.”

“What?! Ohhh…” Scootaloo groaned, slapping a hoof over her face before glaring at Lyra from over it. “I’m gonna get you for that.”

“Oh, don’t get so grumpy, I bet this isn’t the first time you’ve liked a stallion before. What about when you and the others were kids? I remember you always staring after Button Mash whenever I saw you guys in the same place,” the unicorn said in all seriousness.

“That was Sweetie. She was the one always staring after Button Mash, not me.” The orange pegasus mare suddenly caught sight of several ponies coming up from below deck and instantly tensed. “Maybe we should talk about something else? Hmm?”

Lyra turned and saw a pair of ponies slowly pulling themselves out of a hatch and now it was her turn to slap her hoof to her forehead. “Oh great, I was hoping he would have slept in a bit longer…” she grumbled.

“Don’t forget, Lyra,” Scootaloo said, a mischievous smile spreading across her face, “It’s not so much the destination that matters, but the journey getting there. Plus all the ponies you go on the journey with.”

Turning away from the pegasus, Lyra forced a smile on her face and waited until the two stallions trotted up to them.

“Golden Satchel! And Heavy Hoof! What a coincidence!”

The older stallion, a dark blue unicorn with a silver mane and a bag of bits for a cutie mark, scoffed and returned the mare’s smile with an unsatisfied frown.

“Hardly, seeing as we’ve been on this ship for the same amount of time as you.”

“Well of course, I just meant that I wasn’t expecting to see you two up and about so early. Usually your nephew at least sleeps in a good deal longer. How did you sleep by the way?”

This time it was Heavy Hoof who answered.

“I barely slept at all, no thanks to our ‘captain’. I swear, that old goat can’t steer this thing worth a beaver dam.  If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought we were crashing down onto the ocean, rather than flying above it.” Turning to the older stallion, Heavy Hoof did his best to appear small and helpless. “Uncle, why couldn’t you have hired a good airship captain? You have enough money for it. We wouldn’t have had to put up with this buffoon’s excuse for flying.”

Heavy Hoof was a large unicorn stallion, with a dark red coat and a brilliant yellow mane that was slicked back past his horn. His attempt would have been comical to Scootaloo, whining like a spoiled child to his rich uncle, but he was a full grown stallion for Celestia’s sake! He was larger than most of the ship’s crew members, not to mention his uncle.

Scootaloo almost gagged at how pitiful the large unicorn was being, until a gruff voice behind hem drew the group’s attention.

“An’ exactly who are ye callin’ a buffoon, ya great blubberin’ baby?” Captain Whitebeard had come down from the helm and was now eyeing the red stallion closely with his one good eye, the other hidden under a black eyepatch.

To Scootaloo, the old, grizzled captain looked worse every time she saw him, it seemed, and this time was no exception. His tan coat was fading and turning grey with age, and several long, pink scars adorned his flanks. His long white beard was wild and unkempt, his sailor’s uniform was scuffed and torn, and Scootaloo could have sworn there was a new patch of fur missing from his back. The old earth pony stallion once again opened his mouth to speak, showing off a mouth with only half as many teeth as it should have had.

“Now you listen ‘ere, ye young whippersnapper! If’n I hear ya complainin’ about me steerin’ one more time, then Celestia as mah witness, I’ll throw ye off this ship meself. An’ if’n you’re thinkin’ o’ usin’ yore uncle’s money ta get me off mah own ship, then ye’ll be cleanin’ the chamberpots wit’ nothin’ but yer fancy-shmancy mane all on the way back, ye hear? I’ll keep my eye on you to make shure yore on yore best be’aviour till we’re all done, cuz I am sick o’yer moanin’ an’ complainin’, and so’re the rest o’ the crew.”

Whitebeard was not a large stallion by anyone’s standards, but his presence seemed to completely surround them and tower over them, even though he barely came eye-to-eye with Heavy Hoof when the other shrunk down to try and avoid that one-eyed gaze.

“Un-uncle! Do something!”

“Now, now, Heavy. I brought you on this trip to get out of Canterlot for a bit and so you could enjoy yourself out here. You’ve done nothing but complain about this trip, and honestly, it’s starting to drag me down. I would have thought my favorite nephew would have liked spending some time adventuring around the globe, but perhaps a bit of hard, honest work is just what you need to build some character.” The blue unicorn looked over his nephew with that ever-present frown, then shook his head and sighed.

“Perhaps you and young miss Scootaloo here should go check on the others. I’m sure they’d welcome…”

Golden Satchel looked around, surprise flitting onto his face for a moment.

“Wait, she was right here! Where did she go?”

***

Scootaloo was, at that moment, banging on Sweetie Belle’s cabin door, having escaped the arguing ponies above while they were too busy going at each other to notice her leave. She grimaced for a second at what Lyra was going to think of her for leaving her behind with the stallions, before continuing to pound on Sweetie’s door.

“Sweetie…” she hissed, before the door opened a crack and Sweetie Belle glared through at her.

“What is it Scootaloo? I’m busy! And keep your voice down, do you want to wake everypony?”

Not giving an immediate answer, Scootaloo burst through the door and tripped over Sweetie Belle, sending both mares sprawling onto the floor of the cramped cabin. Scootaloo looked up at the familiar shapes of her friend’s contraptions and inventions that littered what little floor space there was. Several more machines and devices of unusual design sat on crates or poked out of boxes. The floor was littered with small bits and bobs of everything imaginable, and a small porthole window on the far wall looked out over the blanket of clouds as the sun made its ascent over them.

“Ugh… Scootaloo, do you always have to do that? What if I had left something sharp near the door? We’d both be impaled!”
Getting to her hooves and brushing herself off, Scootaloo offered a hoof to the young unicorn mare, which was promptly accepted. “I know you won’t do that, I come in here too often. You’d be devastated if something happened to me because of your negligence.”

“Yeah, woo. Go me,” Sweetie said, rolling her eyes and moving to a single small workbench in the corner, where a small lamp shined a light on some sort of light green crystal lattice, intertwined with countless tiny metal strands. Snapping a pair of red goggles onto her face, she cast a quick spell and the goggles glowed a sudden brilliant red-orange as she turned back to her work.

“So what is it you wanted?” Sweetie asked absentmindedly, as she levitated a small screwdriver over to the intricate device and began poking at points within the framework.

“Oh, I just needed to get away from, uh… well, Heavy Hoof and Whitebeard were arguing again, so I thought I’d make myself scarce,” she explained, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.

“And you thought banging on my door and yelling to the sky would be the best way to not attract attention?” Sweetie smirked at the orange pegasus, which was rendered somewhat creepy by the large, glowing red goggles on her face.

“Hey! I wasn’t yelling!”

“Could have fooled me,” the unicorn replied, turning to a large and very complicated-looking diagram of the device she was working on that was displayed on the wall, “…cell thirty six connects to nodes four hundred-twelve and ninety-three…”

“So uh, whatcha workin’ on?” Scootaloo asked, stepping up to look over the white mare’s shoulder and see what she was doing, before being shooed away by Sweetie’s frown.

“Don’t get so close when I’m working! You don’t have any goggles, and it can be dangerous. I don’t want you to go blind, otherwise how would you prove to Rainbow Dash that you’re just as fast as her? I'm sure you'd be a great flyer, what with constantly smacking into trees and all.”

Scootaloo quickly stepped back and shielded her eyes, while Sweetie Belle fidgeted with the device for a few moments, before putting down the screwdriver and sighing. “Oh, why won’t this darn thing just work?” Turning to her friend she cast another spell to end the glow coming from her goggles and lifted them, rubbing her eyes.

“You know what? Maybe it’s a good thing you showed up, Scoots. I’ve been working on this for a few hours now, and I think I need a break. Did you want to talk about something?” Settling herself into the tiny bunk that served as her bed in the chaos that was her cabin, Sweetie Belle threw the goggles onto her desk and rubbed her eyes quickly, then patted the space beside her for the other mare to sit down.

“Actually, I just wanted to get away from Golden Satchel and his nephew. I came to you because Apple Bloom’s probably still sleeping, and I didn’t want to intrude on anypony else,” Scootaloo said, trotting over and hopping onto the bed, practically pushing Sweetie off in the process. The unicorn, for her part, gasped dramatically in a highly credible representation of her sister and put a hoof to her forehead.

“Oh Scootaloo, I’m hurt, truly, I am! You only came to me because you wanted to hide in my room?” settling back down, the pale unicorn’s face broke into a smile and she playfully pushed her friend’s shoulder, before she realized something and frowned a bit.

“Hey, how come you thought Apple Bloom was sleeping but not me? It’s still really early! And I guess you feel comfortable intruding on me then, do you?”

“Hey, Apple Bloom snores, and we both know it, plus when I woke up, I heard you shuffling around in here when I passed on my way up to the top deck earlier.”

“Scootaloo, Apple Bloom would kill you if she heard you say she snores,” Sweetie said seriously, before giggling, “but I won’t deny she sounds super cute when she does it. It reminds me of when we were just little fillies!”

“Yeah,” the pegasus replied, quickly becoming lost in the mass of memories that had just surfaced, “Can you believe we’re only eighteen? Or, well, I mean can you believe we’re on this trip when we’re only eighteen? Most ponies don’t get to actually go along with an archaeological expedition until they’re at least thirty!”

“Maybe Princess Twilight had something to do with it. Remember, she did have a talk with Golden Satchel when Lyra and Bon Bon told him we wanted to come.”

“You really think Twilight would do that for us? Rainbow Dash seemed okay with it, but I can’t imagine that Rarity or Applejack took the news well.” Scootaloo said, pondering the idea for what was certainly not the first time.

Sweetie Belle, oblivious to her friend’s thoughts, continued on, “Well, it’s not like they have too much say in what we do now, we are adults… technically. We have just as much right to go adventuring off on short notice as they do now. Besides, we have Lyra and Bon Bon. What could possibly go wrong?” she leaned closer to the orange pegasus and whispered dramatically, “I hear they’re secret agents!”

Scootaloo scoffed. “You watch too much T.V.”

Suddenly a quiet knock could be heard on the door. It repeated once before Sweetie opened it, to reveal a yawning Apple Bloom.

“Hey ya’ll. What’re ya’ll talkin’ about?” she said, perking up immediately at the sight of her friends. “You woke me up by the way.”

“Us!?” Sweetie Belle cried, a look of mock innocence plastered on her face, “How could that possibly be?”

The yellow earth pony giggled and poked the unicorn in the chest. “By doin’ that, silly. So what’re you girls up to?” she asked, stepping into the already cramped room and closing the door behind her.

“Oh, we were just reminiscing about when we were fillies. We had a lot of good times.” Scootaloo replied.

“Yeah, and we’re about to have some more!” Apple Bloom pointed out the tiny, round window, “Ah think we’re landin’!”
All three ponies turned to look out the porthole. Where before there had been the top of the cloud layer, tinted a brilliant pink-orange hue by the rising sun, now only a solid grey could be seen as they descended through the clouds. The three mares looked at each other for a moment, before they all pushed their way out into the hall and ran, rushing to the top deck and yelling like fillies in excitement.

“We’re here!” They screamed, bursting out onto the deck, huge smiles on each of their faces.

As the ship moved down through the thick clouds, moisture began to accumulate on the deck, engines, and maneuvering sails, and it got darker and windier. None of that mattered to the three mares as they weaved their way in between crew members and scientists, rushing to get to the railing to get their first glimpse of their destination.

Poking their heads over the edge of the ship and looking down, the girls couldn’t make out anything for several minutes, and as the ship descended, the rain only lashed them harder and the wind buffeted them more strongly.

Starting to shiver, they grouped together on the safety rail but otherwise stayed just where they were. After a few moments however, the last of the clouds, which were now a very dark and angry grey, lifted from the ship and the crew were allowed their first good look at the legendary archeological site.

Although rain and wind and the darkness from the clouds obscured much of the land, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could make out massive spires and buttresses rising up out of the gloom. Huge, dark, hoop-like structures littered the ground, and stretched up to the clouds, perfectly circular, and large enough that five airships like the one they were riding on could fit through them side by side, with room to spare.

