On Ashes

Chapters

Chapter 00 - Reunion (Prologue)
Chapter 01 - the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
Chapter 02 - The Descent

Chapter 00 - Reunion (Prologue)

Chapter Zero – Reunion (Prologue) / by Libritium

Twilight Sparkle was pacing in her library in Ponyville, very nervous because of a talk she had a day prior with her former mentor - princess Celestia, who had tasked Twilight with her first assignment as a princess - to investigate the Everfree forest, more specifically, the ruins of the royal sister’s castle.

The next day she wrote to her friends to meet her in Ponyville’s library and she flew there herself with Spike on her back and a few things she packed in her saddlebags to take with her.

After her coronation the princesses, Celestia and Luna asked Twilight what gift she would like to receive from them for her accomplishment. The only thing she asked for was the library in Ponyville, a place she loved with all her heart, a place that reminded her of all the years she spent with her friends when she lived there, she couldn’t give up on it and they agreed. She always considered the library to be hers, but now it was official, they even renamed the place from “Golden Oaks Library” to “Sparkle Library”, though she slightly disagreed being used to the old name.

In all the time that she was missing Twilight still kept good contacts with her friends via post mail on regular basis and now they were late to meet her return.

“They’ll be here soon Twilight,” said Spike – a mulberry dragon with green spikes. Her temper has started to anger him. “That’s what happens when you send a letter saying: ‘Meet me in a few hours in the library’. You don’t expect them to ignore a royal princess summon command, after all” he added with a smirk.

“Very funny Spike,” she shot at him. “You’re so-“

“Private Rainbow Dash answering your summon princess Sparkle!” a cyan Pegasus pony with a rainbow mane and tail broke into the library, and stood in attention facing her. “What will be you orders, princess?”

They stared into each other, while Twilight was surprised to the level of speech-loss; Rainbow had a concentrated emotionless expression with her eyes looking at Twilight. Then, after a few seconds, Rainbow Dash couldn’t hold herself any longer and bursted into laughter barely having enough air to fill her lungs with.

Twilight released a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding.

Rainbow always loved to prank other ponies but this time she really got her. The only time she saw Rainbow laughing that hard was when she and Applejack heard that Twilight was participating in the “Running of the Leaves”. She allowed herself to chuckle a bit both from relief and Rainbow’s addicting laughing.

Spike joined in soon after Twilight but they were shortly interrupted by a knock on the door of the library.

Spike jumped to open the door to allow Rarity, a white unicorn pony with a stylish indigo mane and tail, enter the library. “Oh, I’m so happy to see you again Twilight, how are things back in Canterlot?”

“I’m too happy to see you Rarity. And nothing really changed since my last letter,” Twilight answered. “I see, Hello to you too my Spiky-wiky and to you Dash.”

“Hi Rare, what’s up?”

“The usual,” said Rarity before she received a warm hug from Spike.

“Oh Spike you’ll choke me in this rate!” she murmured.

“Sorry, I just missed you so much these past few weeks,” he said releasing Rarity. “Me too Spike.”

Another knock, this time Twilight opened the door with her magic. Two ponies entered the room: An orange earth pony with a yellow hair color and a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. “Hi Twilight, we’re sorry we are late, I hope you’re not mad at us,” said the yellow pegasus. “Not at all Fluttershy, come right in, I’m very happy to see you two again.”

“Me to Twi, how are you doin’?” the orange earth pony entered the room greeting all the present ponies with a nod. “Fine Applejack, do you know where’s Pinkie-”

“HERE I AM!” a pink mass jumped on Twilight from nowhere and wrapped Twilight in a hug. Then Pinkie popped out a present, again, from nowhere and hanged it to Twilight. Twilight took it in her magic and opened it to discovered a cake with a “welcome back!” written on it. “Thank you Pinkie Pie, you really shouldn’t-“ The pink earth pony interrupted her again, “Oh Twilight, when you wrote that you wanted to meet us all again in your library I wanted to do a welcome-back party but then, you wrote that you don’t want one so the least I could do is make a welcome-back cake, so here it is! Do you like it?”

“Yes Pinkie. Thank you,” Twilight answered, “that’s really nice. Spike please, can you arrange us a tea table?”

“Yes Twilight, right away.” He ran to the kitchen.

When the tea was ready and the cake was cut Twilight and all of her friends took their seats around the table and Twilight filled each cup of her friends with tea using her magic. “So, you told us in your letter that Princess Celestia tasked you with an important mission or something like that,” said Rainbow after a few sips and pieces of cake.

“I know, I wasn’t quite big on details,” started Twilight. “She asked me to investigate the old ruins of the royal pony sisters castle, you know, the place where we first found the Elements of Harmony as stone spheres,” -everypony nodded- “so she want me to investigate the place and make sure it’s completely empty. We already found the Elements of Harmony, so who knows what other thing the princesses might’ve left there.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Wasn’t it hers castle?” Rainbow interrupted her. “She must’ve know what she left behind to just lie there! And by the way, how the hay she left the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful weapon known to Equestria to just lie there?”

