Arrival

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh, and Twilight?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Wow.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I think we should wait for the Prin-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yes/No

Both mares stared at the question sitting on the screen.

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

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

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

Entry

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Twilight lifted one foreleg, pushing it forwards to test how much freedom the one-and-a-half-sizes-too-big pressure gear gave her. What she found was that she could raise her hoof almost high as normal. The real issue was just the constraints of the fabric that made up the oversized suit. She glanced at the brown unicorn stallion that had been helping her put on the suit. "Is this the smallest size?"

"No." The stallion, who had been introduced to her as Silver Star, shook his head. "These things are made to be easy to climb into. Once we get them sealed up, a little touch of magic'll make them more comfortable."

"Oh. Okay." Twilight nodded slightly as the stallion started to pull the zipper of the suit up with his magic, starting at her lower back and dragging it towards her neck. Despite how troublesome the bulky gear had proved to be so far, Twilight knew that wearing them was still a much more sensible and safe option than entering the structure with nothing more than a magical air bubble. As irritating as it was, getting suited up for the excursion was the smart thing to do.

While the stallion closed her suit, Twilight took a moment to stare at the door waiting for them across the cavern. The metal structure was now obscured by the inflatable airlock that had been set against it – a large, transparent, double-celled plastic cover which would be used to stop the unbreathable argon gas from escaping into the cave once the door was opened. While the airlock had been set up, Twilight, Lyra, and a group of seven other unicorns had shifted across the cavern to a position under the sloping ramp, where they had set up a dressing pavilion. It had taken two hours to get the necessary gear and equipment, but now they were almost ready to go. Needless to say, the wait had been nearly unbearable.

Twilight could barely contain her excitement. The amount of begging and pleading it had taken for Celestia to let her be one of the first into the structure was unbelievable. If anypony had told her that morning that she would recite please seventy-one times within fifteen seconds, Twilight would have laughed at them, before promptly pressuring her friends into a set of experiments to determine if such an action was possible. "Ah!" Twilight let out a grunt of pain, her train of thought interrupted by the sharp tug of the zipper catching near the top end of her back.

"Sorry," Silver Star apologized quickly, before proceeding to finish zipping up Twilight's suit, albeit at a much slower speed. "It'd be better if we had something to wear underneath, but then the damn things would get too hot."

"You've worn one these before?" Twilight asked, glancing over her shoulder as the zip reached the base of her neck, which was where the suit ended.

"Something like it," the stallion replied. "I was a volunteer fire-fighter for a couple of years when I was younger. Good experience. The gear they have isn't much different from this stuff."

"Huh." Twilight nodded, taking a step back to look at herself in one of the large full-length mirrors placed around the dressing pavilion. "What are you now?"

The suit was horribly ugly, made up out of a thick beige fabric that reminded Twilight of the oldest and dirtiest desks at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. The back was very strange, containing two sockets for hoses, and two short curved prongs on either side of the zip for cradling an oxygen tank. Donning the suit hadn't been pleasant either. To fit in, Twilight's tail had been; tied up, curled between her hindlegs, and then strapped to her stomach. It wasn't comfortable by any means, and had been an awkward process for all involved.

"A guardpony." Silver Star's horn lit up with a creamy brown color, guiding a shiny metal tank over to Twilight. "Okay, now we just need to hook up the oxygen, and you'll be ready to go."

"Right." Twilight summed up the oxygen tank. It was about a foot and a half long and eight inches in diameter, made to fit comfortably on the back of a full-grown stallion, which meant it would be a little too big for her. It didn't really matter though, because Twilight was clearly in no position to complain. "How long will it last?"

"About two hours." Silver Star replied, gently lifting the tank onto Twilight's back with his magic. "It's a high-pressure tank, which allows it to store more oxygen, so make sure you don't puncture it."

"Got it." Twilight braced her legs to account for the new weight on her back, only to find that the tank wasn't quite as heavy as she'd expected. "What's the mix ratio?"

"Three parts nitrogen to one part oxygen," the stallion answered in an offhanded manner as he fastened the tank to Twilight's back using a set of clips. "A little bit more Oxy per every breath, free of charge."

Twilight smiled slightly at the weak joke as Silver Star fed two hoses from the tank into the sockets on the back of her suit. "So, you're a guard?"

"I am." The stallion carefully checked the hoses were secure in their sockets, while making sure that he didn't directly touch Twilight's suit with his magic. "I'm running security for you scientists, although I have no idea why."

"Neither do I." Twilight raised an eyebrow. The object was thousands upon thousands of years old, if not tens or even hundreds of thousands. What could possibly be in there worth worrying about? Maybe some dangerous machinery at the very most. She couldn't help but feel that her thoughts were just begging for something to go wrong, but it was literally impossible for a creature to survive any length of time in an atmosphere like that – no matter what measures were taken.

"Anyway, we'll wait until we're in the airlock before sealing our suits. It saves on air." Silver Star took a step back, levitating a large spherical helmet towards Twilight. "So just carry this with you, and don't use any magic on your suit until the thing's sealed. The zippers are fine, but don't let any get near the fabric."

"Okay…" Twilight's own horn lit up, enveloping the hollow glass orb as Silver Star passed it to her "Why's that?"

"We use magic to make the suits shrink until they fit the wearer's form. The fabric was made for it. The problem is that on such short notice we could only get some of the older and unperfected versions, so there's the chance that coming into contact with any magic at all might set them off." Silver Star nodded at his own suit. "And without your helmet on, there's nothing to stop it tightening around your neck, and it'll just contract down to your throat. It's not dangerous, but there'll be no way to attach the helmet, so then we'll need to get you prepped all over again in a new suit."

"I see." Twilight rotated the helmet inside her aura, inspecting it. "But if the suit alters in size, how does the helmet stay on?"

"Its collar is designed to stretch, so that as the neck gets smaller the collar gets firmer and broader, which keeps the helmet in place. You'll see when we're all in the airlock. Speaking of which," Silver Star turned to the seven other ponies. "Is everypony ready?"

"Ready, boss." Replied one of the three other stallions, speaking for the group as a whole.

The rest of the entry team were dressed identically to Twilight and Silver Star, each one of them looking extremely uncomfortable in their comically oversized pressure suits. It didn't stop any of them from looking jubilant, though. Lyra perhaps looked the most excited. For her, this was the chance of a lifetime. It was for all of them, but this was something special for the green musician-historian. It was her field, after all, even if it was just a hobby.

"Alright then, waddle out, team." Silver Star pointed one hoof towards the airlock, drawing a smattering of polite laughter from the assembled ponies as they began to walk towards the door. Twilight almost laughed earnestly as she realized that due to everypony's bulky and ill fitting gear, they truly did waddle as they walked.

She turned her eyes forward to look at their destination again, only to notice in her peripheral vision that Lyra had managed to silently move up next to her, an excited gleam in her eyes.

"Isn't this awesome, Twilight?" The green mare flashed her a vibrant smile. "We get to go inside! How great is that?!"

Twilight nodded. "This is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see what's inside." She paused. "But, why do you think we need security?"

Lyra shrugged. "Dunno. It's always good to play it safe, though."

Twilight glared at her friend for a second. "Yeah. That's why we aren't meant to go around pressing random buttons without knowing what they do. It's really dangerous."

"You're right, but look at what pushing buttons got us!" The musician grinned sheepishly.

Twilight shook her head, giving out an exasperated sigh. "Lyra, you can't go doing stuff like that when we're in there. Who knows what could happen? You could literally get somepony killed."

"Yeah, okay." Lyra dipped her head slightly, suitably cowed by the lavender mare's scolding.

"You two look weird," a third voice cut in, drawing both Lyra and Twilght's attention. "What's with the get up?" Rainbow Dash questioned nonchalantly, her wings flapping just enough to keep her airborne beside them.

"It's safety gear for in there." Lyra replied, gesturing with one hoof at the door – which they were rapidly approaching. "The air's toxic, so we need stuff that'll let us breathe."

"Sounds dangerous." Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "You guys want me to come in with you?"

"We'll be fine, Rainbow." Twilight smiled slightly. Rainbow Dash had good intentions, but in reality the cerulean mare would most likely just get stir-crazy, act rowdy and end up causing trouble. "We've got the guards, and our breathing gear."

"'Kay then." The pegasus shrugged, before lazily drifting upwards, ascending until the two unicorns were once again alone as they lead the slow, ambling charge towards the object.

"Does she do that a lot?" Lyra asked quietly, receiving nothing but a slightly exasperated expression in response. Whether the response was in answer to the question, or simply a reaction to it, Twilight herself did not know.

The two mares came to a stop in front of the large plastic airlock, where the increasingly haggard looking Celestia was waiting for them. The white alicorn in question had been becoming increasingly more agitated and frazzled, her frayed nerves wearing down under the immense uncertainty and stress of the situation. Twilight was more than sympathetic, having contributed to Celestia's state with her own nagging, but thus far had been unable to say anything to ease the princess.