Lightning crackled in the darkness, illuminating huge towers connected by impossibly large bridges, and large, disk-shaped platforms jutted out from the sides of each. As they passed by a hoop-building, they saw that it was nearly twice as thick as their entire ship was long, and a huge section of it was missing, making it appear as if it was a giant horseshoe, reaching up into the sky.

Lyra appeared, trotting across the deck towards them, a cloak wrapped around her barrel and her head bowed against the wind.

“Landing zone is just past those two towers!” she yelled, trying to be heard over the howling wind, as she pointed out two exceptionally tall, needle-thin spires that stretched up parallel to each other about halfway across the ancient and abandoned city.

“Ah can’t believe it!” Apple Bloom screamed to the heavens, “We’re finally here! The lost city of Seskantor!”

***

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo helped the airship crew tie down the vessel to the surrounding buildings as the rain continued to hammer down on them, their recently-acquired cloaks offering little protection.

They grabbed ropes and chains with hooks, and were among the first to be lowered down to the ground below once the ship had gotten as low to the mist-covered ground as Whitebeard dared get it. Unlike Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo didn’t need to be lowered down in a sling, and so simply jumped out over the edge of the rail with a rope in her mouth and glided down to the rocky ground.

Or she would have, if not for the fact that the storm was buffeting her about as soon as she stepped off the deck. Forced to flap much harder than she had anticipated, and barely controlling her movement, the pegasus dropped and rolled and was thrown about, barely managing to right herself before the ground rushed up to meet her. Throwing her hooves out in front of her, she barely managed to slow down before she crashed to the ground, stumbling over herself and falling on her face.
“Ohhh…” she groaned, before she realized that in doing so, she had dropped her rope. Quickly snatching up the rope once more, she got to her hooves and rubbed at her muzzle, trying to massage some of the pain away. Rain slicked her eyes as she opened them, making everything appear blurry, so she flipped the hood of her cloak back on and shook the water out of her face.

By now the other members of the crew assigned to help anchor the ship were arriving, their slings being lowered by no less than two other ponies each, up from the top deck of the airship.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle arrived just as Scootaloo finished trying her rope around a pillar of a broken building. Trotting up to them, she watched as they too secured their links, before noticing that the rain seemed to be letting up a bit. Instead or a torrential downpour, there seemed to be only major downpour. The wind had slowed down a bit, too. Looking around, she spotted Trickwing, a yellow pegasus with an orange mane, just as he finished securing a chain around some sort of statue.

Waving him over, she and the other girls took shelter under a half-collapsed roof, where he quickly joined them.

“So this is Seskantor, huh?” he gave a long whistle and shook out his mane, before looking up at the buildings that towered around them. Whitebeard had somehow miraculously nestled the airship between some sort of long, low, rectangular building, and a cluster of sharp spires, which was incredibly impressive, considering the vessel’s size. Even now, with most of the anchors in place, the ship occasionally groaned and listed in the wind.

Scootaloo smiled before moving out from under the cover of the roof. “Hey Trickwing! Betcha can’t beat me to the ship!”
Without waiting for a reply, she shot off, the pegasus stallion racing after her, calling out that she wasn’t playing fair.

“Lookit them go,” Apple Bloom remarked, mainly to herself, but Sweetie Belle heard, standing as close as she was, and replied, “Yeah… You think she has a crush on him?”

Apple Bloom blinked. “Ah thought she liked Chrome Clock, didn’t she?”

“Doesn’t really matter I guess, she’s not going to be thinking about boys for the next while, now that we’ve arrived.” Sweetie swept hoof in a grand gesture around her, motioning to their surroundings, “I mean, look at this place! It’s huge! I know Lyra and Bon Bon said it was going to be big, but it’s way bigger than I ever imagined! Besides, do you really think any of us are going to be more interested in stallions than exploring this place?”

“Ah know ah won’t,” Apple Bloom replied, already inspecting the slick flagstones that made up the clearing the airship had landed in.

“Won’t what?” Scootaloo said in a flurry of feathers and rain as she landed next to her friends once more, Trickwing doing the same moments later.

“Oh uh, nothin’ Scoots! We were just talkin’ about whether anypony’s gonna be bored, now that we’re here.”

“Pshh, of course not. It’s Seskantor for Celestia’s sake! The find of a lifetime! Now come on you slowpokes, you gonna help unpack, or what?”

Scootaloo pointed to the saddlebags she and Trickwing had just deposited.

“Come on Sweetie! No one else is going to bring down all your experiments! If you don’t bring them, you won’t get to use them during our stay!”

“Alright, alright!” the two mares shouted as the pegasus pair lifted off again, “We’re coming. No need to wait up for us!” Sweetie yelled after them.

***

A half hour later (and with much care taken with Sweetie Belle’s inventions) the voyage was completely unpacked and Whitebeard’s crew had started raising the anchors again, in preparation of the airship’s departure. It would return once again in two weeks with provisions and supplies to keep the expedition teams well stocked while they unlocked the mysteries of the forgotten city.

The amount of explorers staying behind numbered seventeen; Lyra, Bon Bon, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Trickwing, Golden Satchel, Heavy Hoof, and nine others. The adventurers gathered up the various saddlebags, sacks, crates, and carts containing all their equipment and supplies and headed off, the hard, grey-blue of the city’s stonework their only companion in the silence.

The rain had since stopped, and although there was still water dripping from every overhang, the sound of the droplets hitting the surfaces beneath them was oddly muffled, and impossible to make out as the group tromped through the empty streets.

Sweetie Belle trotted over to Lyra, who was helping one of the group whose wagon had gotten stuck in a crack in the blue concrete.

Tapping into her own magic, she combined her aura with Lyra’s as both unicorns focused on the wheel and lifted it free of the crack. “Hey, Lyra,” she asked after they placed the wagon back on the ground and its owner was on their way, “So where is the base camp? Not too much farther I hope?”

Sweetie, on account of all her gadgets she had decided to bring along, was similarly weighed down by a cart, and the strain was starting to show.

“Ah, s’not too far, kid. Wouldn’t make sense to set up camp on the opposite side of the city as the landing zone. We just needed to make it a short distance so that once we have a constant stream of ships going in and out of this place, we won’t have any of that distracting the scientists while they work. I’m sure you noticed back in Canterlot, but airship docks are noisy places.”

“Yeah… not like this place. I was super excited all the way here, but now that I’m here this place is so quiet and still you’d think that time had stopped or something.”

“Well, that’s another mystery about this place ponies are going to be trying to figure out. Not gonna lie it’s a damn creepy sight, but maybe you’ll be the one to solve that particular mystery, hm?”

“You know what? You’re right! We’re explorers, for Celestia’s sake. We’re gonna make discoveries like nopony before!”
The white unicorn cheered up considerably at that, and didn’t notice the glimmering blue lights that shined from dark pits in the surrounding buildings, camouflaged as they were against the grey-blue backdrop of the stones that made up the buildings.

After just a few more minutes of walking, taking eerily quiet side-streets and admiring the size of the buildings all around, Bon Bon called out from the front of the group.

“Alright everypony! We’re here! Welcome to Base Camp Everfree!”
> Chapter 2 - The Camp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweetie’s first impression of the base camp was rather disappointing to say the least. Two long tents had been erected on opposite sides of a long wooden table, and a fire pit had been created at one end. Only after she continued to look did she notice movement coming from the entrance of a nearby, slab-like building. She finally realized that most of the camp must be inside the structure, as several figures exited it to greet the newcomers.

First and foremost among them was a dark grey unicorn mare with a long, limp, red mane. She sported a prominent scar across one cheek, and looked like she had gotten it in a knife fight. A pair of saddlebags were strapped to her back, one bag open and filled with what appeared to be jagged black rocks.

The rest of the figures that came out included: a massive brown minotaur wearing a pair of yellow goggles and a hardhat, a length of rope wrapped around its torso; a pair of gryphons with slightly green and white feathers, nearly identical to each other, with metal gauntlets on their talons and dark brown saddlebags on their backs; and a naked mole rat wearing a large burly overcoat and the most peculiar wooden stick contraption on his shoulders that had probably been built from the firewood lying around the camp; as well as a small multitude of other ponies, all garbed partially in different types of safety gear, from hardhats to leather aprons.

“Lyra! Bon Bon!” the grey unicorn at the front of the group said, waving to the newcomers. Her voice was harsh, as if it pained her to speak, but no such pain showed on her face, and a somewhat eerie smile spread across it instead.

“Magma Burn! How’s everything been going? I heard you’ve been having trouble navigating the lower sections” Bon Bon replied cheerfully, trotting forward and giving the intimidating-looking mare a brief hug.

“Ah yeah, but nothing to worry yourselves over just yet. First let’s get you inside and unpacked. So these are the scientists you brought?” The dark unicorn swept her calculating gaze across the rest of the new explorers and scientists as they all came to a halt inside the base camp.

“Don’t give them a hard time, Burn,” Lyra called out, already walking past and heading inside the building the first expedition team had exited, “They’ve got a few surprises up their sleeves.”

Sweetie leaned closer to Lyra as she said this and whispered, “Um, Lyra, most of us aren’t wearing sleeves…”

“Oh don’t worry about it, it’s just an expression. Peo–ahem, ponies used to say it a long time ago.”

“Like, as long ago as when they made these buildings?” Apple Bloom pushed her way inside the slab-like building alongside Sweetie and Lyra, “Cuz I ain’t never heard ponies use that expression before, and mah Granny Smith says all sorts o’ things from way back in the ol’ day.”

“Ummm… I think the saying originated a bit before your Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, but good try anyway! Actually this city is estimated to be-”

“Estimated to be over seventy thousand years old, yes, and I was the one that did the calculations, thank you,” spoke up a tiny voice from the group’s left, which turned out to be the naked mole rat, who, up close, was actually even smaller than he had seemed, only reaching up to Sweetie’s chin, and she had to tilt her head almost straight down to look at him from how close he stood. He wore a large dark coat and the twig-apparatus on his shoulders had vanished to be replaced with some sort of miniature windmill. Apparently he’d followed the new group back inside, and brought a pair of spectacles down to his beady eyes as he waddled up next to Sweetie Belle, staring at her closely before he extended his claws in greeting. “The name’s Sir Obsidian, and what is your name, young miss?”

Sweetie slowly extended her hoof and shook his clawed hand, trying to lean back as far as possible and seeming to be very uncomfortable with how much attention she was suddenly getting. “Uh, I-I’m Sweetie Belle, um, nice to meet you, mister Obsidian.”

“That’s Sir Obsidian, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance as well. Tell me, what are those contraptions you seem to be lugging around? I’ve never seen anything like them!”

“Don’t mind Obby, he’s just fascinated by anything that isn’t ordinary… one of the reasons he’s here, instead of someplace else.”

The red-maned unicorn, Magma Burn, had returned, bringing up the rear of the newcomer’s group while most of the new arrivals began to disperse, looking for old colleagues or being shown around by the current dig members. Moving herself between Sir Obsidian and Sweetie’s cart, she glared at the mole rat.

“Keep your pesky claws off of her stuff. From what Lyra and Bon Bon tell me, she’s a very intelligent and accomplished inventor, as well as spellcaster. If I find out you’ve been going through any of the new ponies’ stuff, I’ll be sending you back to Canterlot in a matchbox. Got it?” As the dark grey unicorn finished, Sir Obsidian was busy shielding his face with his arms and begging for forgiveness, before he started backing up and waddling away, grumbling loudly to himself.

Leaning close to Sweetie, the older mare gave a small smile and winked. “That’s just Obby, don’t mind him, but keep an eye on your stuff. He’s a brilliant mind, no doubt, but he likes to poke around other ponies’ belongings where they start “mysteriously” ending up in states of disassembly.”

Straightening up once more, Magma Burn put on a bit of a scowl, and yelled at two ponies bickering over a sample of blue shards on a nearby table, after which she pointed Lyra to a set of huge stairs upon which a sort of barracks had been set up, although every surface was covered in cloth and fabric, and everything was covered in several more tent-like tarps.

Unhitching herself from her cart and moving into the large tent, Sweetie Belle noticed that all of the poles that held up the tarp were strung up with hammocks and there were no actual beds. Trotting over to an empty section of hammocks in one corner beside one of the stone walls, Sweetie looked around with the pale illumination provided by light crystals the ponies had brought with them.