“You don’t understand, Rainbow,” Twilight looked at her, “the princess was hiding it in the forest, keeping it safe there, everypony knows how dangerous the forest is so they wouldn’t go there, it makes for a good protection. Actually, the history of this castle is very interesting, when I asked Celestia about it; she told me that this place is very ancient; she claims that she and Luna build it themselves to live there, far from the main civilizations until the first Discord incident, then they had to abandon it in order to rule the ponies from a less remote location, so they moved to Canterlot. They decided to leave the Elements there in hope that they’ll never have to use them again. She told me that once it was a beautiful castle, she and Luna were able to take care of it by themselves because it wasn’t that big but now the place is just an old ruins.”

“And what about the creatures that live in the forest?” asked Fluttershy.

“The castle is on a remote island high in the mountains, we had to pass a broken bridge if you remember. Every other creature that could reach them like manticores soon learned to keep out of the castle; those are goddesses we are talking about. Even today they don’t dare to get near it,” Twilight answered her.

“It’s very interestin’ and all, but where is the part where we come in?” asked Applejack. “Ah mean, she asked you to investigate, how are we related to it?”

“Actually, you don’t have to come. I just thought that it’ll be a nice opportunity for us to go on another nice, calm and not dangerous trip together,” said Twilight with a friendly smile on her face.

“But darling, since when does the Everfree Forest considered as a nice and not so dangerous place?” all heads nodded in agreement with Rarity.

“Well, since I’m an alicorn princess,” Twilight replied with a chuckle. “Celestia taught me a few offensive spells and fighting techniques so I’m pretty confident to vouch for your safety.”

The room fell silent for a few moments while the ponies were thinking about the opportunity and finishing their portions of the cake. Twilight really was tasked with a mission she could take by herself, even without Spike, but she missed her friends so much that she decided to invite them to join her.

“I vote for the adventure.” Twilight believed her ears to impertinently deceive her because those words couldn’t have come from the direction she thought they did, but this thought had vanished as all the present slowly turned their surprised faces toward Fluttershy. She blushed and turned her head away.

Now, all of them were forced to agree to the adventure.

“So we have an adventure,” said Rainbow.

“Count me in!” – Applejack.

“Me too!” – Pinkie Pie.

“I suppose I can make a good enough window in my orders, so yes, I agree!” – Rarity.

“And mah brother can handle the farm by himself for a couple of days, and… Ah didn’t had a decent vocation in a while,” – Applejack.

“If I leave enough food for my animals, they’ll manage alone just fine. For a few days. I hope,” – Fluttershy.

Only now they noticed that they sat there for a couple of hours and that it was night already.

“We’ll meet here tomorrow in 6 o’clock,” said Twilight. “Now go home and prepare for a 5-days-top trip, we are heading out tomorrow.

They all said their goodnights and everypony went to her home. Twilight was left only with Spike and they started to clean the table.

One thought bothered Twilight though, deep inside her she thought that her friends agreed to join her only because of her royal status and it disgusted her. She hasn’t shared her concerns with Spike, only wished him a good night when they finished cleaning and went to her old bed on the second floor. She noticed it to be smaller than what she remembered, it’s probably because I got higher - she thought. Still, it suited her perfectly and she quickly fell asleep and soon her mind brought her to the world of dreams.

Chapter 01 - the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters

Chapter One – the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters / by Libritium

The next day the five friends gathered in Sparkle Library early in the morning and after a few greetings and final preparations and checks they all were ready to head to the Everfree forest. There were 6 ponies with big, full saddlebags and a dragon with a big bag on his back, all filled with items needed for a prolonged field trip.

“I also want to visit Zecora while we are at it,” said twilight as they were a couple of steps behind the entrance of forest. “I haven’t seen her for a while now and I would like to.”

“Sure Twilight,” Applejack replied. “But, we better not stay there for too long, it will be better if we reach the place before sunset.”

-“Noted.”

The walk to Zecora’s hut was unusually quiet; all the ponies were still asleep so the only noises they heard for a while were yawns.

“So, how did it happened that you was the first pony to agree to this, Fluttershy?” Rainbow broke the silence first. All heads turned to Fluttershy as she blushed and turned hers away.

“I actually liked to see the Everfree forest and with Twilight there to protect us it sounded like a good opportunity,” She replied quietly.

“Alright, and you Twilight, you claim that you can defeat a hydra now?”

“Maybe, but I would rather distract it enough for you to run to safety, then just teleport away from it or… I could just teleport all of us to a safe place the moment we suspect danger.” She felt that her words comforted her friends.

“I don’t get it. Why do we have to walk to the castle when you can just teleport us there?” asked Rarity.

“I can’t. I need to see the place or to have a good memory of it in order to teleport to it. I didn’t really had the time to admire the scenery the first time we were there, so we have to walk.” Rarity murmured something to herself as they kept walking.

Soon they’ve reached Zecoras hut.

Now they just stood in front of the hut for a few seconds before Twilight approached the door and knocked on it.

No response.

She knocked again, harder.

Still, no response.

“Maybe she’s away, gatherin’ some ingredients.”

“So early?” asked Spike.

“I see my friends have come at last!” A voice behind them spoke. “Although, much time, since then has passed.”

Everypony turned around to see no else but Zecora the zebra standing behind them with a saddlebag full of plants, roots, flowers and other ingredients.

“I see a change in Twilight here,” she continued. “In a new form, you before me appear.” Twilight spread her wings.

“Congratulations Twilight, you’ve achieved - what many, to be impossible believed.” She walked past them and opened the door.