With nothing to say, Twilight smiled slightly at the princess and then took a moment to examine the airlock as the remaining seven members of the entry-team joined them, trying to make sense of its multiple curves and rounded corners. The entire thing was a leftover from a Pony-Pox scare three years ago. In such a dense population-center as Canterlot a debilitating flu like Pony-Pox could bring businesses grinding to a halt, which would cause mayhem in a city that requires mass-imports during even its most prosperous periods. It was an extremely simple object, made up out of one zipper-entry at their end, another between the two large cells, and another at the end of the far cell, which lead straight into the now-isolated recess of the door, although in this case the final zipper had been removed, and the airlock had been magically sealed to the stone of the structure itself. From what Twilight could tell, a group of unicorns were also working to set up equipment that would slowly extract the argon gas. She personally didn't see why that was necessary, although it would be good if they could get to a point where they didn't need to wear pressure-suits inside the structure.

Celestia cleared her throat delicately as the final pony joined them in front of the airlock, drawing Twilight's attention away from the mass of plastic behind her. "I'm glad to see that you are all ready to go." The Princess began evenly, her voice sounding extremely strained. "I believe that it goes without saying that this is a very important scientific excursion, and that there are vast quantities of potential information to be gathered here." She paused for a breath, before continuing. "I trust each of you to do your jobs properly, and to be as careful as possible while you are inside this structure. Above all, I want you to make sure that everypony stays safe, and that nothing dangerous that may lie behind this door is meddled with."

"Yes, your majesty." The nine ponies chorused.

Celestia nodded. "Very good. Before you get started, I believe that it would be best if everypony was introduced, and that we understand who is responsible for what."

The group voiced another round of affirmatives as Celestia raised on hoof and beckoned to Silver Star, who quickly stepped forward and turned to face the others.

"I'm Sergeant Silver Star, of the Canterlot Royal Guard." He announced clearly, his deep voice easily cutting through the background noise in the cavern. "It's my job to make sure that everypony stays safe. To help me accomplish that, I have Corporals Blune," he gestured to a bulky blue unicorn that seemed to have a hard expression permanently fixed on his face, before moving his hoof along to point at a more pleasant looking and less-bulky cream coloured unicorn. "and Arwell. If anyone has a problem, or finds something that could be dangerous, you come to them or me."

Both guards nodded in acknowledgement of Silver Star's announcement, even as the Sergeant himself returned to the group and Celestia resumed her own speech. "On the science team we have Lyra Heartstrings, the local authority on Ancient History."

The green mare blushed slightly at the praise, mumbling a quiet; "Well, I don't know about that…" as Celestia moved her eyes along the group.

"Twilight Sparkle, my personal student."

Now it was Twilight's turn to blush, shying a half-step backwards as the collected ponies examined her, many of their eyes judgemental.

"Earthy Stables, Canterlot's resident geologist."

The only pony present who was not a unicorn, a grey-coated earth-pony, raised his left hoof and smiled weakly as the group's eyes fell on him, looking extremely uncomfortable with their attention.

"Professor Bastion Yorsets and Doctor Apple Polish, representing the University of Canterlot." Celestia nodded to two grey-coated unicorns, one male and one female. The two respond to her attention with stiff bows, their faces stoic and professional.

"And Capstone Drafts, Architectural Engineer." Celestia finished her group introduction with an aqua-blue unicorn mare sporting an extremely tired face, who acknowledged her words with a dignified nod, despite the star-struck expression on her face.

Celestia paused, taking another moment to run her eyes over the faces of all the present ponies. The bags under her eyes weren't looking any less pronounced than before, and Twilight was starting to get a little worried by how agitated the princess seemed. She wasn't talking in her usual warm, calming voice anymore. Instead she utilized a harder, more commanding tone that wouldn't have been out-of-place had it been used by a Griffon. The white alicorn gave an ever-so-slight sigh as she looked over the collection of stallions and mares. Why she did so, Twilight had absolutely no clue. Her day so far had been one of confusion and questions, so it seemed typical that Celestia's attitude would encourage that.

"Once again, I feel I should stress just how important this discovery is," Celestia spoke again, putting a large amount of emphasis on important'. "What's behind this door is completely unknown, so it goes without saying that you are all to be extremely careful once inside. As tempting as it may be, I don't want anypony touching anything unless they know what it does. Understood?"

"Yes your highness." the collected ponies spoke in unison, with many of them looking slightly unnerved by the no nonsense tone being used by their normally friendly and approachable monarch.

Celestia nodded twice, lingering for a short moment longer before stepping to the side and allowing access to the entry zipper. "Okay then. Let's begin."

As the rest of the group began moving towards the airlock entry, Twilight took a moment to glance away, searching the cavern for her friends. The cave floor was now populated by a good thirty ponies, almost all of whom had stopped whatever they were doing to form a very large semi-circle around the door into the structure. Twilight wasn't actually sure why they were giving them such a wide space, but it created a rather interesting image. She cast her eyes further to the left, finally finding the rest of her Ponyville friends among the many unicorns and work ponies. Twilight smiled slightly and lifted her hoof in a wave, which prompted a group wave and a few cheers of "Go Twilight!" from Pinkie and Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight?" Lyra called her name from over at the zipper, where there was just her and Capstone still waiting to get inside. "You ready?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Twilight turned back to the airlock, quickly breaking into a canter as she approached. "Sorry."

"It’s cool." Lyra replied nonchalantly, holding open the zipper flap for Capstone, who muttered a bashful "Thanks." as she passed through. "I just want to get in there before the Manehattan ponies show up!"

"Right, right." Twilight ducked through the flap, which Lyra was still holding open, before levitating her helmet through behind her. "Then I guess we'd better get to work!" She glanced behind her as Lyra slipped through the opening, which was promptly zipped up by a cheerful looking Poppycock. "Okay. So I suppose that we just put these-"

"Alright, Everypony." Silver Star spoke up loudly, unwittingly cutting Twilight off. "The process for putting your helmet on is very simple. Somepony else will place your helmet on your head, secure the clasps, and seal it with magic. Then I want you to check that your lights are working, and that there no leaks, like so." He motioned for Arwell to step forward, taking the stallion's helmet in his own magical field. Carefully, Silver Star lowered the helmet over the other guardpony's head until the base met with the collar of the pressure suit, whereupon he snapped three claps closed, securing it. "Okay, then you come to me, and I use a shrinking spell on the suit. There's no time for everypony to learn it, so I'll just handle that." Silver Star's horn lit up with a silvery blue glow, which was almost immediately followed by Arwell's suit as it was encased in the Sergeant's magical field.

The seven ponies all watched quietly as the two unicorns stood there for a few seconds, before the silence was interrupted by a grating noise that sounded similar to someone squeezing and rubbing a balloon. The uncomfortable sound was accompanied by Arwell's suit suddenly shrinking. If Twilight had blinked, she would have missed it. The fabric simply tightened, loosing all of its bulkiness and instead now appearing more like a thick second skin over the stallion underneath - save for the outline of the two oxygen hoses running from the sockets on the suit, over his shoulders and back up into the bottom of the helmet.

"Underwhelming…" Lyra muttered out of the corner of her mouth, and Twilight nodded ever so slightly in agreement. For some reason, she had expected something more interesting than the suit simply slimming down so quickly, as it had.

"And that's it. Again, don't forget to check your lights." Silver Star motioned with one hoof for everypony to put their helmets on. "Just a heads up. They're old fashioned magic lights. These suits are kinda old, so there's no powered equipment. I'd suggest only using one at a time so that nopony tires themselves out."

Twilight took a quick moment to examine her helmet as the Sergeant concluded his instructions. True to his word, the helmet did look a little old, although it thankfully wasn't scratched. Essentially, the entire thing was a three-quarter sphere with a slightly flattened front. The missing quarter replaced by a plain metal ring and a collar made out of some sort of elastic material, The inner edge of which appeared to be an odd semi-rigid frame, which Twilight guessed was there to make sure that the stretchy fabric of the collar retained its shape. The interior of the helmet was very simplistic, containing nothing but one pair of braces, which were made to rest on Twilight's neck and support the helmet, as the collar could not support the glass sphere, due to its lack of any proper rigidity. All in all, the helmet was extremely plain. Its only other notable features were the two flashlights set into each side of the helmet, positioned so that they were level with the wearer's horn.

"Here." Lyra's magical field enveloped Twilight's helmet, gently plucking it from her own grasp. "I'll get that."

"Thanks." Twilight smiled slightly, before holding her head up straight and standing still as the mint unicorn slipped the glass dome over her head.

In a single careful motion, Lyra slowly moved the helmet into place, twisted it into the correct position and snapped the clasps closed. "Okay. Let me just…" The light around her horn faded briefly, before flaring back up as the mare sealed Twilight's helmet to her suit. "There you go. Now all that's left is the air tank."

Twilight nodded as she felt a slight tug on her back as Lyra turned the valve on her oxygen tank, feeding breathable air through her suit and into the base of her helmet. "Thanks."

"No problem." Lyra grinned, her voice notably muffled as it passed through Twilight's helmet. "Okay, I'm gonna go get somepony to help me. You should get your suit shrunk.