“Why’s the floor all covered in tarps and cloths?” she asked, to no one in particular. Scootaloo, who had followed her in and was busy setting up her own little hammock with a pillow and stuffed rabbit toy she had brought with her, looked over and fielded a guess.

“Maybe it’s to make the place feel cozier and more like home? It is a little colder in here, even though it just rained a whole bunch. Actually, how did they manage to get a fire going so quickly after there was a downpour just an hour ago?”

“I dunno. Guess we’ll have to ask somepony when we see them. Let’s just get our stuff laid out first and then go meet with the rest of the camp. I think I’ve actually heard the name “Sir Obsidian” before, now that I think about it… just can’t figure where.”

The two ponies started unpacking their belongings and piling them next to poles from which unclaimed hammocks swung, before they were joined shortly after by Apple Bloom and Trickwing. The earth mare and the pegasus stallion were holding a hushed conversation, suddenly halting as they noticed the two friends.

“Oh hi, girls! We just overheard the main leader pony, I think her name was Magma Burn? Anyway, we just heard her talking to a couple other ponies from the ship about some kind of exploration party she was gonna be putting together later! We were just talking about where we thought the party would be going, and whether they’d let us join!”

“Hey, yeah! That sounds awesome!” Scootaloo said, looking back at Sweetie Belle, who was busily pulling several small machinations out of her saddlebags and placing them carefully on the ground beside the hammock she had claimed.

“What do you think, Sweetie? What better way to start our adventure here in Seskantor than by all going exploring together?” The orange pegasus smiled brightly, but Sweetie shook her head, an apologetic look on her face.

“Sorry, girls, but unless it’s tomorrow or later, I won’t be able to come. I’ve got to get all my stuff out of the cart and set up. It’s gonna take most of the day and I’d rather get it out of the way right away. That way if we need my equipment for anything, or I want to run any tests, everything will be ready and available just in case.”

Seeing the looks on her friends’ faces, she gave a small smile, “Aww, but you three go on ahead and explore a bit! I mean, if you end up being part of the exploration party, of course. I wouldn’t you want to stay behind just for my sake, I’ll join you all tomorrow, ok?”

Apple Bloom glanced between her friends and shrugged slowly before looking at her other two friends. “If ya say so, Sweetie. What about you guys? Ya wanna go see if we can make the list?”

Scootaloo and Trickwing jumped and happily yelled their affirmation, before Scootaloo and Apple Bloom trotted over to Sweetie Belle and embraced her in a group hug.

“You sure you won’t need any help unpacking any of this stuff, Sweetie? You know, we could help and then you’d have enough time to come with us.”

The orange pegasus quickly got her answer as the unicorn’s horn glowed and she and Apple Bloom were bodily lifted and moved several feet back.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no! No offense, but you two aren’t exactly subtle or careful with fragile things, and most of my life savings have been put into the experiments and inventions I brought with me. I’ll be just fine unpacking everything on my own,” the unicorn said with a slight smile.

“Hey! We can be careful!” Scootaloo retorted.

“Scoots, I saw you faceplant on your way down from the airship this morning,” Sweetie deadpanned.

“That was different! I-hey! Apple Bloom, what’re you doing?” the orange mare protested as her earth pony friend started pushing her towards the flap in the tent that served as the door, chuckling lightly.

“Come on now, we don’t need to be arguin’. If Sweetie says she doesn’t need our help, then that’s fine. I almost killed myself just looking at one o’ those contraptions just the other day. We’ll see you after you’re done then, alright Sweetie?” she said, pausing at the tent flap and giving her unicorn friend a warm smile.

“Of course! You three have fun on your adventure!” she waved as the three ponies left.

Having no more distractions, Sweetie Belle went back to carefully levitating all of her machinations out of her wagon, as well as all of her various tools, protective equipment, and raw materials, and laying them all out on the floor. It didn’t take long for the strange cold of the stones underneath the cloths and blankets on the ground to start getting to her though, and soon her magic was starting to get affected because of it.

Huh, no wonder this place is covered in tarps. It’s freezing if you stand still! It wasn’t this cold when we were walking, I wonder why that is? I understand why all the beds are hammocks though, I wouldn’t want to sleep on this floor, no matter how many layers are on it.

Teeth chattering, Sweetie finally decided to take a break from assembling all of inventions around her hammock in a way that allowed ease of access and mobility, when she nearly dropped the carapace for a special project she’d been working on recently.

Maybe a short walk will get my blood pumping back into my legs. That ought to warm me up a bit… I hope. Maybe I’ll be able to get something warm to eat too, I just remembered we didn’t eat breakfast yet.

Shaking her head, she tiptoed carefully around all of her laid out work and stepped out of the tent, nearly running straight into Bon Bon. She quickly took a step back and apologized, while the other mare smiled and shook her hoof.

“Oh! Oops, sorry Bon Bon, I didn’t hear you walking around out here!”

“Ah, don’t mention it kiddo, these stones do all sorts of funny things. They muffle the sound of anything that strikes them, and they’re always cold to the touch, no matter how much they might be in contact with warm stuff. Trust me, I’ve tried. Me and Lyra were on the first voyage here, but we only spent a couple days helping the others get the base camp set up before we departed to bring more explorers. I was always cold my first time here, so I insisted on making Lyra constantly do fire spells to warm up the sleeping quarters, but nothing either of us did managed to make the rocks warmer.”

“Really? That’s really weird… why didn’t anypony bring mattresses or something thick enough so that the rocks wouldn’t affect them?”

“Well, we would have, but remember, the landing site’s a few klicks away and nopony wants to be making more trips than necessary, so we decided to just set up hammocks instead. Besides, from what some of the others already here have told me, they tried sleeping on many layers of blankets and it didn’t work out too well for them.”

Sweetie frowned slightly, a thoughtful look on her face, before she looked back at the long tent set up at the base of the massive stair, and following the steps up. She got lost in her thoughts of how one of her machines might be able to do something about the heating problem, but found herself looking up at the near-empty blackness that was the building’s ceiling.

Suddenly a new idea formed in her head that pushed all of their previous talk out.

“Hey Bon Bon, why is the ceiling so high? I could have sworn this building was way shorter than the ceiling up there when we were walking into it.”

The other mare craned her neck up and smiled as she figured out Sweetie’s predicament.

“Ah, see, that got me too when I first saw it. You might notice that it looks like there’s little blobs floating in the air there, or the fact that the staircase seems to be going up forever into the darkness, right?” Seeing the unicorn nod, Bon Bon continued, “Well, it just so happens that the stones and metal that make up all these buildings are slightly reflective, if very dark. I don’t know how it works, but any flat surfaces made of this stuff get more reflective the farther away you look at them from, and because it’s dark in here, the ceiling, is actually just faintly reflecting what’s on the floor, and reflecting what’s being reflected by the floor, which is the ceiling.”

Sweetie frowned and furrowed her brow as she tried to follow, and the other mare noticed.

“See from here it seems like you can’t see your reflection at all, but if you look closely it’s like a ghost of your hooves can be seen on the ground. From up there though,” she pointed at the ceiling, “if you look down, you can see the floor reflecting everything on the ceiling, and because both surfaces do a decent job at showing the other at a distance, but not from up close, it looks like the floor is a bottomless pit, while the ceiling looks almost exactly the same as the floor does to us when we’re down here.”

The older mare giggled and rubbed Sweetie’s head with a gentle hoof.

“Don’t worry about it too much though. There’s a lot of stuff here that most of us don’t understand, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the new experiences and discoveries here. I only spent a little while here, so I can’t answer much else if you have more questions.”

Sweetie shivered slightly and dropped her gaze back to Bon Bon before starting to walk in place to stay warm, the cold from before returning to her body in earnest.

“H-hey, Bon Bon, I have one more question. It’s not really all that cold here, but you were right, I was mostly just standing around inside and levitating things around and now my hooves are freezing. How are we supposed to stay warm here if the ground stays cold no matter what?”

“Oh, you’re cold? Oh jeez, I can’t believe I forgot to go over this on the airship.” Slapping a hoof to her face, the earth pony turned tail and quickly started trotting out to the entrance, calling for Sweetie to follow her.

As the duo neared the entrance, Sweetie thought she saw something slip out of sight behind a corner of one of the other corridors in the building, but a moment later when she looked down it, she saw nothing and simply shrugged, heading after Bon Bon. Maybe it’s another one of the strange properties of this place. Makes you see things that aren’t there.
As the pair moved into the central courtyard-like area of the camp, Sweetie sidled up to the campfire in an effort to warm herself slightly, but Bone Bon pulled her along towards a doorway to another building, where voices and shouting could be heard.

Inside, several ponies and a griffon were leaning over different stones and gems that lay on large slabs of what looked like meter-thick glass. Bon Bon however, led the young unicorn mare past the working geologists and to the last table, where a figure that Sweetie hadn’t noticed was working over a huge cluster of orange crystals, a large tome open beside them.

“Mister Obsidian!” Sweetie exclaimed and smiled, waving as she recognized the short mole rat from before. “What’re you doing with all these crystals?”

“That’s Sir Obsidian! And I am evaluating which of these crystals make for good heating accents. It is something that can only be seen with a good eye and experience, rather than being able to detect with magic. Now what can I help you two with?”

The short figure of Sir Obsidian stood on top of the glass slab and tapped his foot quickly, a small frown on his face while he looked Sweetie Belle in the eyes, before Bon Bon gave a small snort and caught his attention.

“Obby, quit it. We need a few heating accents, and you handle everything about them.”

“Hmph, fine, you can have some. But this had better be it! I’m not going to be stopping my work every few minutes just because somepony forget to get theirs!”

Hopping down on the opposite side of the glass block, Sir Obsidian went over to a bag and pulled out a handful of dark string, while several of the orange crystals hung underneath. Untangling them, he tossed a few over to Bon Bon, who caught them around her hoof and handed one to Sweetie.

Sweetie grabbed the crystal in her mouth and when once she had one by itself she realized it was a simple necklace, with the orange crystal hanging from it. Taking the hint from Bon Bon (who had just put one around her own neck), Sweetie Belle put her necklace on and instantly felt the cold melt away from her hooves, and the rest of her body seemed to heat up a bit as well.

“Wow! That feels so much better! I thought I was gonna freeze my flank off for sure. Thanks mist- I mean, Sir Obsidian,” Sweetie said with a smile, while the naked mole rat took a low bow.

“Now that’s more like it. You ponies should remember, I’m much more cooperative when I’m treated with a modicum of respect.”

"Is this the only way to stay warm here then?" Sweetie asked quizzically, tilting her head to the side. 

"Well, not entirely, but these crystals are turning up everywhere in some of the excavations, and they make for excellent heating accents. It’s a simple enchantment that allows these to heat the body comfortably constantly," Sir Obsidian explained, tapping his chest before he pulled out a crystal necklace of his own and letting it dangle from his claws. 

“Although, technically, they just work on the principle that they continually add heat to anything that they are touching to keep it regulated…”

The naked mole rat started rambling on about the finer details of the ‘heating accents’ as he called them and Sweetie Belle was completely enraptured by every word, barely registering when Bon Bon said good-bye and something about giving the necklaces to Sweetie’s friends, her mind only belatedly realizing what she said and snapping her out of her trance.

Whipping her head around she found that Bon Bon had already left and Sir Obsidian was still talking, seemingly to himself, while Sweetie remembered that she had to finish unpacking and organizing all of her equipment.

Interrupting the mole rat from his discussion with himself, Sweetie excused herself and trotted back outside to get back to work, noticing that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were talking to the mare named Magma Burn near one of the tents.

Trotting back to the main building, she slowed when she heard voices down one of the hallways. Being stealthy was not a problem, as the strange materials that made up both the floor and walls seemed to drink up the sound of her hooffalls, while doing little to make the conversation she was hearing less audible.

Stopping just before a corner at a narrow intersection with an impossibly tall ceiling, Sweetie held her breath and listened intently while two voices tried, and failed, to argue quietly.

“… and who knows what else is lurking there? You’ve seen the signs, brother, don’t be so stupid as to think they’ve stopped.”

“As much as I agree that it is dangerous to continue excavating and exploring that area in particular, I cannot say the same about the surface. Everyone has said that despite the cold, they would much rather stay here than venture off, no matter how large the group is.”