“I’m happy to welcome a princess in my home. Please enter, and tell me, why you had come.” They all entered the familiar hut where nothing has changed since theirs last visits.

“We are headed to the ruins high in the mountains and decided to pass by and say hello,” Twilight answered her while Zecora was unpacking her things.

“What things you seek there, in an abandoned place? I doubt that something worthy you’ll face.” Zecora asked with a surprised expression.

“I’m sure we will, Zecora, how have you been all this time since our last meeting?” asked Twilight while hers friends started to roam the room in search of something interesting to distract themselves with.

“I’m here, still living in this oak.” She answered. “Nothing changed since we last spoke.” Zecora started to prepare her ingredients for the heated cauldron in the middle of the room.

Twilight didn’t want to disturb Zecora’s work so she started to head towards the exit.

“I’m glad that you are fine Zecora. Anyway, it was nice seeing you again but we better be off, we want to be there before sunset,” She said while motioning to her friends to follow her out.

“Goodbye,” Spike waved her as he followed Twilight out.

“Bye Zecora,” said Rainbow.

“Yea, it was good seeing you again!” bounced Pinkie Pie.

“See‘ya ‘round,” nodded Applejack while also exiting the hut.

“Bye,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Stay safe,” wished Rarity, exiting last.

“you too my pony folks, may luck be with you, in your works," she said poking her head out of the open door.

They departed Zecora’s hut and continued their journey to the top of the mountains where the castle was. It didn’t take them more than an hour to reach the river where they first encountered the sea serpent during their quest to acquire the Elements. Twilight and Rarity had a childish hope of meeting him again here; they both started to look around for him but saw nothing and continued to move on following the others to the other side of the river.

“Did you know Spike, that that was the exact same part of the Everfree River where we met the sea serpent the first time?” Rarity asked. Spike looked back at the river then back at Rarity shaking his head.

After some time they’ve reached the rope bridge which, to their surprise, was broken again.

“Not again!” Rainbow facehooved.

“Everypony stand still!” shouted Twilight. Her horn glowed with the familiar raspberry-purple color.

*SPUH

In the next second, she and all of her friends appeared on the other side with a supporting familiar purple flash. As her friends recovered from the sudden unexpected forced teleportation Twilight glanced at the sun, judging from its position, she could tell that it’s approximately 11:15. It took us 4 and a half hour to reach the castle, she thought, including prolonging the road through Zecora’s hut, good timing!

“Shall we go in?” Twilight asked returning her look on the already recovered group.

“Can ‘ya warn us next time ‘ya pullin’ somethin’ like that?”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to angry you,” Twilight answered. “Next time, I will notify you, Applejack.”

“Anyways, let’s take a break once we’re inside, I’m starving,” said Rainbow Dash already moving in without waiting for a response, they all followed her into the first room and started to unpack their things.

The place was just like Twilight remembered it; a roofless room made out of dark green-grey stone with only the frames of the windows remained. In the center stood a now empty pedestal where the Elements were and the half broken columns covered in twisted vines on the sides of the room. In the light of day and without the Elements, this place lost some of the charm it had on that fateful night when Twilight and her friends freed Princess Luna; now it looked like just another ruins of just another castle which Twilight already seen many of it in her books.

They all ate in silence, lost in memories. Spike was wondering around the room seeing it all for the first time, he stopped by the pedestal in the center. “So this is the place where you found the Elements of Harmony?”

“Yes it is!” answered Rainbow Dash before taking another bite from her sandwich.

“When the princesses lived here,” Twilight started, “they were using this room as a guest room; they didn’t have many visitors then because only few ponies knew they’ve existed, but the ones who knew - mostly the rulers of various races including the three pony races - could come to them if they had concerns or in a great need of their advice or help. During the first era which lasted until Discord’s Reign the princesses lived here; in the castle they’ve build by themselves in a neutral territory - the Everfree Forest, which never belonged to any nation during that era so it was for the best that the goddesses of this world would not favor one nation over the other by living among its people. From here they maintained this world in a relative peace, preventing a good amount of wars and conflicts or simply saving entire nations like the Crystal Empire from extinction or any other severe damage. It all lasted until Discord showed up. He took control over the united Equestria and degraded and distorted it beyond repair. The princesses tried to fight him directly but couldn’t win so they retreated to find a way to defeat him.”

By now all of her friends were listening to Twilight with curiosity. Twilight took out a bottle of water and an apple and took a bite from it. She knew that her friends wanted to hear the rest of story but first she finished that apple and took a few sips from the bottle. As she continued her story she pulled a few more apples and took bites from them between sentences. “At first, they ventured to the other races for help but got none; Discord took control over the sun and the night sky and kept it as was in exchange of inaction regarding Equestria from the other races, they didn’t wanted to waste lives fighting him over nothing plus they were scared and affected by him; he implanted fear, uncertainty and doubt in their hearts.

The only one who still was determined to fight Discord and was immune to him was the Dragon King – Hattic ‘the Ancient’ the grand-grand-grand-grand-father of the current dragon king. Legends say that his power was equal to those of the princesses, combined. He advised them to search for the Elements of Harmony and promised his help to defeat Discord once they’ll acquire them but when they’ve ventured to look for them Discord came and killed him, the battle drained much of Discord’s powers so when the princesses faced him later with the Elements of Harmony, he was defeated.”