"Okay." Twilight smiled at Lyra as she turned away, before giving a slight shrug. She didn't need anypony else to deal with her suit. She was the Element of Magic, after all. Twilight paused briefly to compose herself, before sending a small charge of magic from her horn down into her suit, creating little rivulets of purple energy that coursed through the fabric. The lavender mare giggled ever so slightly as the suit suddenly tightened around her form, pushing air up her body in the form of large rather comical looking bulges that were quickly expelled into her helmet. "Ooh, it tickles."

With the suit sealed Twilight turned her head to the transparent plastic floor and her attention to the two lights mounted on either side of her helmet, giving them each a brief burst of magical light. The left, and larger, fixture produced a wide and bright light which Twilight guessed was for general illumination, while the right hoof light produced a more focused beam that seemed only slightly wider than a standard flashlight, although it was certainly brighter than a typical household torch.

"Hmm, useful," Twilight muttered as she gave each light another jolt. "Left for close and wide lighting, right for long distance."

"Yeah," Lyra, whom Twilight was not aware had returned, spoke up cheerfully. "Hey Twilight, check this out."

"Huh?" The lavender mare promptly stemmed the flow of magical energy streaming from her horn and looked up, only to be instantly blinded but the musician's own torch. "Agh!"

"Hah! Gotcha." Lyra turned off her lights as Twilight reeled back, spots dancing in front of her eyes. "That was way too easy."

"Ow!" Twilight steadied herself on three legs and raised her fourth hoof to viciously rub at her eyes, only to have it connect dully with her helmet. "Lyra!"

"Oh come on," the green mare giggled. "You gotta admit, that was a good one."

"No, it really wasn't." Twilight grumbled, blinking rapidly as her vision cleared up. "What if you'd blinded me?"

"Then we'd have fixed you up with magic," Lyra replied smugly. "Come on Twi. You're making a big deal outta nothing."

"Mmm…" Twilight grunted in irritation. She couldn't really be that annoyed. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie had done worse. "Ugh. Sweet Celestia, that hurt."

"Hey, that isn't anything." Lyra smirked. "When I first got here, one of the mining ponies accidentally flashed me with a floodlight. Blinded me for five whole minutes, but I still able to kick his flank."

"Uhh..." Twilight raised an eyebrow at the musician. "But didn't you say it was an accident?"

"Yeah, what's your point?" the green mare's smirk widened slightly as she turned away from Twilight. "Hey, I think it's time."

Twilight frowned. When her friends around Ponyville had described Lyra as 'a little quirky', she'd expected her to have an odd sense of humor, or something to that effect. Instead, the green mare seemed to be more than a little eccentric, with a sense of humor on par with Rainbow Dash's.

It seemed that Ponyville had a habit of producing colorful characters.

"Right." Twilight spoke slowly as she and Lyra moved towards the center of the plastic cell. "You know Lyra, you can't keep doing that in there. It's dangerous, and annoying," She added the final words much more quietly, trying to keep Lyra from hearing her, but at the same time not really caring that much anyway. Judging by the green mare's silence, Twilight's complaint had gone unnoticed entirely.

The two of them moved forward, joining the rest of the group as Arwell unzipped the airlock's inner seal with his hoof and opening the way into the second cell. It was only now that Twilight realized that while she had been distracted, Silver Star had handled the shrinking of everypony else's suits, which made her feel ever so slightly guilty for not doing more to help out. This was meant to be a team effort, after all.

One by one, in an excruciatingly slow fashion, the nine of them filed through the opening and formed a loose semi-circle around the door. Twilight found herself near the apex of the curve, although Bastion and Silver Star had managed to solicit the lofty center position.

After a brief pause, Silver Star turned to Apple Polish, who was standing closest to the console by the door. "Ma'am, if you'd kindly begin the entry procedure."

"Of course," The ashen mare, who Twilight only just now realized as being one of the officials at her entry exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, nodded curtly, before turning to face the embedded terminal. "Just one moment."

Twilight watched the grey unicorn as she quickly looked over the interface, before turning her own eyes back to the ominous chunk of metal blocking off the interior of the structure. What strange, or not so strange, marvels lay behind it? What would they learn about the time before ponies?

She glanced back towards the large audience of their entry as Apple Polish continued to examine the futuristic computer and its interface. Through the two layers of plastic behind them, Twilight could make out the warped image of the excavation crew grouped together a good distance back from the airlock, among whom she could see her friends and the two princesses. It seemed that everypony in the cavern had stopped work to watch their first entry – although she still could not fathom why they had apparently decided that the airlock should be given such a wide berth. What were they afraid of?

"Beginning entry," Apple Polish reported in a loud clear voice, which was still muffled by the two helmets it had to pass through to reach Twilight's ears. "in three, two, one, zero." On her own cue, the beige unicorn's horn lit up, telekinetically pressing the 'Y' on the keyboard. Upon completion of this task, she quickly stepped back to retake her place in the semicircle the rest of the group as they waited for something to happen.

The group stood in silence for a good ten seconds, every single pair of eyes affixed upon the ancient door in front of them. Twilight had no clue what each pony was thinking. Some of them might have been apprehensive, some as eager as her and Lyra. What she herself hoped was that the door would actually open. That would save a lot of time over them having to force their way in, which would likely damage the door itself in the process. Still nothing had happened, and Twilight was starting to get extremely worried that whatever mechanisms driving the door had failed. Even with the structure filled with Argon, that didn't completely ensure the safety of its contents, as any number of factors could have damaged or destroyed them.

"Uhh..." After a full thirty seconds it was Lyra who became the first pony to speak, her voice going unacknowledged by everypony else as they kept their gaze fixed on the door. "Maybe we need to find a-"

'THUNK.' The mint unicorn was cut off by the sudden noise, which was produced by the door as its two rows of yellow circles suddenly extended out a good two inches from the surface and revealing themselves to be a set of eight cylinders. If Twilight had to hazard a guess, she would say that they were part of an upsized pin-locking system for the door. Four for each half. It seemed like the most likely use for the cylinders, but with this strange technology the pins could have been doing anything. The door began to emanate a low rumble, which was shortly followed by its two halves separating by a few inches, creating a horizontal gap through which a very dim but pulsating orange light could be seen.

Twilight was unable to tear her eyes from the scene. This was a momentous historical occasion. The greatest archaeological find in history, which presented unheard of evidence of a possible pre-pony civilization generations more developed than their own. To think that her, a simple student of magic, would going to be one of the first ponies to study what lay inside. It was absolutely surreal. Like so many other events in her life, it was something Twilight had never thought could possibly happen; studying as Celestia's protégée, defeating Nightmare Moon, becoming an Element of Harmony. In a way, this could be her greatest achievement yet, at least in the academic field.

The door's rumbling, which had faded ceased following the initial separation, suddenly returned as the plates started to move apart once more, sliding into the ceiling and floor of the door-frame. The movement was incredibly slow, increasing the gap only by a rough inch every two seconds.

Every single pony present continued to stand, transfixed, as the two metal plates pulled away from each other at an agonizingly slow pace. The mounting atmosphere of cautious anticipation only served to intensify when the door-halves briefly stopped halfway through opening to retract the cylindrical pins into the six-inch-thick sheets of metal, as them still being extended would have stopped the plates from sliding further into the surrounding rock. Finally, with a notable but muted thud, the door plates disappeared entirely into the top and bottom of their frame, leaving only their slightly-recessed connecting edges visible and giving the ponies a clear view of what lay beyond the freshly removed barrier.

"Oh boy is that ominous!" Lyra spoke loudly, accenting her observation with an extremely enthusiastic and out-of-place tone. "Good thing we've got flashlights."

"Yeah..." Twilight stared apprehensively at the admittedly unnerving image presented to them.

The source of the pulsating orange light she had first observed was now revealed to be two warning lights affixed to the ceiling just inside the door, similar to the kind that one would find on a piece of construction equipment. The left one was revolving slowly, sending its opposing shafts of orange light along the walls, while the second light was on but apparently unable to rotate. If this structure was as old as Twilight thought it was, then the fact that even one of these lights could still spin was amazing. Beyond the lights, there was nothing. The single revolving bulb wasn't bright enough to illuminate more than a few feet, and the inky blackness of the underground quashed their view into the tunnel down to a short five feet.

Without speaking, Silver Star stepped forward and turned on his right-hoof flashlight, sending a beam of light up the length of the interior floor. The ray continued for a good ninety feet before finally striking what appeared to be a back-wall in the distance. For the entire length of the beam there was nothing. No obstructions or features on the surfaces. Just a perfectly crafted tunnel.

Twilight glanced at Lyra, who in turn glanced at her. "Looks like we've got some exploring to do."

"Yeah," the mint unicorn replied slowly. "Looks like it."

Once again assuming his position as leader of the expedition, Silver Star turned himself around so that he was facing the rest of the group. "Alright then. Is everyone ready?" As a group, the collected ponies took a few seconds to glance between themselves, checking the many faces for any uncertain expressions or hesitation. Once none were found, Silver Star raised one hoof and waved it at the blurry shape of Princess Celestia visible through the multiple layers of plastic. "Okay." The stallion's voice dropped in volume as he turned to again face the open maw of the structure. "Then let's go."