“They say that, but what you fail to realize is that our part to play in all of this was to just keep the expedition safe from anypony who might try to undermine the team’s efforts here or take the dig out from under them. What we’ve seen is grounds for us to not only terminate our agreement, but enough to convince everyone else here that it’s not worth it. The ponies are scared, Theus. You can see it in their eyes, there’s only so long their curiosity will win over their fear. I don’t want to see things when those tables flip. We should leave now.”

“I understand your concern, Miserelle, but there have been no excursions from above the surface that have ever had any negative-”

“They’ve seen the eyes, brother.”

“What? Are you going on about those eyes you keep saying you see?”

“It’s not just me, Theus! I’ve spoken with some of the ponies after they’ve come back from their trips through the city! There are others who get the feeling of being watched, a few have even said they’ve seen the blue lights moving when they look!”

“That’s just paranoia, sister. The surface is safe. If you want, we can talk to Magma Burn about stopping the Depth excursions until we understand more of the city and can properly navigate, but you know she won’t let us just pack up and leave. It’s her last chance to make some worthwhile discoveries. It’s the only reason she hasn’t given in yet, and I believe we can help her, even if we only stay up here.”

The conversation had started to move off, but Sweetie could still make out fragments of what the two speakers were saying, though it had become unintelligible beyond the occasional word.

Peeking around the corner, she saw that the corridor ahead was completely empty, and that the voices seemed to be bouncing off the walls, occasionally making it seem like the owners of the voices were getting nearer, and sometimes farther.

On her way back to her hammock and spread out inventions and supplies, Sweetie couldn’t help but think at all of the new information she had learned. She was starting to feel like some of the ponies here were hiding a terrible secret, and she certainly wasn’t meant to know about any of it.


*** 


It was back in the makeshift tent beside her hammock that Sweetie noticed something was wrong.

She had nearly finished organizing all of her tools, and her inventions were laid out beside the dark blue wall in a neat row, with the largest creations at either end and the smaller ones between them.

Sweetie had wanted to organize them by size, but looking around at some of the strewn belongings of some of the camp's other occupants, she had decided to make them easily visible by putting the largest ones at either end, and lowering the chances that somepony might be clumsy enough to lean against the wall and step on something.

She was now placing her tools and supplies in orderly rows on the tool rack that had been buried at the bottom of the wagon when suddenly a tiny adjustment pin flew off the rack and landed without a sound on the tarp-covered floor.

If Sweetie hadn't been looking almost directly at it when it happened, she doubted she would have noticed.

Using her magic to pick up the pin and place it back on the rack, hanging on by a hook in its handle, she was about to place a heavy mallet on the row below it when the pin fell off again. This time it wasn't alone though.

A small screwdriver landed with a soft puff of air on the tarp and the small tinkling sound of her tools vibrating reached her ears.

Taking a hesitant step backwards, Sweetie watched as the lighter of her tools seemed to suddenly jump off their perches all on their own and clatter to the ground, but a few seconds later she started to tremble, her legs shaking slightly.

Looking down at her hooves, she realized that it wasn't she who was shaking, but rather everything else.

The tools began to rattle and clatter violently and bounce off the tool rack and the shaking became more pronounced, causing Sweetie to stumble. Realizing she was in danger of getting impaled by one of her tools if it flew off at the wrong angle, she bolted for the tent flap and looked up as she stepped into the flat-walled cavern of the building, before running for the entrance and stumbling over her own hooves every time the trembling increased.

Bursting out of the doorway, Sweetie tried not to hyperventilate as she felt like she was in a bouncy castle. Around her, it seemed that all the other occupants of the camp had the same idea, running into the open clearing from nearby openings as the ground shook with a violence she hadn't felt since the thunderstorm they had gotten caught in on the airship.

She felt the same now as she had then. The sound of the world groaning and roaring assaulted her ears while her vision went blurry from the constant vibration, and she heard somepony yelling "earthquake!"

Sweetie tried to spot the telltale manes of her friends, but couldn't see anypony that resembled either Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. She did, however, notice Magma Burn come streaking out of the building behind her, followed quickly by the two griffins with a mix of green feathers and grey fur.

Slowly, terribly slowly, she felt the ground start to slow down beneath her and she looked up as the buildings around her seemed to quiet down, no longer howling for blood, but only gently screeching as the rumbles died down, and eventually, all that was left was the sensation that wasn't standing quite so much as she was struggling to stay upright.

Finding her legs could no longer hold her up, Sweetie fell to the ground and began shivering violently, but it had nothing to do with the cold of the place anymore, as that had been banished the moment she had put on the necklace in the morning.

Curling into a ball and covering her face with her hooves, she began to weep, her chest heaving as her breathing finally allowed her the proper amount of oxygen and she started gulping down air, her sobs wracking her body.

Feeling somepony petting her head she looked up and wiped away her tears so that she could see who was comforting her, and found that it was Sir Obsidian.

Instantly she began to weep anew and threw her forehooves around the diminutive figure who squawked and fell over.

"O-Oh S-s-s-ir O-Obsidi-ian! I thought w-we were all going to die!"

"There. There, young one, don't fear. Everything is alright, and we're safe now. Do you see anyone else crying like a little filly? I know that was scary, but you need to get a hold of yourself and help us make sure everyone else is alright."

Sweetie nodded and took a long shuddering breath, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate on breathing for a few minutes when another voice reached her ears.

"Alright people! I know that earthquake gave us a real fright, but we've got to make sure nothing's broken and no one got hurt. First off! Head count! Who's here?"

Sweetie looked to the source of the voice and found that it was Magma Burn. The older mare was standing on top of one of the tables and some of the camp's other occupants were gathered around her and were voicing their names.

Once her shakes had nearly gone away, Sweetie gave a small sniff and smiled at the naked mole rat, who had stayed by her side the entire time.

"Thank you, Sir Obsidian. I didn't see my friends at all, can you help me look for them? I need to make sure they're all right."

The short figure crossed his arms and looked up at Sweetie not that she had stood up again. He was so small that he in fact only came up to her chin.

"Don't see how much help I'll be, I can't exactly see above the crowd, but this is your first earthquake here, so I'll see what I can do. What do they look like?"

"My friends' names are Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Apple Bloom's a light yellow and has a red mane and Scootaloo has an orange coat and purple mane. I haven't seen them since this mor- Hang on... What do you mean my 'first earthquake here'?"

Sweetie Belle fixed the small creature with a curious stare and he tilted his head in response.

"Everyone's first earthquake is terrifying, I'll admit, and it took us a while to get used to, but the earthquakes have been happening with more and more frequency now. When we first arrived we all thought we were going to die, just like you did just now, but then we realized that nothing here had been damaged. The earthquakes used to come about once a week or so but they've steadily been getting more common, and now they run through the camp about once every three days. 
Though all of it though, none of these buildings has ever fallen or crumbled or shown any sign of damage, nor has the earth split or broken in any way."

The naked mole rat scratched his chin and continued, "It's understandable that you're scared, but you'll get used to the earthquakes before long. The only real dangers come from something falling over onto you when they happen."

"They're a common occurrence? How can that be, I heard somepony yelling 'earthquake' just a few minutes ago!"

"Probably one of the new ponies," Sir Obsidian said, waving a claw in the air and dismissing it quickly, "It's only natural for you newbies to get scared the first time around. I have to say though," he winked at Sweetie Belle, "Even if you broke down and started crying, you should have seen the first earthquake we endured. I was paralyzed with shock and some of the biggest stallions you've ever seen were cowering and crying for their mommies."

Sweetie gave a small chuckle at the thought, before Magma Burn pushed her way through the crowd beside Sir Obsidian and fixed the pale unicorn with a hard glare.

"I heard you were looking for your friends... Sweetie Belle was it? I'm afraid they're not here. They left on an expedition to go down into one of the excavations sites nearby a few hours ago. They're with some of the most experienced ponies from my team though, so you have nothing to fear. They'll be perfectly alright."

The scarred mare cracked a hard smile, "Plus they've got Lyra and Bon Bon with them. If anypony can keep them safe, it's those two. As for you," the glare switched to the naked mole rat, who seemed to shrink just a bit under Magma's gaze, "I think we need to have a small talk. You said that the earthquakes wouldn't be a problem from now on. As you can see, they are still very prevalent."

The small figure grumbled before giving an apologetic look to Sweetie Belle and turning and pushing his way through the slowly-dispersing crowd, Magma Burn following close behind.

Sweetie couldn't help but wonder that something was amiss with the charcoal-grey mare as the two disappeared into an alley between two of the squat buildings around the camp.

Feeling a hoof tap her on the shoulder, Sweetie thought she was going to turn around to see one of her friends, but instead it was Heavy Hoof, looking quite glum, his blonde mane falling over his eyes slightly. If Sweetie were to guess, he had been just as terrified of the earthquake as she had been.

"My uncle says I have to help you look for your friends, or something..."

"Um... thanks Heavy Hoof, but I just found out my friends are on an expedition. They're out somewhere in the city."

The large red stallion lifted his head slightly and squinted one eye. Sweetie Belle could easily see that he was wearing a heating accent around his neck as well, and he blinked several times before speaking again.

"Uh, are you sure that's safe? I've heard from my uncle that some of the ponies from the first group have gone missing."

Suddenly the earthquake seemed so inconsequential as she remembered the conversation she had overheard earlier.

Who knows what else is lurking there?

The ponies are scared, Theus.

...feeling of being watched...

They've seen the eyes...

"Missing?" Sweetie breathed, barely daring to whisper. Her question seemed to make Heavy Hoof uncomfortable.

"Uh... um, n-not that I would know for sure! I just overheard my uncle talking with the camp leader earlier and it sounded like somepony had gone missing. What with the earthquake just now I thought it would be better if everypony stayed together... As much as I don't like the cold and quiet of this place, I don't think we should be wandering alone..."

New resolve steeled itself inside Sweetie and her eyes hardened slightly. Apparently the change wasn't unnoticeable, as Heavy Hoof took a step back and looked at Sweetie uncertainly.

"Heavy Hoof, have you seen Trickwing recently? Or Chrome Clock?" The pale unicorn asked.

"Who's Trickwing?" Heavy Hoof answered, a blank look on his face. "And was Chrome Clock that pony that would never wipe the engine oil off his hooves? I remember my uncle made me meet everypony, and that oil stained my hooves for days! It wasn't until we got in that thunderstorm that I finally managed to get it all out."

The red unicorn was looking at his hooves with something like disgust, and he suddenly fit Sweetie's memory of the haughty and whiny unicorn much better than he had a minute ago.

Shaking her head, she activated her magic and dragged Heavy Hoof along with her.

"Come on, Heavy Hoof. We're going to find your uncle and then Magma Burn, and then we're going to have a very long talk with them."


*** 


A grey stallion peered out from under his cloak and smiled, watching the camp go about its business after the earthquake. One pony in particular held his interest as he turned to his companion on the roof of the large rectangular building from where they surveyed the expedition camp.

"Go tell the boss they newcomers have arrived and that the strain is finally getting to the first ones. I'll keep watch and update you when you get back."

The second pony, whose face was covered by their scarf and who wore a similar dark cloak, nodded and ran to the opposite edge of the roof massive building, before dropping out of sight.

The grey pony smiled and settled back in to wait. These ponies would do all the hard work and get past all the obstacles, and then they would just swoop down and pick up the prize.
> Chapter 3 - The Tunnels
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Come on, you slowpokes! We’re not gonna get to the dig if you keep dragging your hooves!”

Scootaloo raced ahead, her wings carrying her through the streets of the silent city, like traversing through an enormous tomb. She had to admit, after a while the cold and the quiet kind of gave her the creeps.

The pegasus turned back to the rest of the excavation team that was following her, partially to make sure they were still there, and partially to make sure she hadn’t gone too far ahead and gotten lost; she didn’t know where their destination actually was.

Right at the front of the group were Lyra and Trickwing, followed by Apple Bloom, a dark grey Minotaur, and two other ponies from the first exploration team whose names Scootaloo didn’t remember.

“Who are you calling slowpokes? We’re going the right speed, it’s you who’ll just end up going too fast and hurting yourself, kid!” Lyra called forward, before twisting her head to hear a clang as a pickaxe fell out of her saddlebags.