By now, they’ll finish eating including Twilight and simply sat on the stone floor listening to her.

“After that, Celestia and Luna saw the damage Discord did to Equestria. They understood that the damage was too great to heal simply by time, even thousands of years, so they decided to take a personal intervention in its recovery and took control over us to prevent us from worsening ourselves and put us on the right course to recovery. It all lasted peacefully until the Nightmare Moon incident.”

Twilight paused. She knew how cruel was the real story of Nightmare Moon, her friends were used to the utopia Celestia created for them; they knew nor murder, nor torture, nor fear of death from other ponies. Celestia created a world where everypony was allowed to live a full life and stay naïve until the day they died of old age. Twilight on the other hoof read about the dark times when the world was not so “colorful and shiny”. Celestia locked that knowledge away, but Twilight, as her personal student, and later, as a princess, had access to it. Even when she mentioned Discord’s murder, she saw her friends all gasped in fear and disbelief, not believing such a thing as murder could exist in this world. Because of that reason she didn’t expand on what exactly Discord did to the ponies during his reign and decided to stop there.

“Anyway, we should probably start the search,” Twilight said.

“Ah don’t think that we’ll find somethin’ worthy here, in this room I mean,” said Applejack.

“You’re probably right,” said Twilight. “Let’s head to the throne room then.”

The seven gathered their things and took the only exit from the guest room that doesn’t lead them outside, from where they came. There were stairs going up that led them to the familiar tower.

Now, in the daylight and without its threat, the throne room comforted Twilight, it looked so peaceful and deserted. She let a sigh wishing that she could just sit here, without any disturbances, and watch as the sun sets through the glassless huge window on the back of the room behind the throne. She noticed to herself that this desire was too great and she promised herself that one day, she will do it.

“Are you alright?” asked Spike with a worried look.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just got lost in thoughts. That’s all,” she answered taking a breath and examining the room. Aside from the temptation the room looked exactly like she remembered it: broken like the previous but instead of the Elements’ stand on the far side of the room, there was a throne on a podium with a couple stairs leading to it. The purple-black-squared throne itself was decorated with stone pony heads.

Strange, the pony’s heads show affection toward ponies, though the princesses were known for their equal treating. Twilight shared her observation with her friends. “Sheesh Twilight, those are just pretty decors!” answered Pinkie.

“Or, it could be just a sign of acknowledgment of their origin,” suggested Rarity. “I guess you’re right,” said Twilight. She started to move around the room, examining different spots and distinctive features but quickly concentrated her attention on the throne. Her friends did the same; they all wandered around looking for something unusual but after a couple of minutes of relative silence Rainbow broke it. “There’s nothing here! Let’s move on!”

“I guess that this door on the wall near the throne leads to a hallway that leads to the bedchambers and other places,” said Twilight. ”Look, there is no reason for us to walk around as a group, let’s split up and rove the castle freely for a couple of hours, leave your things here, this will be our camp, for tonight at least.”

“And what do you want me to do in a broken and ruined castle?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“The armory, the garden, the kitchen and a few other places are still out there. Maybe you all will find something interesting in them.” Twilight knew that the chances are slim and that the time that passed probably already destroyed all of those rooms, if not, then definitely their content but it was better to check those places anyway if not for the goal then at least for the enjoyment.

The six dropped their things and one by one exited the room through the door, they looked curious to visit the places Twilight mentioned, as for Spike, he decided to stay with Twilight.

“Where are you planning to go?” he asked. “Oh, Spike. There is only one place in that castle that could interest me; can you guess what that is?”

“” Twilight managed to read after wiping out the dust off the plate near one of the doors of the hallway. She entered the room with Spike after her, it surprised her to see how well this room looked considering the time that passed since this place was abandoned and in comparison to the throne room. The bookshelves were disposed around the room and within it, leaving pocket-like passages to access a specific book quickly while still holding an impressive amount of them; each “pocket” had its own category and arranged in an alphabetic order, the far side of the room had a round table and a few chairs around it. Although, one thing made Twilight holler, it wasn’t the fact that the room, despite looking better than it should, was still wrecked: only a couple of bookshelves were still whole and the round table and its chairs had a good portion of the ceiling on them. No, it was the fact that this place, being a library lacked one of its crucial components: books.

All of Twilights hopes to find something interesting here were destroyed by the scene before her. Where are they? She wondered, this place was supposed to hold so much knowledge, secrets, information. She made a few steps into the room looking at what’s left of it desperately wishing to find something.

There, after she reached the end of the room she spotter a text carved into the wall left of the window near the table, though the text was hard to read because of the effects of time, she still managed to understand it’s meaning: “…con… of the Everfree Lib… repo-ned -o… Ca-t”

So, this library’s books are somewhere in Canterlot now as I understand it, probably in the castle’s library. Maybe among the ones I’ve read, she thought.

“Look, I found one!” said Spike enthusiastically. He picked up a brown book from below one of the shelves and gave it to Twilight. She took it in her magic wiping the dust from it and deciding that she’d take a closer look at it later she put it in the light saddlebag with some snacks and water that she took with her.

Now that she had nothing to keep her in the library, she decided to look into the princesses bedchambers, so she left the library and started searching for them. She found it in the end of the same corridor as the library, the two last doors were Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s bedchambers located one against the other on the opposite sides of the hallway; The Left - Celestia’s and the right – Luna’s. She chose the left one first.