In quick succession the rest of the group turned on their own flashlights, bathing the entrance of the tunnel with multiple unsteady shafts of light that glanced across the four surfaces in a confusing jumble of white beams.

"Here we go..." Lyra whispered to Twilight, her voice laden with excitement. "This is going to be so awesome."

"As long as nothing goes wrong," Twilight muttered back, tentatively taking her first steps over the threshold of the thick door that had previously barred their path. "Then yeah, this should be amazing."

The Lavender mare glanced over her shoulder as they slowly sank into the oppressive darkness of the tunnel, taking a quick look at the fading rectangle of light behind them. She didn't have any worries about what lay inside this strange ruin, because any living creatures would have died out long ago in a pure Argon atmosphere. Twilight's true fears were about the construction of this place and its structural integrity. What if they disturbed the environment enough to cause a cave-in? Then what? They'd run out of oxygen before anyone could reach them.

Without a doubt, their expedition was risky, mostly due to the huge number of unknowns the structure presented. Nonetheless, Twilight's ravenous desire to learn more about the massive artifact far outweighed any risks she could think of. As Rarity said with her most ambitious dresses, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Hey, you know what's weird?" Lyra whispered, leaning in to Twilight until their helmets connected with a dull tonk sound'. "Our voices don't sound that different. Kinda muffled because of these things, but apart from that, pretty much the same."

"Huh. Yeah." Twilight nodded slightly, drawing back so that she didn't hit their helmets together again in the process. "I'm not sure why. I don't know that much about Argon."

"Well, isn't Argon meant to be way heavier than Oxygen? They did that whole class on that 'element table' back in school..." Lyra trailed off, her expression thoughtful as she cast her gaze around the perfectly shaped stone walls of the tunnel.

"I don't think it works that way" Twilight replied quietly, not wanting to get caught up in a conversation about something neither of them actually understood.

"Yeah. I guess so." Lyra ducked her head in a shrug. "Suppose we'll need to find out, right?" The green mare smiled slightly at Twilight, who returned it.

"I suppose so."

The two of them fell silent, allowing the muffled hoof-falls of the others to take over as they continued their trek deeper into the ancient structure.

Twilight looked over her shoulder yet again, noting that the entry was now so small that she couldn't make out the revolving lights. To their front was what Twilight had previously mistaken for a wall. When it was actually the ceiling of the tunnel as it slanted downwards, moving deeper into the bedrock.

The group paused at the beginning of the slight slant, tracking their lights over the walls that slanted down and to the left in a long, shallow curve that hid where it actually finished.

"Well," Silver Star spoke up for the rest of them to hear, not taking his eyes off the shallow descent in front of them. "We have a lot to do and only two hours to it in. Let's get moving."

As a group the other eight ponies chorused their respective affirmative answers and then started walking forwards once more, taking them deeper into the bowels of Equis.

Initial Exploration

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The tunnel was rather long; long enough that just transversing it would cut into the time the team would have for exploration. Silver Star was already taking this fact into account, knowing that if the team did not make it back to the air lock in time, they would suffocate once their tanks emptied. He would have to think of a way to extend the time available during future trips inside, if the team setting up the Argon extraction equipment was unable to sufficiently clear the inside air and make it the same as on the outside of the cavern. Maybe they could have a team bring down a wagon filled with extra Oxygen tanks, if need be. Pushing those thoughts aside, he focused on monitoring the time instead.

The ponies chatted casually as they walked through the tunnel, although not a single one of them was able to hide the nervous tension in their voices. Instead of isolating themselves into small private conversations, they were exchanging thoughts as a group on the structure and what it could be, and trading factual snippets and explanations on what meager details they’d discovered so far. Currently, Apple Polish was sharing what she knew about Argon preservation, which was barely any more than what Twilight knew herself.

“Assuming there are no leaks into other parts of the cavern, the argon will have thoroughly retarded, and possibly even stopped, the natural degradation of whatever this structure holds,” the mare said, her voice holding an air of propriety that immediately irritated Twilight. The irritation was compounded by the memory of Polish’s scathing glare during her magical exam. “Anything we find should be perfectly preserved, barring damage from any such occurrence as a cave in.” She glanced at Earth Stables, who nodded and began to speak, continuing Polish’s train of thought.

“Well, the entirety of Canterlot Mountain is geologically stable, but depending on how old this structure is, it could have been affected by several major earthquakes from the surrounding region that we have sedimentary evidence of,” Stables explained slowly. He had a laconic drawl to his speech, with a hint of a southern accent that was barely even noticeable compared to Applejack’s. “There are records of several massive tectonic shifts in the time before the Alicorns. If this tomb is anywhere near as old as its location would suggest, it’ll likely have been hit by at least a couple of them.

“Oh, and everypony be on the lookout for large cracks in the walls,” Capstone Drafts followed on, glancing at the walls and ceiling as she did so. “If there’re any at all, stay as far away from them as you can. With all the pressure of the mountain on top of us, even a single crack could be the starting point of a cave in.”

“Big thing to remember is to take small sips of air,” Silver Star commented, changing the topic. “These suits can get hot, but you’ll want to avoid panting to keep your oxygen from running out.“

“Hey, look.” Lyra suddenly lifted one hoof and pointed, drawing the other ponies from their discussion.

The party fell silent immediately, with each pony turning their heads towards the end of the large tunnel. What could be seen through the glare of their flashlights was a glimmer of silverish light reflecting off a polished surface. It was a small thing, but one that brought Twilight’s heartbeat up to an excited rush.

The conversation did not resume as they walked on. Each one of them stared intently at the silver glimmer, trying to discern its source. Even as they got much closer to the source, the reflection remained, stubbornly blocking their view of anything behind or around it.

“Use your widebeams,” Silver Star advised, his words being followed by a confused jumble of swinging shafts of light as the party collectively switched from powering their highbeam lights to their widebeams. Almost immediately, the harsh reflection dropped to an ambient glow, revealing the object of their attention to be another door. It looked exactly the same as the one they had entered through, except that this one’s surface was polished to a metallic shine.

As they approached the door, it was immediately noticed that there was no keyboard next to it as there was at the main entrance. Instead, there was a simple button about the same width as a mare’s hoof. Above the button was a sign which read OPEN/CLOSE.

“It seems that we have a decision to make. Do we take the chance and open this door as well?” Bastion asked the group. “It feels like it should be safe, but we have no clue what could be beyond the door.” As an acadamian, he was not one for taking risks, especially ones that could carry fatal consequences. But the importance of this discovery made it worth taking such risks, within reason, of course.

Corporal Blune was the first to reply. "It would not make sense to come this far, only to let a closed door stop us. Yes, there are risks involved any time you enter uncharted territory, but, as it has been explained, there should be nothing alive that could threaten us, nor have there been any indications that continuously puts us in added peril. Besides, with Sarge here," he says, pointing to Silver Star with his hoof, “I’d say that anything that messed with us would be in for a world of hurt.”

“Still bucking for that promotion, I see, Blune. Okay, if everypony agrees, then let’s proceed.” When the team all nodded their agreement, Corporal Blune pushed the button. Backing up, he joined the other two guardsponies, prepared for whatever may be on the other side. Once the door finally opened, the three guards entered. Scanning with their eyes, they were aided by their flashlights, of which they had powered up both sides to maximize the illumination within. When no signs of threats were detected, they motioned for the rest to follow.

They found themselves in a room about forty feet long and a good fifty feet across. The architecture was foreign to them, with the chamber being crafted entirely from polished metals, save for the floor, which was made from what appeared to be cement and was visibly scuffed from use. There was not a curve to be seen, as every corner was a plain, sharp angle. For Twilight, it was a jarring, ugly contrast to the curving aesthetics of Canterlot and Ponyville.

However, there was something about this room that felt familiar to her in a way. The room was almost empty, save for a desk set against the opposing wall and a group of benches to the left of their large entry door. The ceiling was tall, almost taller than necessarily needed for a pony, being a good twelve feet or so above the floor. The three other walls of the room each had two openings into long hallways. Yes, she understood now why the place had a familiarity to her. Twilight didn’t have to take a second look around to know that this was a lobby.

“All those hallways…” Earthy Stables spoke quietly, looking down one of the long tunnels and finding it long enough that his widebeam was unable to reach the end wall. “By Celestia, how big do you guys think this place could be?”

Nopony answered, knowing that any response would be nothing more than them talking out of their flank.

It was at that moment they all jumped. None of them had expected to hear a voice resonate throughout the room. It was a somewhat feminine sounding voice, though it sounded hollow and unreal, almost mechanical. They had no clue as to where the sound was coming from, due to their helmets making it virtually impossible to directionally focus their hearing. The only thing that they felt certain about was that it was their presence that triggered the voice. Maybe somepony stepped on a sensor pad, or maybe a detection spell of some sort triggered it. Looking around for the source of the sound, Twilight noticed a couple of black squares near the top of the door frame. Maybe it was those squares that somehow sensed their entrance.