“Son of a… ” the teal unicorn paused to repack her bags, during which Trickwing and Apple Bloom managed to close the distance between themselves and their orange friend.

“I can’t believe it! Our first day here in Seskantor and we’re already heading off to a dig site! What do you think we’ll find, Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked, keeping pace with the other two by skipping.

“I don’t know about you girls, but I want to find something that can help us explain how the original builders of this city got around. I mean, this city stretches for kilometers, there’s no way they could just hoof it the whole time.” Trickwing replied, taking a glance above and behind him, where a mountain could be seen off in the distance between the buildings, with more blue-grey cube buildings climbing up its surface.

“Well I want to find a mummy!” Scootaloo cheered brightly, “I want to find the remains or resting place of whatever it was that built this place. Plus if it came to life and turned out to be a cursed mummy or zombie or something like that then it’d be extra cool!”

“Uh, Scoots, how on earth would that be cool? Wouldn’t it jus’ be terrifying and dangerous?”

“You have no sense of adventure, AB. We’re in one of the most fantastical places in the world, let your imagination run wild with the possibilities of what could lay here, just waiting to be uncovered!”

“You know what Scootaloo? I think I’m gonna side with Apple Bloom on this one. Maybe hoping for something horrifying and monstrous isn’t the best use of our imaginations in a giant, deserted ghost city,” Trickwing chimed in, nudging the orange pegasus mare with a chuckle.

The three shared a look before stifling a small bout of laughter, however, after taking a few seconds to recover, they looked around and saw nopony else in the streets with them. The way they had come was completely deserted and the stillness of the empty city was deafening.

“Hey, where’d everypony go? I thought we still had a ways to go till we got to the dig site?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud, turning her head this way and that in order to catch a glimpse of their group, perhaps down some side alley or narrow street.

Suddenly, Lyra popped her head out of a large, empty doorway in one of the buildings they had passed and called out to the three friends.

“You kids coming, or what?”

Without sparing another look to their surroundings, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Trickwing all rushed for the entrance and the relative safety of the rest of the group. In their haste they did not notice the twinkling of blue lights passing through the shadows of the building opposite, watching their every move.


***


“Wow. That’s a big hole.”

Apple Bloom gave a long whistle as she stared down into the chasm that tore deep into the earth. The expanse was inside the eerily large and empty building Lyra had disappeared into, and when she looked up, the farmer saw nothing but reflected silver-blue coming off the cone-shaped ceiling. From where she stood at the lip of the hole in the floor, she could clearly see that it gently curved upwards from its initial downward slope until it came to about the horizontal before the end of the tunnel was no longer visible beyond its own curve.

While the hole wasn’t very steep, it was incredibly wide, and seemed to go down very deep into the ground. The young earth pony guessed that sixty full grown ponies hoof-in-hoof standing around the edge of the jagged chasm wouldn’t have been enough to go around the perimeter, and their group consisted of only seven individuals.

Turning her attention to the other three members of the excavation group, the Minotaur and the two Ponies, she realized that she couldn’t remember their names, but watched in fascination as they drove spikes into the wall closest to the tunnel and attached climbing ropes to them, despite the fact that there were already several ropes draped over the edge in such a manner, making sure they were fastened and secured properly before going over the rest of their equipment.

“So, uh, what’re we going down there for again? Isn’t there enough city up here on the surface to explore?”

“Explore, yeah, there’s tons, but after a while the buildings all start to show off the same characteristics. We found this hole back when Bon Bon and myself arrived with the first exploration team, while we were looking for a good place to set up a permanent base camp,” Lyra explained.

“So what’s down there that’s not up here?” Scootaloo asked, sauntering over to stand beside Apple Bloom at the edge of the hole.

Lyra had a glint in her eye that made the mares slightly uncomfortable as she answered, “Down this hole is the most concrete evidence anypony’s ever found of our true origins, as well as the most evidence to support the Old Ones Theory.”

Before Apple Bloom or Scootaloo could ask what exactly the Old Ones Theory was, Lyra grinned and asked, “You kids aren’t scared of the dark, or enclosed spaces, are you?” she trotted over the lip of the massive hole and quickly jumped down onto the slanted and uneven ground below.

The two ponies and Minotaur gave a short look to the trio of friends (Trickwing trotted over to stand with the two mares) and followed Lyra’s example, but had their ropes attached to a long spool on their packs, and without waiting for an answer, the green Unicorn lit up her horn like a light and started leading the others into the darkness. 

Giving each other a look, the two pegasi easily jumped in and glided down to where the rest of the group was gathered. Apple Bloom tried to follow suit, hopping over the edge, but she landed harder than she should have and slipped on a patch of smooth blue slate, falling onto her side and cutting her rear left leg on a large and jagged blue-ish rock.

Wincing slightly, she got to her hooves gingerly and pulled her lantern out of her saddlebags, switching it on and illuminating her way, even though she could see the light given off from the rest of the excavation team’s lamps.

Apple Bloom realized quickly that she would have to bandage her leg to stop it from dripping so much blood; her way down after the others was perilous enough without her adding a slipping hazard to the mix.

Hissing in pain, she sat down on her haunches and pulled a length of cloth out of her saddlebags. It wasn’t a proper gauze bandage, but it would do. Tying it around her rear leg in an effort to stop the bleeding––no small feat with only her mouth and hooves––she looked back down the tunnel to see the last bit of gold light fading around a bend. However, she could still clearly see the silhouettes of her two friends in the light of the lantern Trickwing was carrying.

Testing to make sure the improvised bandage wouldn’t fall off from movement, Apple Bloom rushed as fast as her pained leg would allow and caught up with her friends as they stood at the bend.

“Hey, thanks for waiting fer me! I woulda lost you all if you’d gone on ahead.”

“It’s no problem, AB, Scootaloo stopped me when she realized you weren’t behind us. What happened?” Trickwing stretched out a wing to pat Apple Bloom’s back as he held the lantern aloft with the other.

“I just slipped and cut myself, no big deal. We’d better get goin’ quick if we’re gonna catch up with the others though, I don’t wanna get lost down in these tunnels!”

Motioning for her friends to follow, the earth pony quickly took the lead and turned the corner, following Lyra’s gold light as it slowly moved away down the tunnel and doing her best not to look like she was limping.

Glancing around as the unicorn turned a corner ahead, briefly taking the light with her, Apple Bloom noted the rough construction of the tunnel. Support pillars from the buildings above jutted through the earthen walls every now and then, giving off the slightest bit of blue light of their own.

The earth pony shivered, then tried to pick up the pace as much as she could without causing any pain. Rounding the corner, the three ponies saw that the natural-looking tunnel broke into a large square room where the rest of the archeological party had already gathered.

A large heating crystal sat in the middle of the room, giving off a soft orange glow and illuminating some of the gloom. Looking up, Apple Bloom was surprised to see the low ceiling of the place, just a few hoof-lengths taller than she was.

It was rather off-putting, considering the cathedral-like buildings on the surface.

Looking back down to the group, she felt Scootaloo nudge her in the side and point forward, where two ponies that hadn’t been with them on their march through the silent city stood and conversed with Lyra in hushed tones. Occasionally one of the two mystery ponies would glance over at the three friends, but a moment later the teal unicorn turned back to address the assembled explorers.

“Alright everypony! Groups of no less than three, Blue Briar and Frost Feather say that the ground and ceiling have been getting more unstable! I want everyone out to meet back here at the slightest hint of danger, got it? Explored routes have been marked with red chalk on the walls, so if you get lost or separated, just look for red markings on the walls, kapish? I don’t want any accidents today.”

Nodding to each member of the group as they started dividing up, the older unicorn trotted over to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Trickwing, pulling a lantern out of her saddlebags with her magic as she did so.

“You three alright? You’ll be coming with me, where I can keep an eye on you.”

Raising a hoof to stave off the outburst that had started in Scootaloo’s throat, Lyra gave the young pegasus a pointed look before continuing.

“Look, I know you kids are eager to explore, but there’s some places that have been marked off, and for good reason. There’s been a whole lot more exploring that’s been done since I left, but I still know my way around these tunnels better than most. That, and the fact that I don’t want your families wringing my neck if I lose anypony means that you’ll be sticking with me, at least for the first few days until we get you accustomed to wandering endless, dark tunnels.”

She gave a smirk and a flick of her head, motioning for the group to follow her to the far wall.

Noticing they were the only ones left in the staging area besides the two unknown ponies from earlier, Apple Bloom gave the two a look over as they passed.

The ponies, a light blue unicorn stallion and a snow-white pegasus mare, barely looked up as the group passed, huddled around the large heating crystal as they were, each clutching a dark cloak around themselves tightly.

Apple Bloom could have been mistaken but she swore the two had a haunted look in their eyes, and while they didn’t make eye contact, their eyes seemed to gloss over the younger ponies while the talked in hushed whispers and staring into the crystal.

Speeding up so that she was next to Lyra, the earth pony asked the older unicorn, “Hey, who are those two? And why do they look like they just went through Tartarus and back?”

Scootaloo and Trickwing leaned in, eager to hear some gossip and deepen the mystery of the lost city, while Lyra sighed and dipped her head before looking back up and motioning for the group to the far wall of the chamber. The wall in question was the color of sandstone, a far cry from the steel grey and azure blue of the rest of the city, and was covered in geometric carvings that split to reveal three squat tunnels leading into darkness.

“Come on, I’ll tell you on the way. It’s… not something we should talk about around them.”

The three friends gave each other questioning looks, but complied and quieted down until they had walked some distance into the tunnel and had lit their own lamps, now well out of earshot of the two ponies.

“Is everything okay? Because those two don’t seem okay. You said there was nothing dangerous here, but they look half scared out of their minds.” Scootaloo whispered.

In the large empty hall, the only sounds that could be heard were their hoofsteps echoing loudly on the floor, the slight pop the lanterns occasionally made, and the sighing of one very unsure unicorn.

“Okay, we may have downplayed the danger of exploring this place a small bit,” Lyra said with a forced smile. Seeing the looks that the other three gave her she hung her head in frustration. “Oh, come on you guys, I only found out today when we landed, alright? There was no way to get a message back from here to Equestria without using another airship, and hiring a crew just to deliver mail back and forth while we were away for two weeks would have been a pointless waste of bits.”

“What do you mean you ‘only found out today’? What exactly did you find out?” Trickwing asked, his brow raised in suspicion.

“Well… when we got back here, the first thing Magma Burn told me was that this place didn’t seem to be as dead as we’d originally thought.” Noting the look of alarm on the youngsters’ faces, Lyra quickly brought a hoof up to calm them down.

“N-not like, anything dangerous lives here! It’s just, you know how cold and quiet and still it is outside in the city? Well the city seems to have a mind of its own. Occasionally there’ll be earthquakes, or a wall might collapse with no notice, or a building might rearrange itself-”

“Wait, what?” 

Apple Bloom had brought the party to a halt as she tilted her head and fixed the sea-green unicorn with a strong stare.

“What’dya mean buildings rearranging themselves? That sounds a lot more alive than unstable ground!”

“Ehh, that might not have been the best example. But hey, that’s what Magma told me. All I know is that it’s not safe to go exploring Seskantor on your own, because some ponies have gone missing when they wandered off on their own.”

“W-what if we go missing? Oh Celestia, this place is huge! If we get lost, we’d never get out!” Trickwing backed up a few steps, eyes wide, before his rump ran into the wall behind him. Giving a small squeak and jumping into the air, he blushed very suddenly and had to muster his best glare as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom started giggling uncontrollably.

“Oh please, Tricky, I’m a bit nervous, but you’re overreacting! I trust Lyra, and as long as we stick with her, we’ll be fine.” Scootaloo waved a hoof dismissively and looked from her friend to their mentor. Apple Bloom on the other hoof, still had a small lingering feeling of doubt from what Lyra had just said.

Any further conversation was cut short as Lyra raised the lamp to better inspect the wall, where a red arrow pointing back the way they had come had been scratched onto the dark stone wall.

Lifting her lantern further, a small smirk graced her lips before she turned back to her three charges.

“Well, you guys did say you came here looking for adventure and discoveries… so feast your eyes on this!”


***


“Sweet Celestia… what is it?”