The ruins of a once beautiful bedroom were what Twilight saw when she opened the door; it was a rectangular room with a bookshelf, a table, a wardrobe and a set of drawers in each of the corners of the room, they all were reverse-roundly shaped so that it gave the room an oval-like look and it perfectly complemented the round bed on the opposite side from the entrance. There also was a pair of glass double doors on the right wall leading to a balcony facing south.

That was what that room should have looked like approximately one-thousand six-hundred years ago. Now, all of its beauty was gone, dissolved in the time.

Twilight released a sigh, closed the door and turned around to open Luna’s door.

To her surprise, half of the room was gone. The ceiling and the walls were destroyed; any furniture that could’ve been here was long gone. Nothing here hinted Twilight on what that room was used to look like, only a few straight carvings on the left wall suggested an entrance to balcony similar to what Celestia had. The rest was covered in plants and debris.

***

Twilight sat at the throne room with a melancholy expression and waited for her friends to return and hopefully, bring something interesting to brighten her. She returned earlier than she planned because she got slightly upset from the result of her own excursion and also because she wanted to examine the book that Spike found.

She pulled the book out of the saddlebag along with some vegetables and a bottle of water and examined it. It was a brown diary book with a distinctive lock that extends the back cover and wraps the front one with it, which keeps the book in a better shape throughout time. There was a symbol on the front cover: a golden eagle claw facing upward and six stars around it on a silver circle. I remember this symbol from somewhere, Twilight thought; it’s either the Griffon Royal Special Forces or the Griffon High Research University.

As she opened it, she realized that this book isn’t from the times of the princess’s rule but much later; the language was semi-modern and not ancient, the text on the pages was readable and the book itself looked too good to be untouched for over a thousand years.

On the front page:

Top secret.

This is the research diary of Rock Ravenclaw, the head researcher of the Griffon High Research University of 3258 from PCS.

Subject: the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Location: the Everfree Forest.

Year: 7 years from Discord’s defeat or 3258 years from Princess’s Count Start.

Assignment description: my team and I were tasked to search the Everfree Castle a.k.a. the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters for any information regarding Discord’s incident or princess’s political interferences. The Sixth Royal Special Task Force provides safe passage through the Everfree Forest.

A secret mission from griffon government in the Everfree Forest, that’s strange, Twilight thought. But why is the diary here?

Before she flipped to the next page she heard someone canter behind the and door returned the empty bottle to the saddlebag awaiting her friend to enter. After a few seconds it opened and revealed Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“Hey, sugarcube, I thought you’ll be gallopin’ all over the place lookin’ for somethin’ unusual,” Applejack said walking to her.

“Well, I had found something unusual but I’d first like to hear what you two found and where you’ve been,” she answered.

“We were at the kitchen and the ruins of the gardens! Did you know that the princesses had a magnificent garden near the palace?” Pinkie said enthusiastically.

“Yep, we tried to imagine how the kitchen and the gardens looked like, now those places are completely overgrown and wrecked,” said Applejack. “We ain’t found anything though.”

“So what’ve you found, Twilight?” asked Pinkie Pie gesturing to the book Twilight closed when they’ve entered.

“I’ll show you when the rest will show up. Now, let’s prepare ourselves for the night.”

They started to unpack their saddlebags and pull out some food and sleeping bags to sit on. After an hour or so, Rainbow Dash returned with a satisfied look on her face: “You were right Twilight, the armory and the towers were worth visiting, even if they’re destroyed and mostly empty,” she said and then she added with a lowered voice, “I still wasn’t able to find anything better than a few rusty pieces of metal. But still, it was interesting.”

“Glad you had a good time Rainbow,” Twilight replied. “You better unpack your things; we’re waiting for the others to join us so I’ll show you what I found.”

Rainbow joined to the waiting Pinkie and Applejack and in about another half hour of small talks about what they saw the last two ponies, Rarity and Fluttershy returned and told the others about the garden, princesses’ bedchambers and the outskirts of the palace while also unpacking their things and getting ready to end the day.

After everypony was ready, Twilight revealed the diary to them while explaining a bit about the Griffon High Research University. “This university is well founded and greatly respected among all the races. It’s even responsible for a number of discoveries in unicorn and pony magic.”

“So this place has already been cleared by those griffons!” said Rainbow with a disappointed voice.

“I’m sure that they’ve missed something.” Twilight tried to cheer her friends. “Yeah, they just couldn’t check everywhere!” Pinkie added.

“Do you have any idea why their leader would leave his diary here?” asked Rarity. “I guess he just lost it, Spike found it under a shelf in the library only thanks for him being shorter than a pony or a griffon.” Twilight answered.

“Hey!” He gave her an offended look.

“No offence, Spike.” He snorted but smiled and looked at her.

The room fell silent as Twilight opened the book on the first expedition’s day and read it aloud:

54th day of Spring:

We departure from Hippogriffia at eight in the morning local time and flew directly to the borders of the Everfree Forest stopping only once in Fortressburg to join the military escort and pick up supplies.

We reached the destination at two thirty, safely passing the Everfree forest and establishing camp in the guest hall. We began to plan our search scheme and hand out assignments and tasks each is responsible for.