The voice repeated itself, still sounding as empty and mechanical as the first time. “Recovery protocol M thirty-eight is in effect. Please use caution. Log all activities,” it said, before it continued, “Estimated time until environmental normalization: two hours and twenty-seven minutes.”

“I believe that we have triggered some kind of recording,” Apple Polish said, half to herself.

Lyra nodded her head inside her helmet, adding, “And what do they mean by ‘environmental normalization’?”

ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ§ȸ§ȹ

The exploration team spent the next ten minutes by the desk. Twilight had discovered another light screen and keyboard built into the fixture, and it gave them an answer to the question Apple Polish had asked. On the screen was the same message which they had seen at the main entrance to this place, but with a difference that Twilight spotted immediately. The number readouts for inside were different from what they had read before.

Recovery Protocol M-38 in effect.

- - -

External Radiation: 1.54 Millisieverts P.A. (Acceptable)

External Temperature: 24°C. (Optimal)

External Air Pressure: 0.988 Earth Atmospheres. (Acceptable)

External Air Composition: 74.68% Nitrogen. 23.13% Oxygen. 1.34% Argon. 0.9% Carbon Dioxide. 0.07% Neon. 0.06% Helium. 0.63% Other Gases. (Acceptable)

- - -

Internal Radiation Levels: 0.98 Millisieverts P.A. (Nominal)

Internal Temperature: 20°C. (Optimal)

Internal Air Pressure: 0.962 Earth Atmospheres. (Acceptable)

Internal Air Composition: 57.22% Argon. 32.11% Nitrogen. 9.95% Oxygen. 0.39% Carbon Dioxide. 0.03% Neon 0.03% Helium. 0.27% Other Gases. (Warning)

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Exercise caution while inside facility.

Estimated time until environmental normalization: two hours and seventeen minutes.

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Press any key to continue.

“Well, now we know what the normalization means. Too bad that our air tanks will run out before the air is safe. Anypony have any ideas on why the atmospheric pressure in here is now lower than outside?” asks Twilight.

It was Capstone who had the answer for her. “My guess would be that the place has a ventilation system designed to suck the dangerous air out, much like a vacuum pump, and that fresh air is allowed to vent in from the outside. Whereas Argon is heavier than the rest of the gases, if the vacuum vents were down at the floor, then if you have the vents from the outside near the ceiling, you would have a very efficient means of clearing the inside air.”

The discussion quickly moved on to how they should explore from there. “It goes without saying that this lobby is now our hub,” Silver Star spoke up, taking command. “We’ve got six hallways here, but we can’t cover them all at once because that would mean some ponies going solo, and that’s not happening, plain and simple.” There was a smattering of affirmatives. Nopony was going to argue with the sergeant when it came to safety, Twilight thought. “Normally I’d say that we just don’t split up at all, but those hallways are too tight a squeeze for nine ponies, and we’ve got a lot more ground to cover than I thought. To search as much of this place as possible before our oxygen gets low, we’ll be going in three teams of three, with one guard per team.”

“Guards against what?” Stables questioned, with a hint of a challenge in his voice. “I thought we’d all agreed that nothing could be alive in here.”

“That is what we believe, but we are still dealing with the unknown here.” Silver Star gave Stables an irritated look, and Twilight knew immediately that he did not like his orders questioned. “Whereas we do not know what we may find, safety has to be our prime concern. If anything does go wrong, then there’ll be a guard on hoof to provide first aid.”

The earth pony nodded once in response and allowed the guard to continue.

“And remember the rules: touch nothing, even if you think you know what it does, and if you find anything you don’t know about, refer to one of your fellow specialists that might. Everyone clear?” Another round of nods and yeses, and Silver looked away, examining the six openings presented to them. “Let’s take the hallways closest to the door. We've used around thirty minutes worth of oxygen so far, and when we leave it’ll be an uphill climb, so I think we want to all be back and ready to leave in forty-five minutes. It could take a good thirty minutes to walk back out in this gear, and then we’ll still have a fifteen minute window.”

And with that, they divided up and started down the three selected hallways.

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Twilight and Lyra walked down their assigned hallway with Corporal Blune following behind close enough to be able to protect the two Unicorn mares if something should happen, but not so close as to feel like he was up their flanks. They had passed numerous closed off rooms and had looked through the ones that had windows in the doors. A few were stairways leading off to Celestia-knows-where, while others had been various rooms assumed to be offices of some sort. They did not enter any of them, wanting instead to explore further while they had time. More detailed examinations could come later on the next trip, when the atmosphere was much more breathable than it currently was.

Eventually the trio came to a set of closed doors. They were not sliding doors, like the first two entrances were, but swinging doors, with a red cross on each one, just like you would find above any Equestrian hospital entrance.

As Twilight, captivated by the thought of what may be found beyond the doors, moved to push one of them open, she was stopped by Corporal Blune. “I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle, but the Sarge gave instructions, and I would hate to have him upset at me for violating his orders,” he told her.

“I don’t see what the problem would be with going through the doors and taking a look around,” Lyra retorts. She too wanted to know what they would find inside. “It just makes sense to take a calculated risk when we have found nothing yet that would indicate the possibility of any added risks. As we have all agreed, there can’t be anything alive down here, and this is clearly a hospital of some sort. I severely doubt that there would be any traps inside that would hurt us.”

Blune thought this over for a moment. Sergeant Silver Star did give specific instructions, but as a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Guard, he was also expected to be able to make decisions on his own when needed. Besides, he was a smart pony, like everypony else that came down into the structure, and he was curious. “Okay, we will enter, but I will go in first, just because if anything were to happen, I could protect the two of you.”

“Thank you, Blune,” Twilight said, smiling. “How much time will we have?” she asked.

He checked a watch around his left forehoof. “A little under a half an hour.”

Placing his hoof against a door, he gave it a light push. It seemed to want to move, but was rather stiff, so he pushed harder, and both doors started opening on their own. Slowly, as if there was little power for the purpose, but still, they opened to his push.

Turning on his spotlight while keeping the wide beam on, he scanned the room before him. Neither light revealed anything that would be threatening, so he shut the spotlight off and waved for the mares to follow him inside.

When they stepped through, it was apparent that this was a small lobby. Off to the left was a small waiting room of some sort, with what were apparently chairs, though they looked a bit tall for your average pony. there was even a coffee table, and what looked like book shelves in the room. Up on the wall was what looked like another one of those lighted screens, only much larger. Also along the walls were what looked like paintings, though closer looks revealed them to more likely be posters of paintings instead. They showed various nature scenes, including one which looked similar to the mountainous regions in western Equestria.

“Hey, Twilight! Come take a look at this,” she heard Lyra call to her. Trotting over to the mint mare, she saw what had caught her attention. Behind a counter appeared to be several computers on a shelf, as well as more chairs, all a bit tall for a pony like the ones in the other room, but these were on small wheels. “Why do you think they put wheels on these chairs, Twilight? I think they’d move around too much on them. Plus, look at the height of them! I think the only pony who could really use one of these would be Princess Celestia. Maybe Princess Luna or your brother, but that would even be a stretch.”

Twilight looked around the place. It seemed to be set up like a command hub of some sort, like the nurses station in any emergency room. She believed that was exactly what they had found, given the red crosses on the doors they had just came through. Her thoughts were interrupted by a call from their guardspony.

“Twilight! Lyra! Come here and check out what I've found!” he yelled excitedly. They followed his voice to go see what he had found. When they got there, they saw that it appears to be a typical examination room, with its gurney, a few benches, a wash basin, shelves, cabinets and various medically relevant signs and posters on the walls. It was a couple of those posters that Blune was pointing to that caught their attention.

“Mother of Celestia!” exclaimed Lyra when she saw it. It was a poster showing a cut-away of a creature, but the creature was unlike any which they had ever seen before. The posture looked completely alien, as if the creature stood upright on its hind legs. It did not show the complete profile, but instead, it was cut off at just above where the neck seemed to start and below where the hips appeared to be, giving confirmation to it being most likely bipedal.

“Take a look at this, you two!” Twilight said, pointing to a poster on another wall. It clearly showed an upright, bipedal form. On one half, the skin appeared to be completely removed, leaving the musculature of the creature plainly visible. The other half was missing the muscles as well, leaving the skeletal system on full display. “What manner of creature is this?” she asked, in awe. “It looks like it would walk upright like Spike, or that crazy Minotaur, Iron Will. This is just…” She was at a loss of words, unable to describe how she felt. This discovery was among the most important discoveries in history, and she was a part of it. Realizing this shocked her to the core, suddenly causing her to feel inadequate to the task at hand.

“I don’t know if I should feel amazed, or creeped out,” said Corporal Blune, almost to himself. His training and time in service had introduced him to many cultures and races, but this felt completely surreal to his disciplined mind. The upright stance and general build shown in the second poster just felt so alien to him that he did not wish to believe it was real. “Maybe we should head... HEY! What in Tartarus are you doin’, Lyra?”

It was too late to stop her, though. She had already pulled the first poster from the wall with her magic and was moving to do the same to the second one. “Relax, Blune. I just want to take these with us. I know that the Princess will love to see them. Besides, what harm is there?” she asked as she gently pulled the remaining poster from the wall.

