All Hail The Empress

“Quis tu, ut ingressus est cubiculum meum? Dicit ei unus ex corrumpere? Vade! Tu meum violasti in sepulchro cum facie tua!” Both Artemis and Sapphire looked at each other in confusion.

“Uh…what?” asked the Princess, “Do you speak…whatever that language is Sapphire?”

“Nope,” replied the Dragon Unicorn, “I might know a few other languages, but that is not one of them.”

“Qui similis pravus senioribus. Ut nusquam imaginari,” muttered the stallion, “I shall communicate as such nonetheless.”

“Oh, well that works out,” stated Artemis.

“Now, to restate my initial query. Who are you that enters my chamber?”

“I am Artemis, Princess of Equestria,” stated the Alicorn, “This is my friend, Sapphire.”

“What monarchy would have one of the Corrupt as its heiress?” asked the stallion.

“Corrupt? What do you mean?” asked Sapphire.

“Corrupt is the term used for her kind by those who were forced into servitude by them. My people continued to use this term to denote them for we would not allow such a disgusting word to pass through our lips.”

“I am not the heiress to Equestria,” explained Artemis, “Our Kingdom fell and is now ruled by a cruel Empress. Plus, the rulers were Princesses, not Queens.”

“It matters not,” stated the stallion, “Why have you chosen to defile my tomb?”

“We did not come to defile your tomb,” answered Artemis, her suspicions of the pony they were speaking to being the spirit of the one inside the sarcophagus having been confirmed, “We came here because we translated a portion of a book that led us here.”

“Hm. What manner of tome would bring its readers to this ancient castle? And for what end?”

“We are searching for the ‘Library of the Ancients,’ where we hope to get a spell that will allow us to defeat the Empress once and for all,” explained Sapphire.

“You seek the Library? That place is what I sought during my twilight years as King,” said the ghost, “Whomever scribed the tome that has brought you here must know of what I discovered.”

“Which is?” asked Artemis.

“I shall never let one of the Corrupt so much as see what I discovered!” shouted the former King, “Such an act would go against what my ancestors and myself stood for!”

“Listen, your majesty,” said the Alicorn, showing him respect much to his surprise, “I do not doubt that the Alicorns of old enslaved other ponies. And for that, I am truly sorry. That such an act occurred makes me furious.”

“Remorse? From a Corrupt?” said the ghost, clearly taken aback, “Though I can sense your words hold true to their meanings, I cannot allow you to know what I discovered. The same goes for you, Half-Breed.” Sapphire snorted in anger.

“Look, we didn’t exactly come to argue with something that isn’t supposed to be real!” shouted the Dragon Unicorn, “We will not leave here without finding what we need, which is certainly what you learned while you were still living!”

“Such fire in your heart, Half-Breed,” replied the King, “But it does not alter the fact that you will not have your desire fulfilled.”

“Ponies of all races are being oppressed!” yelled Sapphire, “Just like the ponies of the past were under the ancient Alicorns. The Empress and her legions of Bat Ponies are no different than they were, just like we are no different than those who were enslaved.”

“Hold one moment, Half-Blood,” said the King, “This Empress who has taken over your lands commands Bat Ponies? For centuries we warred against their kind, longer than our forced servitude under the Corrupt. Those vile creatures are more hated than the Corrupt ever were.”

“Then, please, help us,” pleaded Artemis, “If you hate them more than you hate Alicorns, why not help us fight against them?”

“You make a compelling argument in light of this new information,” admitted the King, “Although begrudgingly, I shall allow you to view the tablets that are found in this chamber. My ancestors will forgive me once I finally pass from the mortal realm.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” said Artemis, bowing to the ghost while Sapphire did the same.

“Princess Artemis and Sapphire of Equestria, behind my sarcophagus lies a room with twin tablets that are far older than even I,” explained the King, “The tablets are unable to leave the room because ancient arcane forces bind them to it. I moved my seat of power to this place so that I could study them. I would not tarry long within those walls, however.”

“Why not, your majesty?” asked Artemis. Despite being a ghost, the King still sighed.

“The magic used to bind those tablets has an unforeseeable consequence for those who remain in their presence for a long period of time. It traps their soul between this realm and the next until the magic they absorbed disappears from their bodies. I died over five millennia ago, and I have been in this state since.”