From here I’m starting my description of the place, the palace looks simply magnificent from the outside, build on the highest mountain in the forest it provides the best view on the forest while protecting it. The guest hall is relatively large and mostly intact, beautifully decorated, there’s a pedestal in the far end of the room with six empty nests for spherical objects and a hallway leading to the throne room. Today me and my team managed to explore only the guest room, with no results; I’m planning to search the throne room tomorrow and maybe include another room in the search, if I’ll have enough time.

We’re ceasing operation early today in order to get the needed rest from the way and the camp setup.

She raised her head from the book and looked at her friends; none of them interrupted her reading or asked her to stop so she moved to the next day:

55th day of Spring:

As was scheduled, I was scanning the throne room today, a big room built following the design of the guest room with two thrones on a stand at it’s center. After three hours of meaningless search and wasted time I gave up on this room and decided to move onward, to another one but then, one of my students, Diana Bluesky came to me and told me that she found a hidden tunnel in the gardens which lead to an underground cave system below the castle, I ordered my group to gather there. After examining it we realized that the tunnel wasn’t natural and that the princesses created it and used the caves on the other side of it but why? We’re planning to fully search the caves tomorrow engaging everyone in it to find the reason for its creation and perhaps find what we came here for.

“We’ve got to look at those caves tomorrow,” said Twilight closing the book and circling her friends with a look.

“I think that if there was somethin’ interestin’ down there, the griffons already took it,” Applejack protested. “Maybe, but it’s better than wandering an empty castle for another few days,” Rainbow Dash answered.

“I have to agree with Twilight even though a dirty underground cave disgusts me, if the princesses hid something here, it’ll be there,” said Rarity.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike; they gave her a nod as sign of agreement.

“It is set then!” she proclaimed putting the diary in her saddlebag and getting in her sleeping bag. The other followed her example and after a few minutes the only sounds in the room were Rainbow Dash’s snorts.

Chapter 02 - The Descent

On Ashes

Chapter Two – The Descent / by Libritium

“I guess this is it,” said Twilight raising her head from a tunnel entrance and turning to her friends.

When they woke up in the morning, they packed their things and went to the garden to search for the mentioned tunnel entrance. After half an hour and a lot of torn vines and bushes they finally faced the arched aperture which was cleverly hidden behind a tall bush in the corner of the garden-yard.

“They sure made it hidden,” Applejack commented.

The entrance was about a meter tall, wide enough to fit a pony but unlikely a princess.

Spike got off of Twilight’s back and Twilight entered the archway with her head lowered and her saddlebags slightly rubbing against the edges. The tunnel got quickly wider and taller right after the entrance and Twilight was able to fully straighten up and even spread her wings without touching the walls. Lighting her horn she glanced at the tunnel, the walls and the ceiling were polished and smooth and

The floor was made out of cobblestone.

She turned around to wait for her friends.

Soon her friends joined her and after a quick approving nod they started to walk the straight tunnel exchanging glances with each other from time to time. Their walk was shortly interrupted by them reaching a circular chamber with spiral stairs on the walls leading down. They exchanged glances and by a silenced agreement started to carefully descend, checking every stair making sure it’s strong enough before stepping on it.

To their surprise the construction was perfectly stable and soon they’ve reached the bottom of it.

As further down they went, their surroundings lost more and more signs of a hoofwork, they became more and more natural, less torch-holders, supporting arcs, single stairs and flat floors. But the path still remained straight. There were no forks or dead ends along the entire path, it seemed like there were led to somewhere and surprisingly it was still whole after all this time.

After half an hour of depressing silence, Spike finally broke it, “this place reminds me of the diamond dogs caves,” he said from Twilight’s back.

“But without the diamonds,” said Rarity flaring her horn and looking around.

“And dogs,” added Applejack.

“And bahilion road splits and dead ends,” sealed Rainbow Dash.

Soon they reached the end of it: a large underground lake.

“Is... is it the The Magic Mirror Lake?” asked Rarity.

“Pond, you silly. And no it is the, um...-” Pinkie sat down and put a hoof to her chin, “-Princesses Hidden Deep Underground Pond!” She finished with an enthusiastic jump.

“How do you know that?” Rainbow Dash asked her with a confused expression.

“Why shouldn’t I know it, silly? I had just named it. It would be very odd if I’ll forget things that I name, because then, no one will know it except the ponies I was able to tell it to them in time,” she explained.

“...Anyways. This place is simply fascinating!” Said Rarity channeling magic through her horn to light the place even further.

Truly, they stood on the shores of a big underground lake with strange crystals hanging from the ceiling and coming up from the floor. The water, it was crystal clean and smooth, like this place was never touched.

“I think I know what those crystals are,” said Twilight. “If I’m not mistaken they glow when you charge them with magic.” With that, she pointed her horn on one of the crystals close to her and shot a ray of pure magical energy, the crystal exploded with light illuminating the entire cave.

“This is simply fascinating! those crystals are exceptionally rare and here we found an entire cave full of them!” She exclaimed extinguishing her horn.

“Lets take a break here” Applejack suggested.

They all dropped their things and got closer to the water itself, with a simple spell Twilight confirmed that that water is safe for drinking and they all dove into it to drink and fill their flasks.

The water itself was so delicious and refreshingly cold, that they decided to replace their own water from them.

