A Study of the Soul

"It's right this way, Doc. I think you called this area the Throne Room?" Storm bickered aloud, as Dr. Seoule sighed, trying his hardest not to loose his patience with the poor Pegasus. The continued on down a ruined hallway, leading to what was now an outside area, due to years of neglect, and who knows what else. As they entered the desolate are, the sight of the Auburn sky associated with the setting sun caught Danbow's eye.

"My, is it that late already? I really must make a habit of checking those clocks I set up more often. They're everywhere for a reason." he thought to himself, until he noticed the pale light of the full moon peeking over he horizon.

It's beauty was almost entrancing, drawing Dr. Seoule in with it's pale beauty. It was almost as though it were calling out to him.

Storm, meanwhile, bounded to the far end of the grassy area, toward a huge rubble pile. Looking behind him, he noticed that Danbow was still on the far end of the area, staring eastward at the slowly rising moon.

"Doc! Hey Doc! Earth to Soul-Man, Earth to Soul-Man, do you copy?" He shouted, as "Soul-Man" resounded off the remaining walls of the area. This brought Danbow back to his senses, though rather irritatedly.

"I thought I told you not to call me that anymore!" he snapped, abruptly turning to face his cohort. "Why are you all the way over there?" Seoule asked, still irked.

"I could ask you the same thing, Doc. I thought you were right behind me, but when I turned around to finally show you what I was talking about. Come to find out, you were way back there, staring off into the distance with this strange look. I was worried for a second that maybe you had inhaled something funny, or something."

Dr. Seoule shuffled uncomfortably for a second, a little unsure himself what had come over him. Shaking his head, he began trotting over to where his guard sat.

"I appreciate your concern, Storm, but didn't you have something you wanted to show me?" He came to a stop in front of the pegasus, who's face suddenly brightened up, before dashing over to a particularly barren spot on the ground. In the middle of it lay a small hole that looks as though it had been dug by hoof.

"Over here, Doc. Ya see this dark spot? When you dig into it, for some reason you find bits and pieces of the wall. Curious, I dug up a chunk of the area, and lo-and-behold, I found what appear to be large chunks of rubble. This got me thinking-"

"Now there's a dangerous task," Danbow smirked under his breath.

Ignoring that, Storm continued, " It got me thinking that maybe there's some kind of room down there, like a cellar or something. So I checked out some of those old Castle schematics you found in what's left of the Library, and get this: there used to be a tower where this room once stood. This leads me to believe that perhaps this room is a remnant of that tower that got sealed off when they built the throne room!"

Danbow stood there, peering down into the hole. Unfortunately, the dimly lit area didn't lend itself to revealing anything about the rubble. Just then, the light of the moon peered in through a hole in the wall, illuminating the hole, and allowing Dr. Seoule to see clearly. There was indeed a lot of rubble down there. Gears began to turn in his mind, and a sort of giddyness entered his voice.

"Storm, I think you may be on to something here. I want you to begin excavating as much of that hole as you can. In the meantime, I'm going to go revisit those plans, and see if I can find anything that will give us a clue as to where this thing goes." Danbow smiled for the first time in a while, before turning around and heading for his tower. It was going to be a long night, but he didn't care. Not now, anyway.

Several hours later, Danbow sat hunched over a myriad of papers which were inlaid with various sketches, a small lit candle his only source of light. Each barely lit paper showed a varying degree of age to them, some dating back over 1000 years. The more aged, delicate ones were tucked behind clear, protective sheets, so as to preserve them against harm. The piece Dr. Seoule was currently eying carefully was possibly the oldest of its kind, dating back to the founding of what was once Equestria.

"Now let's see, here, If I cross-reference this schematic here," he though aloud, before placing another leaflet beside the first, "with this one over here, from just 100 years later; I find that this tower over here was newly built," the good magician muttered to himself, his eyes darting back and forth between to pages as he motioned toward the pieces in question, "and the throne room was moved from over there to where it currently resides, if you can call that mess of rubble a room, anyway."

A loud yelling sound interrupted his thoughts,