“That there, Apple Bloom, is one of the ‘dig’ portions of this dig site. Yo, Bonnie, what’s up?”

Lyra gave a snort and a giggle before she trotted over to the edge of the hole in the middle of the tunnel, where a rope ladder led down into another chamber, however this one was much larger than the one with the heating crystal, and already held an unexpected surprise.

“Lyra, get down here already! I’ve been waiting an alicorn’s age for you to arrive!”

Peering over the edge, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Trickwing saw the face of a rather grumpy-looking Bon Bon, along with a navy-blue gryphon with a hardhat and an earth pony wearing a yellow poncho that hid most of their features.

Glancing back at the thing that had given them pause a few moments ago, Scootaloo scratched her head with a hoof and stared, trying to discern what it was.

The large hole in the floor was perfectly circular and what seemed to be a massive stone statue stood in its center. The base was on the floor of the room below them where Bon Bon and the two others were excavating something with picks and chisels, and the head of the statue soared up through the hole and just under the ceiling of the tunnel the four of them currently stood in.

How they had missed it while walking through the tunnel, Scootaloo had no idea. It was as if it had suddenly sprung from existence, seeing as she couldn’t remember it being there seconds ago.

Fluttering her wings, she took another look at the hole before launching herself into the air, avoiding the crumbling statue in front of her and gliding down to the floor below in a slow spiral. Behind her, Apple Bloom was still studying the stone figure, and Trickwing jumped and regained his senses, jumping down after Scootaloo a moment later. Lyra, strangely, had already managed to rappel down one side of the rope ladder like a fire pole.

“What’d y’all think it is?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud, tilting her head this way and that to try and make sense of the statue. After much squinting and carefully walking around the edge of the hole, she decided it looked a bit like a Pegasus, albeit one standing on very long hind legs and a somewhat disfigured face. The statue wasn’t broken in any way that she could discern, but the facial structure looked a bit flat and grim. On the statue’s back were a pair of large wings that spread out slightly and then drooped almost to the base on the floor below.

“Come on, Apple Bloom! There’s more to look at down here!” 

Peering over the edge once more, the earth pony saw Scootaloo and Trickwing, both with wonder on their faces, waving to her from down below with their wings. “Alright, alright, ah’m coming, just wait a darned second.”

As she carefully climbed down the rope ladder into the brighter space created by more lanterns, Apple Bloom got a good look at what Bon Bon and her two companions were chipping away at with pickaxes and chisels.

The base of the statue was very wide and circular, made from the same rust-colored stone as the tunnels and the statue itself, and was covered in geometric symbols, some partially obscured, either by rocks that had piled up over the centuries, or from being scratched and faded by time.

Out of what she could clearly see however, was a simplistic drawing of the statue, a bipedal figure with large wings, as well as similar other figures with different defining characteristics. Some pictures looked like the things had claws, while others had fur or spines or hoof-like limbs, and all the pictures faced the same way.

In between all the little drawings scratched into the base was the same symbol, like a cross between an “x” and a “w”, and there were numerous other varied symbols written in below each picture.

“What does it mean?” Apple Bloom heard Trickwing ask, while out of the corner of her eye she saw Scootaloo flitter over to a pile of rubble farther in the room and begin rummaging around in it.

“Nopony knows. There’s nothing like it in any recorded language or alphabet. These symbols seem to predate all modern civilisations, which would make sense, considering the estimated age of the city. The most exciting discovery is in this next chamber though, let me show you guys!” Lyra waved her hoof happily to the young ponies and patted Bon Bon gently on the shoulder. “I’ll let you guys keep at it, we’ll be just ahead, alright Bonnie?”

Giving just a grunt of acknowledgment as she held a hammer in her mouth, Bon Bon continued to chip away at the surrounding rock with the griffon and the other pony, while Apple Bloom stole a glance at their work as she followed the others further into the cavernous room. The symbols that the ponies were currently clearing away were yet another of the winged bipeds, but it seemed to be drawn within a tall rectangle.

Tearing her eyes away from the archeological discovery being made right in front of her, Apple Bloom put a bit of extra strain on her injured leg as she rushed to catch up with her group, wincing in pain a bit. Unbeknownst to her, however, the makeshift bandage around her rear leg began growing darker with fresh blood, carrying its scent down the tunnels.


***


Leaving the large cavern with the statue behind, the ponies began moving slower, as the tunnel at the end of the room began to slope down, and the smooth rock floor was covered in small pebbles that made the explorers slip and skid downward every so often, and the friends had to hold onto each other to safely navigate the treacherous slide.

“So, uh, what’s down this way, Lyra?” Scootaloo asked, as she flared out her wings to help keep her balance. “You uh, didn’t actually say what was down this way.”

“Ok, well, I never got to explore this much when we first came here, but Magma Burn told me that while exploring this place last week, they’d come across what looked like some sort of ancient laboratory!”

“A lab?” Apple Bloom perked up at the mention of science. “Ah know Sweetie Belle’s more the one for mechanics and all, but I’ve loved potions and chemistry ever since we were fillies learning from Twilight! What kind of lab izzit?”

The teal unicorn was about to reply before she frowned a bit, slipping on the rocks underhoof and sliding a fair bit forward down the tunnel. “Blasted gravel! Now I know why they haven’t come down here much, it’s impossible to keep your footing.”

Shaking her head, the unicorn smiled as she stepped forward onto level ground. “But it looks like the tunnel finally levels out here. You can all move a bit faster if you’d like! We’ve reached the bottom!”

Waving back happily, she waited till the three younger ponies rejoined her before channelling more magic into her horn and spreading glowing golden light across the underground room.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, welcome to the underground Life Labs!”

With the brighter light, the four ponies could clearly see their surroundings for once, with the floor beneath them no longer a natural cave tunnel, but a smooth grey floor, while a similar ceiling rose above them, with dark glass orbs set in evenly spaced intervals.

Along the ground stood sturdy, white tables and cabinets; large boxes as tall as ponies with rusted steel countertops adorning them, and black handles at head height on visible doors. Atop the counters, barely visible, were piles of ancient dust, broken exotic tools, as well as what looked like several microscopes and blackened metal boxes.

In the center of the room stood a large glass cylinder that reached up to the ceiling, a shrivelled and withered corpse floating serenely inside, while pipes and rusted cords completely covered the body’s head and neck and rose to the top of the tank.

Taking a step back in horror, Apple Bloom gasped, transfixed by the sight in the center of the room, while Lyra patted her shoulder softly, bringing her out of the moment of shock.

“Woah… when Magma Burn told me they’d found a body in the lab, I never imagined she meant this. But uh, don’t worry Apple Bloom, it’s been long dead. More importantly, wow, this place is big. These tables are huge!”

Walking into the room, Lyra smiled wide with amazement as she tried to look up onto the tables to get a closer look at some of the old and unrecognizable scientific equipment, while Scootaloo and Trickwing fluttered up to land on the nearest of the dusty old surfaces, heads twisting this way and that as they both looked out into the dimly-lit room and the maze of tall tables and benches that sat in orderly rows and columns around it.

Walking slowly down the center of the aisles created by tables and cabinets, Apple Bloom approached the ancient preserved body floating in the huge tube in the center of the room, lifting her lantern with one hoof as she sat down on her haunches, trying to get a better look at whatever it was. Semi-transparent, shrivelled skin was pulled over bony knobs and joints, while atrophied muscles barely showed through on gangly limbs that stuck out at weird angles.

The head, upon closer inspection, seemed to be covered by some sort of half-helmet, with cables, chains, ropes, and tubes suspended all around it, like a snake’s nest of nooses all trying to strangle the dead thing. From the thing’s bony back sprouted two long, thin appendages, that trailed down near the thing’s curled up feet, looking like wings that were completely plucked of feathers.

After studying it for a few moments, it was apparent that the dead thing floating inside the giant glass cylinder was one of the things depicted by the statue in the previous room, and in her time looking at it, the earth pony hadn’t noticed as the two pegasi swooped down to land just behind her, also slightly horrified and intrigued by the corpse floating suspended in front of them.

“So uh,” Trickwing started, earning a jump from Apple Bloom as she turned around fast enough that she nearly fell over onto her injured leg. “What do you think it is? Where these creatures the ones that built Seskantor? Or was this something that was sick?”

“Well, Lyra called this the ‘Life Labs’, what do you suppose it means? Did they create life here? Or was it like a disease research center?” Scootaloo shot back, “You know, like ‘preserving life lab’ or something like that.”

“Well ah mean, ah don’t know, but Lyra said Magma Burn told her. Lyra, did Magma Burn tell you if they found out what this place was for? Lyra?”

Turning back around and looking around the corner of the nearest table, Apple Bloom realized that the room had gotten slightly darker, a factor of Lyra’s light spell no longer being present, and the older unicorn didn’t call back.

“Where’d she go?!” Scootaloo’s eyes went wide as she took to the air, hovering above the tables as she avoided piping going into the ceiling while she looked for any trace of the older mare.

“This isn’t funny, Lyra! Ok, yeah, this place is definitely spooky, but we really don’t need you pulling pranks right now to give us a little scare!”

As the three stopped and strained, listening for any sound among the lifeless lab equipment or from within the gloom beyond, there was nothing but deathly silence, and the hammering of their own hearts as the three began to huddle closer together.

“She-she’s gone! But where could she have gone? It’s not like her to get so caught up with the archaeology that she just forgets about us!” Scootaloo wailed quietly, suddenly very aware of just how loud and alone her voice sounded in the darkness of the lab.

“L-Lyra told us just earlier that this place isn’t as dead as it seems, right? With rooms rearranging and ponies getting lost and all? Maybe that happened to her! We’ve got to find her!” Trickwing pointed out, now huddled against the other two in the center of the room.

“We should head back and tell Bon Bon! She’ll know what to do. But Ah think we should stick real close-like to each other from now on. Lyra was only out of sight behind these tables for a few seconds, and she disappeared. I don’t wanna lose you two or get caught by whatever happened to Lyra, so ah’m not gonna let you two outta my sight until we-”

Apple Bloom was making sense, and the other two were huddling close to her as she spoke, nodding along, until she was interrupted by a very peculiar sound.

A ticking and clicking sound filled the room, quiet, and yet echoing. While the echo made it hard to distinguish exactly where it came from, the three ponies turned their heads to the back of the room, which was still shrouded in darkness and which none of them had explored yet, while the sound seemed to get a faint bit clearer.

Getting slowly louder as it seemed to be coming towards them, the three ponies stood up and backed away a few paces, before the sound stopped entirely, as suddenly as it had begun.

Steeling herself, Apple Bloom took a brave step forward and lifted her lantern into the darkness, peering to see what lay beyond the glass tank.

“Lyra? Is that you?”
> Chapter 4 - The Division
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweetie Belle walked with Heavy Hoof still clutched in her magical grasp, dragging him along unceremoniously through the camp as the quiet of the city once again fell over everypony. The other creatures in the camp seemed to glance around nervously as they passed, and Sweetie found the sudden paranoia infectious, for she too started looking around, searching for something out of place among the still, dead city.

Shaking her head and giving a snort, she walked until the two of them were beside the large fireplace in the center of camp. With a flick of her magic, she pulled Heavy Hoof forward and deposited him on all four hooves in front of her. 

“Alright Heavy Hoof,” she began, sitting down by the warmth of the fire, “We need a plan before we confront Magma Burn. I heard her as she dragged away Sir Obsidian earlier, and I’m pretty sure she’s got enough stress from the problems the expedition’s been having, but maybe we’d better get some more concrete evidence first.”

“Evidence? Of what? I just said some scared ponies got lost, is all.” The red stallion gave her a confused look as he sat down beside her, looking over at her.

“No, you specifically said they had gone missing. And… I don’t want to scare you more than you already are-”

“I’m not scared!” Heavy Hoof puffed out his not-inconsiderable chest and a new fire blazed in his eyes as he tried staring down the much smaller Sweetie Belle, “I’m not scared of anything! I’m just concerned for you and your-”

“Sure you are.” She cut him off with a deadpan look, “Okay so you’re not scared, but in just the few hours that we’ve been here, I’ve heard of other ponies who are scared. I don’t know exactly who it might be, but if ponies have gone missing and some of the other scientists are afraid to leave, we need to get to the bottom of this, and fast. My friends are somewhere out there in the city, and I’m going to make sure they come back safe from their expedition.”