“We shall heed your warning, then,” said Sapphire, having calmed down from her anger over the way the King had been acting even if she did view it as justified. Once she finished, a loud rumbling noise filled the room, which amplified the sounds due to how enclosed it was. Just as had been said, the wall behind the King’s sarcophagus slowly descended into the ground. Much like had happened when the stairs to this room were revealed, dust filled the room. It took a minute for the mares to stop coughing.

“Go now,” said the King once the wall had completely descended, “I hope you will be able to use the knowledge inside to free your Kingdom from the demons that are Bat Ponies.” The ghost slowly faded away as Artemis and Sapphire walked towards the newly opened room. Inside were two very large tablets that covered the wall opposite of the doorway. The tablets had written upon them the letters of the English alphabet in a line on one side, thirteen on each, and symbols in the same way next two them.

“Well, no wonder the King had to study these for years. These tablets have translation keys on them, and he most likely didn’t have anything that could have used them,” explained Sapphire, though Artemis had gathered as much before she had said that.

“So, do these symbols look familiar to you?” asked Artemis, “’Cause they sure don’t to me.”

“They do, in fact,” replied Sapphire, much to the surprise of the Princess. The Dragon Unicorn used her magic to open the left pocket of her saddlebag and pull out a very old book as well as a quill, an ink bottle, and a piece of paper. The covers were made of leather with more acting as the binding. She flipped to the second page, of which there was only a small number, “Yep, this is definitely the translation for the next part of the book. But…the next pages are written in a different language or code.”

“Can you translate the page, then?” asked Artemis, which was met by a nod from her friend. Wordlessly, Sapphire began to look back and forth between the tablets and the book and using her magic to write on the paper. This went on for a few minutes.

“Well, I’ve got it finished,” said Sapphire, setting the quill on the ground, “And it looks like we’ve got to head somewhere else. The page says ‘From the head of the River of the Pegasi, to the Forest of the Deer, find the Temple of the Mountain of Smoke.’ I’ll have to look at a map to find out where exactly we need to go.”

“Why don’t we head back up to the others first?” suggested Artemis, “I’m pretty sure they’re sitting on pins and needles waiting for us to return, and they might even be able to help us out.”

The trip up the stairs took longer than the trip down and both mares practically collapsed from exhaustion by the time they got to the top. The four ponies who had remained at the surface helped them up once they were close to the surface. They went to a part of the main room that was still solid ground to rest. After a brief explanation as to what happened while they were down underground, Sapphire pulled out a map of Equestria from her saddlebag and began to look at possibilities.

“If I had to guess, I would say that the ‘Mountain of Smoke’ is Smokey Mountain, since it’s a Mountain and has Smoke in its name. The ‘Forest of the Deer,’ therefore, must be the White Tail Woods, which are near them,” explained the Dragon Unicorn, “But I’m not sure what the ‘River of the Pegasi’ could be.”

“I’ve never even heard of a river called anything near that,” said Sky Blazer once she finished, “And I’ve practically memorized the map of Equestria by now.”

“Maybe it’s an old name for a river?” suggested Fire Comet, “I mean, the book was obviously written a long time ago.”

“I guess my exhaustion made me not think of that,” answered his wife, using her magic to take out a second, much older map from her saddlebag, “Let’s see here…aha! The Pegasus River is just north of the Endless Sands. If the Endless Sands are the San Palomino Desert, that means that the Pegasus River is…oh no.”

“What?” asked Artemis, worried by what her friend might have discovered.

“No, no, no, no, no,” said Sapphire, unaware that the Alicorn had asked something, “Is there any possible way to get to this place without going there? …No!”

“Sapphire!” shouted the Princess, this time managing to get the attention of the Dragon Unicorn, “What is wrong?!”

“The Pegasus River…is the river just north of Las Pegasus,” replied Sapphire. Artemis’s face would have turned white if it weren’t naturally that color.

“We have to go near there?!” exclaimed Sky Blazer before the Princess could say the same thing.

“I’m afraid so,” replied Sapphire, “I want to find another way, but I see no way around it. I mean, we’re as close to there as I want to get, but any path leading to Smokey Mountain that won’t take us so far out of the way that it would be impossible to get to where we need to go involves going near Las Pegasus.”

“What’s wrong with Las Pegasus?” asked Wild Blitz, who was just as confused as Ruby was.