“And what if by doing that you had triggered some sort of alarm, or worse?”

“I have to agree with Lyra on this,” Twilight replied on behalf of her friend. “There has been no indication at all of any danger so far and we’ll be taking these to those who can study them further, so, in spirit, it is following the directives set forth by Sergeant Silver Star.”

Blune snorted in disbelief inside his helmet, knowing that the Sarge was going to go up one side and down the other on the two mares for being reckless. As for him, Silver would most likely dine on his severed head, served with a nice Marelot if he was lucky.

Exiting the room so as to not argue any further with the two mares, he looked inside another room. This one looked much the same as the other, though it did have an additional feature. Hanging from a wheeled rack was what appeared to be a skeleton of one of the creatures on the poster. It appeared to be about five and a half feet tall, which would be halfway between the two Princesses in height. Examining it closer, he could see that its forelegs, if you could call them that, ended in what reminded him of a Minotaur or Griffin’s foreclaws, with a total of four digits extending down and a fifth one off to the side. This probably meant that they were quite adept at using tools.

Setting these thoughts aside, he decided that it was probably a good time to head back. he stepped out of the room to find that Twilight and Lyra had left their room as well. “Let’s head back. Might as well face the wrath of the Sergeant that you two chose to ignore orders from.” With that, he led them back out into the hallway.

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“What in the name of Hell were you thinking?” asked a very irate Sergeant of the mare that could have put the offending trio of ponies at risk. As Corporal Blune had predicted, he was very much displeased, and he felt he had every reason to be. The safety procedures were there for a reason, and were especially important when civilians were involved. Unfortunately, it’s normally is the involved civilian that is the first to violate the rules. “What if by pulling those posters off the wall, you had triggered some sort of device set there to protect the place? You could have put everypony here at risk. For all we know, you could have even put the Princesses outside at risk, as well as every other pony that came down into this cavern.”

“It seemed obvious to me, Sergeant, that the risk was minimal and that the rewards made it important to bring these findings back with us,” retorted Lyra, her voice filled with frustrated tension. She was not a pony who cared much for authority figures, and to have this soldier coming down on her like this was starting to piss her off. “Are you gonna tell me that something that the Princess might find highly valuable should have just been left there when there were no indications of any undue risk?” she asked.

Watching from the side, Bastion Yorsets decided to step in to defuse the growing tension between the two. “If I may, Sergeant Silver Star, I find myself agreeing with Miss Heartstrings. While there are safety concerns, if the evidence shows there to be almost no risk and the data retrieved is of sufficient importance, then I cannot find fault with her choice.”

“Fine. We shall discuss safety concerns and the gross violations of them at a later time. We need to head back to the cavern.” Looking towards his subordinates, he focused on Corporal Blune. “We’ll discuss this in private, Corporal,” he informed him before leading the team out into the passageway.

The walk back to the cavern was filled with as much energy as the walk in, though this time they discussed the things seen and found inside. “I find it incredible that whomever they were, their language was the same as ours. How could that be possible? The posters Lyra brought out with her show clearly that they were not ponies. The only beings on Equis they even remotely resemble seem to be Minotaurs, and that is mostly due to a bipedal stance. Maybe dragons as well, considering that some do walk upright. Lyra, you studied Pre-Equestrian history. What do you make of this?” asked Apple Polish. Although she had concerns about the eccentric mare being part of the team, she had to admit that the decision to bring her had been the correct one.

“Honestly, I am baffled just as much as anypony else. There is nothing in my studies, neither during my time at Canterlot University, nor on my own after, that mentions anything like this,” she responded. This was all completely new and unprecedented, and in her mind, she had made the decision that she would be a continuing part of what went on there. “I can’t wait to be able to go back inside and explore more. I want to learn everything I can about all of this. Who they were and where they came from, and how it is that there are these parallels between Equestria, and what we’re finding.

“Just look at the keyboards we have found. They are very much like a typewriter, but with added buttons which have some undiscovered function. And the alphanumeric layout is virtually identical to our QWERTY layout. Another thing that is remarkably the same is how they use a red cross to identify their medical facilities. I can’t wait to find other similarities.”

“I know! There’s so much we could learn from all of this, I find it staggering!” Twilight beamed, barely able to restrain herself from bouncing around like an excited filly. “The technology alone could advance us countless years even.”

“I cannot fathom just how long it will take to study all of the data we shall collect. I imagine it will be longer than any of us shall live. We’ll need a completely new wing at the University just for this purpose alone,” Bastion stated. Already, his mind was compiling lists of ponies he would be making overtures to in the effort to expand. Canterlot University could secure its position as the premier learning institution throughout all of Equis if he played his cards correctly.

The conversation carried on like this for a while as they continued towards the airlock.

They were about three quarters of the way to their destination when trouble hit them. It started with Apple Polish feeling like she was not getting enough air, very much like when she tried to go to the summit of the volcano on the Island of Haywaii. It was getting worse too. Still, she could tell that they were almost to the airlock, and would be able to take her helmet off soon. all she had to do was…

When she collapsed, half of them began to panic, but between Twilight and the three guards, they managed to keep a sense of order. Arwell, being the closest, immediately began to check her for vitals.

“I cannot feel for a pulse through the suit, but it looks like she’s struggling to breath.” Looking closely, he could see that her normally grey lips had picked up a noticeable blue tinge, indicating that she was suffering from oxygen deprivation. Silverstar checked the dial gauge attached to the bottle strapped to her back.

“Damn! Her bottle is completely empty! And it’s five minutes to the airlock.”

Twilight immediately realized that there was no way that they could carry Apple Polish to the entrance in time. In five minutes, there would be no chance of reviving the stricken mare. She made the decision at once. “Quickly, get her on my back!”

“There is no way you could carry her that far in time, Twilight!” Bastion told her, getting ready to carry the mare himself.

“I can teleport to the airlock and have her out of the suit in a minute, but we need to do this NOW!” she replied, feeling the extreme urgency of the situation. Stomping her forehoof for emphasis, she once again instructed the guards to place Apple Polish onto her back. Once they had her in place, she told them to hurry to the airlock, then charged up her horn to teleport.

In a flash, she found herself halfway to the lock and she could see exactly where she needed to be. With another flash, she was just inside the airlock, and seeing a clear spot, she then immediately used her magic one more time to jump to that location. Once inside the cavern itself, and out of the structure, she immediately began removing the unconscious mare’s helmet, and from there, the rest of the suit as she yelled for a medical team.

Once Apple Polish was in the hooves of the medics, Twilight sat back on her haunches, feeling exhausted. She had no clue just how much wearing one of those suits could drain a pony. While they did feel almost like a second skin, they constricted movement a bit, and the helmet was heavy enough to notice after a couple of hours. On top of that, the bottle she had been carrying was heavy, and as a final drain, she had to constantly keep a steady flow of magic, to keep the light going. It only became worse when you had to keep a constant watch on how you breathed so that you would not run out of air too soon.

Due to her exhaustion, she did not notice Princess Celestia come up next to her until the Alicorn gently removed the helmet from her suit. “Are you okay, Twilight?” her mentor asked. The Princess’ fears that something could happen were the biggest fears that she had, and was one of the reasons why she was reluctant to allow Twilight to go inside. It seemed fortunate that she did though, for it appeared that if Twilight had not been there, then they might have lost a member of the exploration team.

“Yeah, I’m okay, Princess. Thank you,” came the tired reply.

“What happened? Is everypony else coming? Are they okay themselves?” Now that she knew that her student was unhurt, she needed to know just what happened, and why. And just as important, she needed to know that the others would be okay as well.

“Her tank ran dry. I don’t know why, but we were five minutes away from the airlock, and this was the only way to get her to safety in time.” Looking over to where the medics were tending to Apple Polish, Twilight and the Princess both saw that she was sitting up and should be fine. “The others were just fine when I ‘ported out of there, and they should be exiting the structure in a few moments, Princess.

“Oh! Princess, we found something down there that is just incredible!” Twilight told her with an excited gleam in her eye, just as the other team members reached the inside of the airlock.

Discoveries

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“Well, look who is fashionably late, once again. It’s the fillies and colts from Manehatten! Yay!” cheered Lyra sarcastically as a large contingent of ponies walked into the makeshift cafeteria set up inside the cavern. The exploration team had settled down for a meal after they had gone through a debriefing with Princess Celestia about what they had discovered inside the structure.

Bastion looked up to see just whom it was that Lyra was referring to. “Please Lyra, let us be nice to those who are so underprivileged as to have to teach at a second rate school,” he chimed in, fueled by the rivalry that has existed between Canterlot University and Manehattan College of Higher Learning ever since the two schools were established.

Being close enough to hear this insult issued from his primary rival, Bright Skies, Headmaster of Manehattan College, strode over to the table to issue a retort. “Ah, yes, it is my good friend, Bastion. Are you still jealous of the continuously higher enrollment at my college?”