She looked around the camp and saw that much of the frantic activity had already subsided, but her sharp eyes spotted one creature in particular walking out of the central building. 

“Come on, I think I might know where we can start getting some solid evidence,” she yelled back as she trotted off, looking back only to make sure that the haughty red unicorn was following behind him.


***


“Well, now, really, it was nothing. Just doing my duty for the good of the camp, you know. No point having anypony here if they’re all going to freeze up the moment something bad happens.”

The diminutive figure of Sir Obsidian was seated between Sweetie Belle and Heavy Hoof at his station in the crystal-sorting room, and he was happily chatting with them as he continued looking at each new orange sample under a thick lens that was jammed against one of his eyes.

Sweetie and Heavy shared a look before she smiled wider and leaned forward.

“Oh yeah, I can totally see that! You said ponies were really scared after the first earthquake, so I bet you got really good at helping other ponies after that experience.”

“Well, it’s not just the earthquakes that have taught me. There’s all sorts of hazards that come with being cut off from civilization in an ancient ruin the size of Saddle Arabia,” He replied dismissively, “That mare, Magma Burn, being foremost among them, I might add. Whenever something bad happens she always seems to blame it on me, and if not on me, then on my planning, or something I didn’t tell her, or something else that was my fault!”

The short figure stomped its foot on the stone seat angrily before shaking its head and returning its focus to its work.

“I can… somewhat sympathize with her though. She is under tremendous stress out here. Making sure nopony goes wandering off or getting hurt in a place as tremendous as this is… no small feat, let me assure you. And sometimes I think she’s letting it get to her.”

As if suddenly realizing where he was and who he was talking to, Sir Obsidian suddenly perked up and shook his head slightly.

“Erm, yes, but uh, what about you two? I’m sure you’re both quite excited to be here, and I’m sure there are much more interesting things you two could be doing than watching as I sort suitable crystals for heating accents. Not that I don’t mind the company, but you especially, miss Sweetie, seemed very eager to get to work researching the phenomena of this city when we talked earlier.”

Well, here goes nothing, Sweetie thought, taking a deep breath and steeling herself. “Actually, we were just wondering about something that we’ve heard and you brought it up just a second ago.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” Sir Obsidian replied, not looking up from his work.

“Well, you said we had to be ready, in case something bad happens, and that whenever it does, Magma Burn gets mad at you. And if no one gets hurt during the earthquakes, then why would Magma Burn be letting anything get to her? That almost makes it sound like you’re hiding things; things that aren’t harmless.”

Sweetie stomped her hoof against the blue concrete to emphasis her point, muffled as the sound was due to the strange properties of the city. She glanced over at Heavy Hoof, who was looking at the two of them with a combination of mild interest and slight nervousness, but if he wanted to say anything about the matter, he chose not to.

Looking back at the naked mole rat on the seat between then, it Sweetie a moment to realize that Sir Obsidian had stopped his work. He didn’t move an inch, and if Sweetie didn’t know better, she could have mistaken him for a statue. Raising an eyebrow, she trotted in front of the desk to get a good look at his face.

“Sir Obsidian? Is every-”

Her question died on her lips as she saw the face the small figure was making, and she involuntarily took a step backwards. Gone was the slightly annoyed look in the mole rat’s eye, and the superior tone in his voice was nonexistent when he next spoke. He stood stock-still, but his eyes flicked upwards to stare at Sweetie Belle with understanding and something approaching pain.

“I can tell you some, but I don’t know much. Furthermore, I must ask that you don’t tell anypony else before Magma Burn does. And don’t tell her I told you this. If she finds out you know, you didn’t hear it from me.”

The small figure sighed as Sweetie and Heavy moved to sit down in front of the desk, while Sir Obsidian quickly glanced about the otherwise-empty room to make sure no one else was listening.

“Alright. Yes, you’re right, this city isn’t exactly safe, and not just because of the earthquakes or regular industrial accidents. This city… it’s dead. Very dead. But not everything in it is. And by that,” he silenced Heavy’s question with a stern glare as he continued, “I just mean that there are other things here in the city. Part of the reason we’re only working in a few specific locations here is because the city is massive, yes, but another reason is it’s not safe to go into some of the other places.”

“Now I don’t actually know what might be dwelling in the city; who or what it or they might be, but the places we’re working on are the only places we’ve confirmed are safe so far. You’ll hear about some locations throughout the city in the next few days that are ‘unsuitable’ for exploration. We’ve not had any official sightings of any other creatures in the city yet, but many of us here have had the strange feeling of being watched from time to time.”

“Sometimes it’s nothing. Sometimes it means some of your tools, or equipment, or some samples you brought back go missing. And then sometimes… an entire pony will go missing.”

Sweetie stared, wide-eyed at Sir Obsidian, who squirmed under the gaze before holding up his clawed hands.

“Oh come on, don’t look at me like that! I told you now, didn’t I? We’ve had four ponies go missing in the two weeks we’ve been here. Most of the ‘off-limits’ areas are underground, and Magma Burn agrees that sending ponies there is too risky. It’s getting hard to keep everyone from devolving into a fearful mob at this point. Oh I’m sure it looks like we all get along fine- we do, but everypony has been carrying this fear around with them. We can’t go into any new locations and before you arrived with the second wave, we’d thought that maybe even the airship had disappeared.”

The two ponies were silent for a long time while Sir Obsidian fidgeted slightly and finally hopped up, sitting down on the slab of stone that was being used as a table. 

“So… Magma Burn was going to tell us? But when?” Heavy Hoof asked, breaching the silence, “I think I quite agree with some of the ponies that don’t want to be here if ponies have just vanished into thin air. Who’s gone looking for them?”

“There’s… We thought it best for everypony to get comfortable and settled in before we dropped something like this in everyone’s lap. It might cause too much panic and confusion if you found out too early-”

“You’re darn right I’m panicking! We already found out early, because the ponies here are scared and it’s obvious there’s secrets around here! And my two best friends are out there already!” Sweetie hollered, suddenly finding herself on her feet, “What if they went to one of these ‘off-limits’ areas? What if they go missing? And like Heavy Hoof said, who’s gone looking for them?”

Sweetie took a few steps back, heart pounding, as she tried to come back to some semblance of rational thought. Where did that outburst come from? She blinked as she wondered idly, I knew there were secrets a few hours ago, and Heavy Hoof nearly confirmed as much. 

She switched her gaze to Heavy Hoof and was about to continue when she noticed that both the red stallion and the naked mole rat were staring at something behind her. Before she could turn to look though, a new voice, one she recognized, sounded behind her.

“Your friends did indeed go out with one of the exploration parties earlier today. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

Sweetie slowly turned her head around and saw the level gaze of Magma Burn that had somehow materialized directly behind her. Scrambling back, she barely managed to suppress a squeak of fear. Unlike the other few times she had seen the mare, she now had an extremely good look at the mare’s features, and her scar coupled with the muted blues of their surroundings and the dim light gave her a sinister, inequine appearance.

“I-I… I’m going to find them and bring them back.” Sweetie said, steeling herself and locking her gaze with the cold glare of the other unicorn.

A moment passed where neither of them blinked, before Magma Burn turned and headed back to the far wall, where Sweetie could see a vast network of dark hallways opened into the room.

“Come to my office, Sweetie Belle. We have a few things to discuss. And Obby! Keep an eye on that other one.”

The white unicorn mare glanced back to Heavy Hoof and Sir Obsidian, the former having a confused look on his face as he met her eyes. The latter didn’t meet her gaze and simply stood up, reaching out to pat the stallion on the shoulder as the two started for the main exit. Looking back to the retreating figure of the dark unicorn, Sweetie tried to ignore her growing feeling of unease as she trotted after, following Magma Burn into the dark tunnels.


***


Sweetie Belle sat in Magma Burn’s office and tried to keep her attention from drifting from the mare in front of her. Dozens of crystals of various size and color decorated the walls, as did photos of a younger Magma Burn with other ponies at what Sweetie could only assume were other archeological sites. A massive desk in the center of the room pulsed coldly with an unshakable feeling of something nearly alive and angry.

Swallowing the lump in her throat and wiggling uncomfortably in the too-large stone seat, Sweetie brought her gaze back up to the dark grey unicorn as she sat down opposite her.

“Now,” she started, resting her hooves on the desk and leaning forward, “You’re obviously smart, and truth me be told I was hoping Obby could keep his trap shut longer than he did, but the past is in the past. You know things here are a little worse than we like to pretend, even if I had planned to tell everypony the full picture in a few days’ time. I asked you a question before I brought you here. What’s important now is what you’re going to do with this information and how you’re going to act on it.”

The dark unicorn blew a strand of her red mane out of her face and raised a hoof, “On the one hoof, you can go running off into the city to find your friends with no knowledge of where they might have gone or how to find them, in a vain effort to prevent some disaster from befalling them in an area that has already been designated as safe from our previous excursions, and getting lost yourself.”

She lifted an eyebrow, “That option is ill-advised.”

Raising the other hoof she continued, “Or you can wait for them to return, safely might I add, with the rest of their company and anything they might have found while they were digging. Then, when they do come back tomorrow morning, you can do the responsible thing and request to go with them next time in order to keep them safe, or otherwise try and convince them to stay here in the camp instead. Though, knowing this place and their age, once they’ve gone out once there won’t be anything anyone can do to prevent them from going on more excursions.”

“That is your second option,” Magma Burn put her hooves down and straightened up in her seat, “and I believe it is the far more sensible option. Your friends will be fine. They have experienced ponies with them, and they’ve gone to a place that we’ve already been to several times with no incidents.”

Sweetie looked down at her hooves for a while before her ears flicked at a sound somewhere down the open corridor behind them.

Before she could try and place what it was, the unicorn in front of her spoke again, but this time with a much softer tone.

“Sweetie Belle, I know you must be concerned for your friends, but I’m the expedition leader here for a reason. I care for everyone here, and I’m concerned for all of their safety too. Trust me when I say that your friends are fine. Ever since a few ponies have gone missing, I’ve been very strict with where it’s safe to travel to within the city. I don’t want anyone else to go missing, and we will find those who have. I trust you to not make any rash decisions now that I’ve told you this. Can you trust in me enough to see that I truly want to keep everyone at the camp safe? We’re all here because we want to learn about the secrets of this world, but we have to do things properly. We’ve realised there might be danger, and we have to follow the rules; both our own rules and the ones of this city.”

Sweetie contemplated the other unicorn’s words for a while, sitting in her chair, unmoving. Eventually, she gave a sigh and looked up, locking onto the mare’s crimson eyes with her own green ones and giving a small nod.

“Alright. And… you said they’d be back tomorrow morning?”

“That’s correct. It’s a bit of a walk to the dig site they travelled to, but it’ll still be a short trip compared to some of the other locations we’ve discovered.”

“Okay,” Sweetie nodded and hopped off the chair, heading back into the dark hall, “I’ll finish getting unpacked and I’ll be waiting for them.” And I think I’ve got a few surprises to help keep them safe if something does go wrong, she finished her sentence silently, her mind going to her various contraptions she had brought with her, and she started to design.


***


It was well into the night when she first heard the sound. Sitting by the low-burning light of an oil lamp and hidden from the rest of the sleeping tents by a tarp she had hung up, she carefully adjusted the energy input to the gravity detector housed within the metal frame in front of her. 

Every other creature in the camp was fast asleep, and Sweetie had been working on that specific contraption since her talk with Magma Burn earlier that day. Ever since then a fire of her own had burned within her veins, and she tirelessly made adjustments and additions to her most prized invention so that it would be ready when her friends arrived in the morning. 

And if they don’t arrive… she quickly shook her head and snapped herself out of the dark thoughts, focusing once more on her work. Squinting, she decided to tighten the unicorn horn duplication node a little more when a piercing sound cut through the still air like a thunderclap. Squeaking in surprise and dropping her screwdriver, she lifted the goggles off her eyes and poked her head out of her makeshift workshop.

Nopony else seemed to have been disturbed by the sudden sound, and no other sounds presented themselves through the gloom of the building. Sweetie was just about to go back to her work when she saw a shadow.