After that, Twilight started to wonder the place collecting some of the crystals into her saddlebags.

Meanwhile, Spike insensibly tried to chew on one of the big chunks on one of the walls, Twilight spotted it and told him to stop it but it was too late, the wall collapsed and thankfully she managed to get him out of harms way in time, before the razor-sharp crystals almost fell on him.

To their surprise, there was a hole in the wall behind those crystals

and it seemed like there’s another room there. After a quick exchange of looks between the ponies they entered through the hole.

At first it was dark. After a few steps Twilight lightened the place and they got their first looks at it; a typical underground deadened cave with those rare glowing crystals, but… there was something more there.

The far wall had a strange, big, flat plate “built” in it, it looked unnatural, like someone built it in there, after they got closer to it they took their first good look at it; on the plate were some strange and undecipherable hieroglyphs:

“Millenium corp. Property

Restricted area”

“What do ‘ya think is that?” asked Applejack.

“I have no idea. I don’t recognise the writing, it looks so…”

“Strange.”

“Scary.”

“Alien.”

“Should we try to pull it off the wall?” Rarity Suggested.

Twilight contemplated her offer for a moment. "Yea. Lets do it. But lets take it easy. Everyone, stay back!"

First, she scanned the plate with magic discovering a hollow space right after it and that it's attached to a strange frame made of the same material but wider and tougher. That frame held the plate dead in its place, she grabbed it with her magic and tried to move it slightly in different directions until it finally gave up when she moved it upwards, to her surprise she discovered that this plate is some kind of door that slides up, so she slowly slid it all the way up and inside forward, she maximised the light from her horn to reveal a huge rectangular room.

The walls, ceiling and floor of the place were mostly smooth, made completely out of some kind of a metal, dark grey and silver colors with a few of strange rectangular boxes filled with cylindrical object hanging from the ceiling and stretching the length of the walls. The floor was similar in style to that of Canterlot, polished stone and ceramics but differently placed and shaped.

This room was filled with box shelves, with thousands, thousands of boxes in different shapes and sizes. It must be some kind of a storage area, Twilight thought for a second.

None of them had any idea what they were staring at, it was too hidden and advanced to be pony-made, too smooth and clear to be made by the Diamond-Dogs and too misplaced and odd-looking to be made by Griffons or any other known sapient creatures for that matter.

It was apparent to Twilight that this is a very old place even if it was well preserved. There was no telling how much time it existed here.

And the air, it was that heavy old air, filled with that ancient dust one can smell when opening a very old book from the top of that forgotten corner shelf in the library. From the start of their descent the air got heavier and heavier until the lake, there was a good and clean air. but here, it was calmingly ancient, and cold.

All in all, it was an impressive feat of architecture combining both simplicity and beauty, but Twilight concluded that the creatures that built that place were higher than an average pony; for example, the distance between the shelves themselves were higher than usual, and the room itself was very high, more than it needs to be, something on the lines of the Grand Hall in Canterlot Castle.

She wasn’t sure if she should just walk in there or teleport directly to the throne room in Canterlot Castle and report it to the princesses.

“Errmmm…” She was about to say something but Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

“So? are we going in there or what?” Everypony exchanged looks with one another.

“I don’t thinks that it’s safe,” she’d managed to finally recollect herself.

“Only one way to find out,” said Pinkie jumping in.

Twilight held her breath watching Pikie bounce on the floor of the room from side to side. When nothing broke or fell on her, she made her first step inside.

Then she second.

The third…

Soon their little company slowly walked the strange hallways made out of box-shelves, looking around in caution and watching each other with worried expressions.

It was very stressing to walk the empty room with only the box-shelves around them. Without a well-determined direction they were just wandering the place as a single group. The shelves and the sheer number of them seemed very stressing to the group, the quite huge room buried hundreds of meters below a very dangerous, wild forest. And the loud, deep echo from their hoofsteps as the only sound to keep them sane and aware of their surroundings.

After a couple minutes of walking they’ve reached the far-end wall

of the place. There was a similar door like the one they’ve entered through. Twilight did the same with that one and when it slid upwards she lit a fairly tall corridor of some sort, decorated with the same cylinders behind a piece of glass stretching alongside the ceiling and the walls of it. She wondered what was the purpose of these.

From here on out, all they faced were doors and strange rooms stuffed with a lot of things they couldn’t figure the purpose of; one of the rooms had huge glass towers with some strange green liquid in them and that liquid shone! There was one, completely sealed with a huge, massive thick metal door with an odd yellow triangle symbol with a strange pie shape in the center.

After some time of wandering Twilight noticed a strange symbol near one of the doors; it showed something resembling a staircase and a small sun above it casting strange and odd angled shadows above the stairs. Or was is something else? She pointed to the symbol with her hoof drawing her friends attention to it. She opened the door near it and found a staircase that they could use to go to the upper and lower levels of the building.

“Ok, now it also has floors!” Rainbow Dash grunted. “How big is this place?!”

“I don’t know Rainbow,” Twilight answered her, becoming more nervous.

“That question was rhetorical, Twilight.”

Twilight frowned at her, but turn her attention to the stairs and after a short thought she decided to head to the lower levels, curious on how deep down that facility can go. After descending five floors on the uncomfortable-angled, sharp-ended stairs they reached the bottom floor, Having no reason to turn around and go up Twilight opened the door and walked into familiar-looking corridors. She exchanged looks with the group and continued on to walk the halls of the place peering into the unlocked doors she found from time to time.