“When was I ever jealous of your Kindergarten level establishment? I actually take great pleasure in knowing that the standards for Canterlot University are some of the highest in Equestria, and that our students and faculty consistently rank in the highest positions. Oh, and let us not forget the School for Gifted Unicorns, which has produced some of the greatest minds throughout the whole world.” Pausing to take a sip of apple cider, he continued, “And what accolades can you provide for your school, Bright Skies?”

“Just the team that will be taking over the exploration and study of this structure. I should thank you for getting the place breathable for us. I imagine that those environmental suits would be a hinderance to anypony who wished to do an indepth examination. Then again, looking at the lot of you, I suspect that there was not much to hinder,” he adds, as a final jab. Finding the food line, he headed to it, with his entourage following.

“Such arrogance! Who do those ponies think they are, acting like they own the place? I know there is no way that the Princesses would consider replacing us with them,” Earthy Stables fumed. He took great pride in his Alma Mater, and that pride was only amplified that with the exception of Silver Star, all on the initial team either graduated from there, or were attending courses.

“The only real reason for a team to be here from Manehattan is that they have certain departments which would be fitting in the study of this. Ancient History, Palio-archeology, and an Engineering Department which would rival our own,” Apple Polish informed the team.

“That does not give him the right to act as if they can lord over us. If he pulls that act in front of the Princesses, he’ll find out just how little they appreciate such attitudes.” Twilight dug into her salad, suddenly believing that she will have need of the extra energy dealing with the new arrivals. She had hoped that the two teams would be able to work together in harmony, but with the pomposity that she saw just now, she had her doubts. And it was not only Bright Skies, but Bastion Yorsets as well. She sensed that it would take Royal intervention to keep those two from eventually going at each other’s throats.

When the Sergeant and two and two Corporals suddenly jumped to their hooves, rendering smart salutes, Twilight looked up to see Princess Luna standing there with a bemused look upon her face.

“Gentleman, no need to salute here, My sister and I have decided that such levels of formality here would not be needed. Please, take your seats. And do you mind if I join you?” she asked. After listening in on the debriefing, she was curious to learn more on what it was like down there and of the things that they saw.

Making room for the princess to sit, they quickly filled her in on all the details she desired. It fascinated her, especially the part where Blune told her about the hanging skeleton. “I’m gonna guess it was a model. it didn’t look like real bone to me. Still, it was quite detailed. I wonder what else we will find down there?” he pondered. Sadly for him, he will probably not get to make any more discoveries, whereas duties will have him fulfilling other roles. They had a lot to set up, and Lieutenant Snowy Peak was placed in charge of that task. The officer had already guaranteed the NCO’s that they would remain as much a part of this event as possible, so at least he was not being cast aside. For that, all three were thankful.

“I think I would love to go in and see what there is to see. It sounds like such a grand adventure. It would definitely be more interesting than the sessions of Night Court I preside over.”

“How will you find the time to balance your duties as a princess, and join us on our explorations?” asked Twilight. “I have seen just how much your duties encompass, And it seem that you have a full schedule already.”

“Delegation of authority, my friend. There are ponies who work underneath me who will be able to cover things while I partake in this adventure. Fear not. My duties will not suffer,” Luna informed her sister’s student.

Facing them all, she picked this moment to deliver the news. “Before my sister left to take care of her own duties, she has decided whom it is that will be in charge of the site. This pony will report directly to her, or me, if she is unavailable or otherwise indisposed. The site leader will have, for the most part, free leeway in decisions on how the explorations will proceed, and how the teams will be set up.

“Bastion Yorsets, you are the pony that my sister has chosen to be in charge of this excavation and the exploration.”

“This is a travesty! I will not stand for this!” they heard from behind Luna. Bright Skies and his team had just gotten their meals, and were about to sit down to eat when they overheard Luna’s announcement. “It is clear that my team is the better suited team to lead this expedition. We have a much better Ancient History Department, and my fellow instructors are better trained for this task. I shall be filing a formal complaint immediately,” he declared.

“Please, calm yourself, Bright Skies, and listen-”

“I will NOT calm myself! By what authority do you have to tell me that I will be displaced from my rightful position?” he demanded, rather impolitely.

“I suggest you do as you have been instructed by the Princess, Mr. Bright Skies. If you do not settle down, I can promise you that we WILL calm you down.”

Looking suddenly two his left, then right, the pegasus found that he was suddenly flanked by two very irate Night Guards. With grey fur, manes and tail that was almost all black, and their polished dark armor, they looked like they would own the night. On top of that, with their wings looking more like they would belong on a bat, or a dragon, and their green, reptilian eyes, they had this aura about them that spoke, ‘do not mess with me’. And when they focused their ire on a pony, the pony in question would normally feel very afraid. This is just what happened with Bright Skies at that moment.

The guard on his left side asked, “Would you care to take a seat, Sir? I am certain it would be much preferable to you than the alternative.”

He chose to take that seat, knowing that if he did not, he would most likely be forced to do so in a manner that would be rather unpleasant.

“Now that you have decided to calm yourself enough to listen, I shall inform you of what your position here will be, Bright Skies. It has been decided that you will be second in command here, directly under Bastion Yorsets. You will have a lot of leeway, and you will be instrumental in the decision making progress. It will be very important that you and Bastion learn to set aside your differences, and work together to lead this expedition, and make the most of what is discovered here,” she informed the pegasus who moments ago, protested a little more than he should. “If you do not like this arrangement, I am certain that a more suitable second in command can be found. Do you agree, Bright Skies?” she asked with a hint of a challenge in her voice.

There was not much that Bright Skies could do, other than accept the terms stated to him. To do otherwise would be suicidal for his career, and would cut his school out of the discoveries that would be made here. He was not happy with not being in charge, but it would have to be acceptable. He replied in the affirmative, agreeing to the terms.

“Bastion, the need to settle differences and to work together applies to you as well. I witnessed the exchange earlier, and I also know of the rivalry between the two schools. That rivalry must be set aside for the greater good. Can you do so?” asked the princess. When she received the answer she wished for, a warm smile lit her face. “Excellent! Now, let us partake in this meal, and talk about how we shall go about this task before us.”

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Twilight Sparkle was one very happy unicorn. She basically had a completely free hoof in what she choose to study, and how she did so. This would help keep her distant from any underlying tensions that remain between the two headmasters, she hoped, as well as allow her to set a pace much suited to her. Nopony had been surprised when she decided that she wanted Spike to come to Canterlot. After all, he was her number one assistant. It was with little surprise that she also requested that Lyra join her. It did make sense though, whereas the two of them seem to work well together. Hopefully, Twilight would be able to keep the rambunctious mare from causing too many issues. Some would prefer that she be removed from the site, claiming that she served no real purpose. Considering that it was her that had discovered how to enter the ancient artifact, Luna had readily agreed with Twilight that she belonged here.

“What are you gonna do about the Library, Twi?” Lyra asked her. Lyra knew that by bringing in Spike, it would leave nopony to run the town’s library. Granted, there have been times when it had been closed up to a week or so, due to the pair of them being away on official business, but this could prove to be a much longer absence.

“Spike has instructions to find someone suitable to run the place while we’re here studying this archeological relic. It should take him no more than two days to find the right pony for the job, and make certain that pony knows what to do for certain ponies,” she told her friend, thinking in particular of Rainbow Dash, and the Daring Do books that she loved so much. She really looked forward to Spike being here. She felt certain he would be thrilled to be part of the research they would be doing.

The two of them walked together down the long tunnel inside the main entrance to the artifact. Now that the air inside was the same as the outside air, they no longer needed the environmental suits which they wore on their previous exploration. Now, they wore only hardhats, which had been fitted with flashlights. These were magically powered and controlled ones, unlike the ones which pegasi and earth ponies wore, which were battery operated, and controlled with switches. They were not needed now, as the path was now lighted. They also had their saddlebags with them, and inside the bags they carried notebooks and quills, to take down notes on whatever they may discover.

When they get to the lobby at the end of the tunnel, they find that it had changed considerably. A heavy duty power cable had been hauled down the entire length of the passage, and inside the room sat a power distribution module. Hooked up to this were four bright lights set in the corners along the ceiling. Down the three hallways that had been explored so far, smaller power cables ran along the ceiling, and from what Twilight and Lyra could see, lights had been set up every fifty feet or so, illuminating what had been dark several hours ago. The ponies from the Engineering Battalion have been busy, Twilight thought to herself.

“Well, which hallway shall we chose, Twilight?” asked Lyra. “We have three that have yet to be explored. How about that one?” she suggested, pointing to the left-most unexplored one, still dark whereas the engineers have yet to set up the lighting there. When Twilight did not reply after a moment, she looked to find the purple mare gazing around with a puzzled look on her face. “You okay, Twilight?”

There was something not quite right to Twilight about this place. Something just felt off to her. It was not something that she noticed before, but she noticed it now. She could just feel it within her horn. It was a feeling that a unicorn does not forget. It felt like there was a magic field around her. Not a natural one like the one that encompasses the world she knew, but, more akin to being around a whole herd of unicorns all using magic. “Lyra, do you feel it? It feels like there is magic throughout this place,” she said to her explorer companion. She reached out with her magical sense, and felt it more strongly now that she focused on it.