“Las Pegasus is one of the main bases for the Empress’s army. The pony she placed in charge is, quite frankly, completely insane and has more or less renamed the ruined city ‘The Happiest Place in Equestria,’” explained Artemis, who had forgotten that the two youngest members of the group had been somewhat sheltered from the world at large aside from a few major details, “So, in order to maintain some semblance of ‘stability,’ the Empress sent a larger group of Bat Ponies there than she did to the other places she has ponies in charge of. And by larger, I mean almost double. Granted, she has almost twice as many in Canterlot than she does in Las Pegasus, but that’s beside the point.”

“And it looks like we’re stuck going into the area surrounding it, which reports say are constantly patrolled by Bat Ponies,” said Fire Comet as he turned his head towards the ceiling while thinking.

“Had I known we’d be going near there, I would have never let Ruby and Wild Blitz come along,” admitted Artemis, looking at the two in question, “If you want to take them back to the camp to keep them safe, then do it. I’ll finish this whole quest and return there.”

“By yourself? You know that’s doomed from the start, right?” asked Sapphire.

“Yeah, and?” replied the Princess, “If we don’t follow through to the end, Equestria will forever be ruled by the Empress. Look, I’d give my life so everypony in Equestria would be freed from her tyranny.”

“Artemis, you’re the one pony that we all look to for hope. I mean, heck your Cutie Mark represents the hope you give everypony,” said Sapphire, “We’ll make sure these two get home safe and sound and then we’ll come right back here and finish this up with you.”

“…Fine,” conceded Artemis with a sigh, “I’ll wait here for you to get back and then we’ll head north.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t we get a say in this?” asked Ruby, who had been quiet since Artemis and Sapphire had returned to the surface.

“Yeah, don’t we?” asked Wild Blitz, “We didn’t come along because we thought it would be a vacation or anything. We came along because we wanted to help! You know, that thing you’ve never let us do aside from things around the camp?”

“It’s because we want to keep you safe!” snapped Sky Blazer, “You’re the two of the youngest ponies in the camp! None of us are about to let you two get hurt!”

“By keeping us from actually being useful?!” shouted Wild Blitz, glaring at his mother.

“You are useful! Just not in the way you’re wanting to be!” said Fire Comet, “You’re useful to everypony because the two of you, as well as the even younger ponies, help keep things running smoothly!”

“But isn’t it time we get to do the things that the older ponies do?!” shouted Ruby, glaring at both of her parents.

“No, it isn’t! You wouldn’t have even come this far had it not been for the Princess forcing us to take you along!” yelled Sapphire as she snorted in anger.

“You…just…don’t…GET IT!” screamed Ruby, stomping down on the ground to create a resounding thud.

“ENOUGH!” yelled Artemis as loud as possible, catching the others off guard. Her voice echoed for a second or two while she panted, “Look, as much as I want to keep these two safe, there is one important thing that I had, admittedly, momentarily forgotten about that is making me want to keep them here with us. It’s that they need to do exactly what it is they’re trying to convince you of; helping in any way possible. Even though keeping me safe was his priority, my father still let me do more than just help with chores.”

“Would you just shut up about your father?!” shouted Fire Comet in anger, “If you haven’t noticed he’s been gone for almost half a century!” Sapphire slapped her husband across the face for that comment.

“How dare you talk of him that way!” yelled the Dragon Unicorn, “In the brief time I knew him, Shining Armor was a great leader. Artemis has every right to speak highly of him, and not just because she’s his daughter!”

“Why don’t we all just calm down?” asked the Alicorn using her own advice, “Tempers are high, so I understand that Fire Comet would snap like that. But getting back to my point, my father knew that he wouldn’t be here someday, so he allowed me to take on more responsibility as I got older so the burden of transition wouldn’t be as great. The same applies here. I know for a fact that we’ve all accepted that there’s a chance we won’t make it to see the fall of the Empress. In that event, wouldn’t we want capable ponies taking over to finish the fight?”

“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again,” began Sapphire, “I hate you sometimes. Especially when you’re not only convincing, but also right.”

“Look, why don’t we set up our little camp here in the castle for the night and set out in the morning?” suggested Artemis, which was followed by a yawn. The group did just that, originally beginning to set up their sleeping bags before settling upon the bedchambers they had seen earlier in the day, though Ruby and Wild Blitz used their sleeping bags because they didn’t want to share a bed with their parents. The night was over faster than any of them wanted it to be.