Normally, in the darkness of night and the added gloom that the city itself naturally exuded she wouldn’t  have seen anything, but because of the heating problem, several campfires remained lit throughout the camp at all times, and the faint light she could see by the entrance from the main fire outside had been blocked for a moment.

Straining her ears to hear anything more in the deafening silence, Sweetie heard nothing more, but several other shadows passed over the light from the campfire, and the last one had blocked it completely for long enough that whatever it was, she understood it was something big.

Frowning and picking up her screwdriver in her telekinesis just in case, Sweetie turned off her oil lamp and crept forward towards the building’s entrance. She tried moving as quietly as possible, but her hoofsteps were unnaturally quiet; for once she was thankful of the side effect that the dead city had on everything.

Making her way to the massive doorway, she hid behind one side and strained her ears as she heard muffled voices outside, but they were either too far away, or more likely, too quiet and suppressed by the strange magic in the air, for her to hear. 

Dang, I really wish my coat wasn’t white. For once it would come in really handy to be dark and drab. She sighed quietly to herself and leaned forward, daring to peek around the edge of the doorway at the camp’s exterior. The large fire crackled merrily in the center of the camp, surrounded by large stone slabs that served as tables and benches, and the shadows flickered and danced on the surrounding walls. 

Her gaze would have been captured by the sky, as the clear night twinkled beautifully with starlight, and the gigantic buildings around them reflected fractals of light, blending into the mosaic of stars the higher up she looked. One thing kept her from staring upwards for more than a second, and that was the form of a massive earth pony that stood not three body lengths away from her. 

Resisting the urge to hide back behind the doorway, Sweetie Belle stood frozen as the hushed whispers of voices she hadn’t yet heard in the camp echoed around the clearing. Leaning out of her hiding spot inch by inch, she eventually saw that several other creatures were standing in front of the earth pony, and all were wearing heavy cloaks; though their body shape looked close enough to ponies too. 

“-wanted as much research copied, but nothing taken. Remember, they can’t know we were here.” Said a silky, female voice from one of the figures, “Ram, you didn’t hurt whoever they left on guard, did you?”

A deep, rumbling voice came from the massive shadow of the earth pony in front of Sweetie Belle, and she did her best to shrink back against the shadows of the door as the group’s attention turned her way.

“Got ‘im jus’ fine. ‘E won’ remember nuthin’ by th’ time ‘e wakes u’.”

“Good,” came the mare’s silky voice once more, and Sweetie Belle did her best to quietly let out a breath she had been holding.

“Vir, go check Magma Burn’s office; Sneaky, you see if those two griffons have come across anything useful again; Pouch, you’re with me. We’re going to see if that little pipsqueak has unlocked anything with the crystals yet.”

Sweetie strained her ears, but didn’t hear anything else from the conversation, except that the large earth pony stallion, ‘Ram’, was to stand guard in the center of camp.

Taking a few steps back, Sweetie cursed the fact that her friends were gone and there was nopony else awake. But they probably came at night exactly because everyone was asleep. Or well, she thought as she smirked, almost everyone. 

Checking that none of the shadows that moved off weren’t coming in her direction, the young unicorn sat down and frantically tried to come up with a plan. Come on Sweetie! What’s the best course of action? Logically thinking, I should just head back to my tent until they leave. I heard them say ‘again’, so they’ve been here before, and they might try and come back again. I should wait until they leave and then tell Magma Burn about this.

She was nearly decided when another thought crept into her mind. Wait… Magma Burn never said anything about anypony getting hurt when staying up to watch over the fires. And… How would sir Obsidian know to unlock anything with crystals yet? He’s just been sorting through the heating crystals… hasn’t he? They might be linked to these ponies somehow.

Suddenly realizing she was still in the middle of the giant room, Sweetie quickly and silently made her way over to her tent again, before going behind the curtain and looking back at her invention. Briefly flicking the lantern on and strapping her goggles to her forehead once more, she lit her horn and picked up several tools. She worked quickly, making multiple adjustments and pouring forth magic into the contraption.

If somepony else in the camp is working with these unknown ponies, they might have bad things in store for us. Worse, they’re obviously not here to work together, or they wouldn’t have snuck into camp in the dead of night. They’re hiding from us and taking what we’ve learned… but to what end? Ugh! Why does this have to be happening now! Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, where are you girls when I need you? She rubbed her eyes and snapped a few metal plates into place, taking care to make as little noise as possible. What if… sweet Celestia, what if these ponies have been foalnapping whoever finds out about them? And these ‘unsafe’ areas are just their own camp! 

Magma Burn, you told me to trust you, but how can I trust you now? Those ponies even said your name! They didn’t specify anyone else, but they for sure know you enough to use your name and everypony in that group would know who you are if they didn’t have to explain it. Suddenly feeling a cold sweat on her back, Sweetie shook her head and double checked the energy tanks in her contraption. Stepping back, she nodded resolutely, powered up her horn and began to think. Alright… something that makes me… me. Hmm, memories? I mean, I need it to be linked to me if I want to control it at a distance, but maybe not memories. Maybe something less… personal. My cutie mark? She wondered as she glanced at her flanks. Sweetie’s cutie mark, a swirl of magic jammed between a music note and a single diamond, reminded her of the time she had gotten it.

It was shortly after Scootaloo had gotten hers, and she had been studying with Twilight Sparkle on devising a new spell to capture and store magical energy. They had nearly exhausted their supply of potential materials, but Sweetie had taken out the last of their rubies. Fighting back tears from so many failures, she had screamed at the gem and waved it around before she felt the gentle touch of Twilight’s hooves on her back. Lowering the gem gently back to the ground, Twilight had started singing a song about patience and trust, and Sweetie had joined in, before a fire overtook her soul and she had taken the lead of the song. Singing louder and powering her magic with her own voice, she poured everything into her song and by the time they were done, the ruby had been glowing and responding automatically to Sweetie’s emotions and thoughts, and a moment late her cutie mark had appeared.

Looking back on the memory now, Sweetie couldn’t help but smile and turned her attention back to her work. I kinda wish you were here too, Twilight. You’d know what to do about these mystery ponies. But I think I know what I have to do too. I just hope I don’t wake everypony in the camp and alert those spies that something’s up. 

Closing her eyes, she touched the main casing of the four-legged machine that stood in front of her. She powered up her horn, beginning to pour magic into the construct, took a deep breath… and started to sing.

She started low, and quiet, but quickly realized that if she was going to put enough of an imprint of herself onto the machine’s core for her to be able to control it, she would need to put her true self into the song.

And her true self wasn’t quiet.

Holding back a grimace, and resigning herself to possibly waking up the whole camp, the notes of her song soared, as did her voice, while she continued to imbue her invention with the truest parts of herself. Her voice arced and echoed throughout the cavernous room, bouncing around as a haunting version of her own melody, though much quieter than her own voice sounded to her ears. Perhaps the natural damping effect of the city would prevent anypony else from hearing her?

Pouring more magic into the machine, she felt it start to respond to her call, the feeling of appendages and senses that weren’t her own adding themselves to her subconscious, and coming to life like the ruby had, all those years ago. Ending on a final crescendo, she held the note for several long moments, before leaning forward and placing her horn against the machine’s metal frame, feeling a slight sap as the rest of her magic and a fragment of her essence travelled into the machine.

Stepping back, she opened her eyes for the first time since the song began and looked over her work, scanning the machine with a simple spell to see if it the magical signature resonating inside the metal body accepted her control, and smiled as her momentary probing was rewarded with the magical equivalent of an acknowledgment and a bow.

Grinning like a schoolfilly, the weight of the situation at hoof reminded Sweetie of why she had accelerated her plans in the first place, and she checked around the sleeping quarters to make sure she hadn’t woken anypony. 

Sighing in relief when she realized none appeared to have stirred during her whole song, she steeled her gaze and marched towards the door once more. I can’t do anything until they’re gone, but if they were trying to be quick and discreet then maybe…

Poking her head around the corner of the doorway, she saw that the campfire in the center of the clearing was still burning cheerfully, staving off the gloom of night in the dead city, and the group of shadowy figures was nowhere to be seen.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sweetie turned back to the corner of the massive stairs where the tents were set up, only to run into something large, and soft, and very solid.

Falling backwards onto her rump from the impact, she rubbed her head and looked up, groaning, but the moment her eyes recognized what she was looking at, her voice died on her lips.

“So there’s our little snoop!” an increasingly-familiar silky voice hissed from behind the massive earth pony standing in the doorway, “Good job, Ram. We were trying to find that singing, but you know how this place is with sounds.”

Just as she was about to stand up and scream for help, Sweetie felt as something grabbed her from behind and she could feel a rag being stuffed in her mouth while somepony held her down.

“What’re we gonna do with her?” a rough voice said from somewhere above her.

“Well, she’s already seen us, so we can’t just put her to sleep, or she’ll blab about us as soon as she wakes up. We’ll have to take her with us.” The silky voice replied.

“Take her?! But you said we can’t leave any traces of us being here. What if these ponies start to suspect something?” The voice from above her came again. In the meantime, Sweetie’s heart had begun pounding so hard in her chest that she was afraid it might burst. Doing her best to concentrate, she drew on a tiny sliver of her soul and began powering her horn, trying to avoid the attention of her captors.

“Well we don’t have a choice. It’s either leave her and be found out, or take her and maybe be found out.” 

Furrowing her brow, the glow from her horn began to increase as she nearly had the correct magical password in mind for what she was about to do, but a sharp pain in her horn disrupted her concentration and her spell fired off a moment too soon, disappearing into the darkness of the building behind them.

Blinking through tears of pain and lookin up at her horn, she suddenly felt the cold weight of stone against her cheek and realized that whoever was holding her down had stepped on her horn with their hooves to break her spell. 

Squealing pitifully from behind her gag, she tried to look up to see some sort of recognizable feature on the figure that held her, but whoever it was kept out of her sight.

“Jeez, Vir, keep a better eye on her, or she’ll alert the whole camp!” hissed Silky.

“I just did. That looked like the spell backfired to me, we should still be clear.” Rough replied.

“Either way, get her trussed up and keep that horn of hers suppressed, or we won’t stay clear for long!” 

Sweetie then had the extremely unpleasant feeling of something cold and slimy crawling along her horn, making its way over her skull and settling down somewhere along her spine, while at the same time her ears picked up a very audible click. Looking up, she was rewarded with the sight of a simple, rune-etched stone ring sitting around her horn, before a black shape moved beyond it and she found a bag being thrust over her head. 

Heart hammering against her chest, she protested, squirming and thrashing as she tried over and over again in vain to pull magic through her horn, each attempt simply returning the cold, creeping feeling along her horn and spine. Despite her best efforts, her legs were held in place by… claws? And quickly tied up tightly, whatever rough rope her captors were using biting into her flesh. A moment later she felt herself tossed up and tied down around something large and warm, and suddenly realized she must have been placed on the back of ‘Ram’, the huge earth pony, and tied down like saddlebags.

What in the name of Celestia have I gotten myself into? Sweetie thought silently as she bounced along to wherever the mysterious ponies were taking her. I’m sorry Apple Bloom, Scootaloo. I wanted to prevent anything bad from happening to you, and now I’ve put myself in danger. Please, please Celestia, somepony help me!

As she slowly realized that she wasn’t going to be rescued anytime soon, and that ponies might think her disappearance was linked to that of the other ponies, it dawned on her that nopony might even come looking for her. Hadn’t Magma Burn said that the missing ponies would be found? She still hadn’t answered Sweetie’s question as to who had gone out looking for them, and now, she had a sinking feeling that perhaps… nopony was being sent out to look for any of those who went missing.

Despite the gag in her mouth and the bag on her head, this new thought managed to squash all reason in her mind and it brought on a new round of attempted hyperventilation. A moment later, all the fear, stress, and lack of oxygen caused her to pass out.


***


Though nopony from the camp had heard or seen the exchange, and none of the foalnappers had any intention of telling them just what they had been doing, the group’s presence and departure didn’t go completely unnoticed.

In the darkness of the buildings, flitting blue lights glimmered and followed the progress of the cloaked ponies, keeping track of them as they moved from alley to alley, and rooftop to rooftop.

In the darkness of a building, silently waiting between a tarp and an empty tent, two ruby-red eyes blazed to life as the magic behind them began to wake up.