Occasionally the group passed a windowed walls and strange tall metallic doors as they walked the corridors but unable to make any of them to open or look at what was behind the black-tinted glass windows.

In one the rooms they had to visit, they walked on a high balcony observing a huge metal construction in the center of the room with a giant metal pillar stretching from the center of it to the roof so high, they weren't able to see its end with the light Twilight provided. This room, along with many others had a good bunch of tubes stretching along them. Twilight saw a platform stretching from the balcony into the dark abyss, this balcony had some alien metal box with a lot of strange pieces bulging from it. probably some kind of a control panel, but for what? She wondered.

It took Twilight about three hours of walking in it to realise that this place was tremendous, simply epic in size. She figured that in order to build such a massive facility, or city, she really had no idea because of the scale, the civilization who did it must be the most advanced and prosperous in all of Equestria, which left her with only more questions about its origin and what happened to them.

It also had her realise just how much time she already have been wandering the place, so as soon as she found a small, mostly empty room she announced a break in it.

Their little wander group unpacked some snacks, water and their sleeping bags to sit upon while Twilight pulled out one of the crystals she collected by the lake from her saddlebag and lit it so they could enjoy a little bit of light and warmth coming from it.

The room was a small one with the same cylindrical glass poll on the ceiling, and some strange row of square decorations on the bottom side of one of the walls. The room also featured a desk and a pile of metals that appeared to be a long time ago decayed chair.

“What do you think is this place, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I... I don’t know, it’s obviously very ancient and I doubt that it’s built by any of the sapient races I know.”

“Maybe it were the breezies?!”

“Yes Pinkie, that’s the work of the breezies, with the help of the Diamond Dogs,” Rainbow Dash answered her with sarcasm.

“And a little bit of the Minotaurs!” Rarity exclaimed continuing the joke. “I mean look at the design of that flat, simple wall, it’s really a minotaur work.”

“I dunno about you fellas but I don’t like that place at all. There’s something odd in here,” Applejack grunted.

“Uh… ” Rainbow Dash stared at her in surprise before applying a smug smile on her face “you mean beside the HUUUGE ‘world’ a hundred meters below the surface of the Everfree Forest, or that glowing pillar or green liquid we found, or the fact that there’s no one other than us in here and it looks like it hadn’t been for a lot of centuries. I say, the Everfree Castle is looking less intimidating than this place.”

“Ah got the idea Rainbow, thanks.”

“I Agree with Applejack,” said Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash looked at her for a minute trying to formulate a response, but after failing she just rolled her eyes and looked away from her.

“Seriously girls! Don’t you see what we have here? This place can be very well built by aliens!” Twilight suggested.

“Then those aliens, came from within the planet and not from the outer space. I mean, it is built so deep underground. It has to be... um...” Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chin signaling a deep thought process. “borrowings!”

“Pink…” Twilight never finished her sentence, interrupted by the sound of Rainbow Dash’s facehoof. “...Nevermind.” She finally finished it. “Listen girls, let’s just stay together and be careful. I don’t know what we can find in here.”

“Or we can just call it the day and head back to our homes,” Fluttershy suggested.

“Wait, I want to find the heart of this place, somehow I have this feeling like we’re headed somewhere specific.”

“Whatever you say darlin’, let’s just make sure that we’ll return in time.”

“We will, although I have no idea what time it is, but I’m sure that it’s somewhere around noon by now.” Twilight answered Rarity.

“Anyways, what do you think is that thing,” she pointed to the square boxes near the floor. It had some holes in it and when she tried to scan it with magic, she found out that they were the edges of a metal cable that run in through the wall.

“I think it’s just a decoration Twilight,” Rarity answered her.

“I’m not sure. I think it has another purpose beside a decorative one.” Twilight suggested. “Well, nevermind, let’s just continue on.”

They all agreed with her as they finished their little break, they packed their things and turned to her ready to continue. She checked that nobody forgot anything including the crystal and motioned for them to continue following her.

Soon they’ve reached a dead end after one particular long corridor they walked in. At the end of that one, there was a door but wider than the usuals they’ve seen here, with a strange symmetrical vertical crack in its center. It’s got to be a double door, Twilight thought. Everything she tried on that door didn’t seem to make it open but she wanted to, that door looked particularly alluring to her, she realised that there must be something important behind it.

“Maybe we should head back and try a different turn” suggested Rarity after five minutes of watching Twilight forcing the door to open.

“Wait! I’ve almost got it!”, she stopped them.

But five minutes later she’d released a groan that signaled that she had had enough of it. Then, suddenly a black sparkling cylindrical metallic piece in the upper corner on their right moved and pointed at them.

At first Twilight though that she began “to see things” but a quick glance at her friends assured her that they saw it too.

And there, in the center of the room stood the biggest picture frame with the biggest symbol printed on it. That frame took almost the entire wall of that not a small place and there were numerous cables and tubes leading into it and throughout the entire room.

And then, when they all gathered in the middle of the room, facing the biggest moving picture, it changed into something resembling a diamond piece with vertical thin lines crossing it and a big red dot in its center. They’ve heard a quiet, crystal-clear monotonic voice:

“...Welcome!”