“I feel it too, Twilight,” Lyra let her know, as she too, focused her senses around her. How is it possible that they missed this before, she wondered to herself? Maybe the suits dulled their magical senses, or maybe they had just been too focused on what the other senses were telling them. Either way, the fact that they both could sense much higher levels of ambient magical energies indicates that whomever it was that built this place had been able to use magic in some form.

The two of them walked around the lobby, attempting to feel if there was any particular direction that the magic felt stronger. As Twilight suspected, it seemed to feel stronger towards the back wall, indicating that the source was not external to the artifact that they were exploring. When she got to the desk, she noticed that there seemed to be some focused magic there. It seemed to be centered around the computer within the desk.

Lyra sensed it too. The computer seemed to have magic with it somehow. Either in use, or some other function which she had no clue of. “What is this magic field doing around this, Twilight? Can you sense what it’s purpose is?” she asked in awe. The implications were astounding, and could conceivably rewrite Ancient Equestrian history.

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “I have never sensed magic like this before. It feels so… alien. And yet, there is something recognizable about it. I wonder if Celestia or Luna could figure this out?” she asked herself. If anypony had the knowledge to understand this better, it would be either or both of the Princesses. They had been around a lot longer than any other pony around, save Cadance. Just from the sheer volume of experience, they would most likely know more than her. She would have to ask Princess Celestia the next time she saw her, Twilight concluded. Celestia seemed the most likely choice, where as she had a thousand years over her sister, due to the younger sibling’s banishment. Also, Princess Luna seemed more versed in different topics than science. Her knowledge of magic, though extensive, was of a different sort than the the ruler of the Sun. She seemed more knowledgeable about military matters, and topics of the night. As for her sister-in-law, Princess Cadance, her knowledge was more centered around the social sciences. Psychology, equine relations, the study of emotions, and whatnot.

“How about we shelve this discovery until we can talk to somepony about it, such as one of the princesses?” Lyra suggests to Twilight.

That made sense to Twilight, and she agreed. The two of them moved on in silence, heading towards the recently discovered power plant for the caverns. It appeared that the primary power supply for the whole place was geothermal in nature. The details were at a level beyond what the engineers who had found the plant could understand, and they had been busy cataloging every little detail they could find for further study. Twilight wish to see for herself, and maybe even offer some of her own ideas she might come up with.

Lyra was lost in her own thoughts, thinking of the model skeleton and the posters which they had found during their first exploration into the cavernous place. One particular detail was stuck in her mind. Instead of forelegs, they seemed to have arms like a dragon or minotaur. And hands or claws like that or a minotaur as well. Something about that just seemed to be deeply connected to something important, though she was unable to place her hoof on it.

Ideas started forming within her subconscious, making connections here and there. Eventually, it all came together in a paradigm shift, one which brought the mint unicorn to a halt.

“They were right all along!” Twilight paused to look to Lyra, wondering what it was she was referring to. “It all fits. It makes sense now,” she said, more to herself than to Twilight.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked her.

“Quills and pencils, typewriters, shovel handles and doorknobs. So many objects in everyday life that we use on a regular basis that clearly were not designed around hooves. They seem to be designed around creatures that can grasp them or otherwise manipulate them with claws.” Lyra ignored the puzzled look on Twilight’s face as she continued with her thoughts. “Why is it that we, as ponies, who have hooves, always seem to design and make stuff that clearly would be better manipulated with claws.”

Twilight held up a hoof to stop Lyra for a moment. “You’re not referring to that small fringe group that thought we all came from some ancient race, are you?” she asked. “There has never been any scientific evidence to back up their ideas. Just a bunch of hokey ideas with no rational basis,” she concluded.

“And yet, what was it we found? Seriously, Twilight, with what we saw earlier, could it be that, just maybe, there might be some sort of validity to their claims?”

Twilight had no reply. As crazy as it all sounded, Lyra did have a point. All she could do is keep her mind open to new knowledge, no matter how much said knowledge changed everything ponykind held sacred and dear. “Lets just get down to the power plant. We’ll deal with things as they happen.”

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The power plant was an engineering marvel. Easily three times the power generating capacity of the Ponyville dam, and all of it running off of the internal heat of the planet itself. Unfortunately, the plant was only capable of producing a fraction of the power it should. “If it’s designed to produces so much power, how come it’s only producing so little?”

“Wear and tear. That is our guess,” said the chief engineer who had been inspecting everything. It appears that all the machinery has been running for years all on its own. Thousands of years, I would guess. It seems that a big part of the magic field is a stasis field that keeps wear to an absolute minimum.”

Leading them to another part of the plant, the engineer had more to show the two mares. “Here is something even more amazing! Whoever it was that built all this, they developed a means to artificially create magical energy, along with the means to transmit the energy like electricity. The implications of all of this could change everything we know!” he excitedly declared.

“I want to see all your notes on what you have found. Especially on the magic generation. Nothing in anypony’s studies has ever indicated that it could be possible to artificially create raw magical energy. The level of technology in this place would easily be an order of magnitude above anything we have currently.” Looking around, Twilight marveled at what she was seeing. “I don’t even know where to begin, this is so incredible.”

“Welcome to the new world, Twilight,” Lyra said, half jokingly. “It looks like it’s going to be a hell of a ride.”

After a few hours of exploration and study of the power plant, Twilight was only marginally closer to understanding the technology involved with the production of magic. She had a long way to go before she would come close to having a true understanding. The notes she had taken would make for many night’s worth of studying, so she did have that to look forward to.

Right now, her, Lyra, and the engineer, Tight Bolt, were inspecting another machine, one that none of them had any clue as to its purpose. It was toroidal in shape, or, as Lyra had stated, shaped like a donut. This donut, though, was one that even Pinkie Pie could not hope to eat. For one thing, it was huge, With a height of five meters, and a good fifteen meters across. The fact that it was made from metal and other similarly inedible materials made it so the risk of it ending up in an earth pony’s stomach was just about zero.

Whatever it was, it apparently used a tremendous amount of energy to run, if the size of the power leads going into it were any indication. From the size and amount of power feeds, Bolt figured that it would take in more energy than geothermal generators would be able to generate, had they been running at one hundred percent. This did not make much sense to either the engineer or Twilight.

“Does that mean that there are more generators within this complex?” Lyra asked.

“Not that we have seen so far. Then again, we have not fully explored the site. For all we know, this room could be just one of several plants,” replied Bolt.

“What if we’re mistaken, and what we’re seeing are power leads leading out? What if this is just another form of electrical generation?” she asked further.

“How would it generate power, then? If the power leads are any indication, then this would be able to produce easily twice the power than the steam turbines would be able to turn out. I see no turbines, or generators, for that matter,” Twilight answered.

“How do they generate magical energy? That’s the thing, Twilight. We just do not yet understand how it is done, but that does not mean it is impossible. Whoever it was that made all of this, it seems that they were gone before any recorded history on our part. Who is to say that they were limited to what we would understand? For all we know, they could have been technological gods.”

Twilight had to admit, Lyra did have a point. Before they could ponder this train of thought further, they were interrupted by a guardpony running up to them. “Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna requests your presence immediately. There has been a discovery that she believes that you and Miss Heartstring need to see. Follow me, and I will bring you to her,” he instructed the two of them. He did not wait for an acknowledgment before turning to briskly trot back the way he had come. All the two mares could do is hurry up to follow.

The guard led the pair back the way they had come, and then on to a different corridor, one which the two had not yet been down. They briskly traveled down numerous corridors, and even down a couple flights of stairs before they came to an open cavern.

The open space was huge. Lights evenly spaced every ten meters or so gave her a frame of reference, and the room appeared to be over three hundred meters wide by five hundred meters long. The room seemed filled with containers of some sort, evenly spaced in rows and columns. Twilight tried to get a count of the containers, but from her perspective, she was unable to make any accurate guess.

She found Luna by a console of some sort, talking with several of her guards. Once she dismissed the thestrals, she turned to the two mares. “Twilight, Lyra, thank you for promptly showing up. With what I have found, I thought that the two of you should be the first ones I share my discovery with.”

“What did you find, Princess Luna?” asked Lyra, curious as to what it could be that required their immediate attention.

Beckoning the two of them to follow her, Luna says, “I think it would be better that you see for yourselves.” Leading Twilight and Lyra to one of the containers. The container stood roughly a meter tall, and was about two and a half meters long by a little over a meter wide. On one side was a light faintly glowing green, with a row of lights below it glowing yellow. Twilight wondered what the purpose for the lights was. She figured that they must be indicators of some sort. Next to the lights appeared to be a panel of some sorts. What was behind the panel was unknown, but she felt that they would soon ascertain that knowledge. “Try looking at the top, Twilight.”

Twilight propped herself up to look at the top. It appeared to be smooth metal, until she saw that one end had what looked to be a glass window. Shuffling over to look through, she could only stare as her mind tried to process what it was that she was seeing. What she saw through the glass was a face, unlike any other that she had ever seen.

Those Who Came Before

by Biker_Dash

Arrival

Entry

Initial Exploration

Discoveries