Ditzy watched the Doctor step off the golden chariot and turn to the guards that brought them to the excavation site. “Remember now, you four, two hours.” He reminded them before turning to face Ditzy who shared a very confused look with him.
The four pegasi guards nodded their heads and took off into the sky back towards Canterlot. “Uh... Doctor?” She said to the Doctor who returned her gesture with a friendly smile.
“What is it, dear?” He asked as he walked passed her and began heading down the hill towards the large dig site that was stationed right beside foal mountain in the middle of a clearing in the Bramble Wood Forest.
“You still haven’t explained to me why we took a chariot all the way out to Foal Mountain?” Ditzy stated lagging a few steps behind her friend, trying not stumble over the amount of rocks and logs that littered the clearing.
The Doctor chuckled and tilted his head slightly back at her. “Ah, of course I did. Remember? I told you on the way here.”
“No. You were asleep on the way here.” She deadpanned.
“What? Naaah,” He frowned. “Wait... no... maybe,” The Doctor thought as the duo entered the bustling site. Mares and stallions of all sizes brushed passed the two, many wearing protective clothing such as hard hats and heavy vests. While a few others wore clothing which didn’t really seem to match what the diggers were wearing. But instead the clothing reminded Ditzy of the Doctor when he was working in the laboratory, which was usually his long sleeved shirt and a pair of safety glasses.
“Doctor what kind of site is this?” She asked turning her attention back to the mumbling stallion that was still trying to figure out if his dream was real or not.
“Huh-what?” The Doctor snapped to reality, his head darting left and right. “Sorry what did you ask?” He stopped in the middle of the dirt road to look at Ditzy.
“What is this place?” Ditzy asked slightly getting annoyed that she had no idea what’s going on.
“I told you, it's a dig site.” He said.
Ditzy rolled her eyes, which was really one eye going clock wise and the other going counter. "Yes, I know that, but you haven’t told me–”
The Doctor cut her off with a wave of hoof. “If you’ll just let me finish, I’ll explain everything to you.” He coughed into his hoof. “Two weeks ago. Princess Celestia herself sent me–”
“Whooves?! Is that really you?” Called a very cheerful voice, cutting the Doctor off in mid sentence.
“Wait a second,” He stopped. “I know that voice...” The Doctor spun around to see an old friend of his, a friend the poor Doctor hasn’t seen in what felt like countless years.
“By Celestia’s beard it is you!” A smaller stallion dressed similar to the Doctor (yet slightly different colors) approached the duo. His coat was a light shade of grey his mane matched the blue sky along with his scarf, his eyes were a very heavy shade of green along with his jacket. Clearly, to Ditzy, this stallion had no sense of taste but judging by his personality Ditzy had seen thus far, it didn’t really seem to bother him one bit.
All that seemed to come across was the fact that he was happy to see an old friend he hasn’t seem to have seen in quite some time. “Bell Chimes!” The Doctor beamed reaching out to the other pony, but before Chimes even had time to react, the Doctor pulled him into a tight friendly hug.
“Ah, it’s wonderful to see you, Doc.” Chimes wheezed under the pressure his eyes bugging out of his skull, despite the Doctor’s appearance he did have quite the death grip.
Breaking the hug the Doctor stepped back from Chimes. “Same to you my friend, and I told you this before, just call me Doctor.”
Ditzy’s twisted gaze drifted between the two, confusion still wallowing in her mind. “Oh, I’ll call you whatever I want.” Chimes brushed the Doctor’s words aside. “Well now, who is this you have here?” Chimes asked when his eyes fell on Ditzy. “You never wrote anything about a mare friend.” He took a few steps towards Ditzy, getting a closer look on the mare.
Ditzy’s pupils shrunk, her cheeks became red,raising one leg she leaned away from the two. “Oh no, we’re not a couple!” She quickly replied her good eye snapped to the Doctor hoping that he’ll come to her aid. But he didn’t say a word instead he laughed and attempted to cover up the blush that fell across his cheeks.
“You can’t be serious,” Chimes frowned his gaze locking with the Doctors. “Six years, six years have past and you still haven’t gotten a special somepony?”
“I told you, Chimes, I’ve never had the time to settle down for a relationship.” The Doctor reminded him a small embarrassed smirk stuck on his face as he spoke.
“Pssh, I call bull–”
“Oi! Git outta the road!” Snapped a very eastern sounding pony that sped past the trio on a carriage nearly trampling Ditzy, she stumbled forward her eyes snapping back to the carriage that rounded the nearest corner.
“Yes right away now, we should get out of the everypony's way no need for one of us getting ran over now.” Chimes said as he began to lead the duo towards a small tent that Ditzy assumed belonged to him. “Right in here, just watch your head there’s a lantern.” Chimes mentioned as he pushed open the flap and dipped below the overhanging lantern.
“This is a rather nice tent you have here, Dr. Chimes.” The Doctor complimented as he stepped in Ditzy filing in behind. Honestly there wasn’t much to show, in the center sat a small table that was cluttered with diagrams and images of bizarre structures. Along with a cup coffee, a map, some rulers and few other utensils, beside the table laid a sleeping bag. Other than that it was a rather cramped and very hot space, which clearly wasn’t made to house three ponies.
“Ah it's nothing, I just like to keep myself nice and cozy that is all, Doctor." Chimes carefully made his way around the table. He turned to face the two. "Say, can I offer any of you a drink?” Chimes offered as he opened a nearby ice cooler that was right under the table.
“Nah, I think we–”
“Water please.” Ditzy interrupted the Doctor before he could finish. Her throat suddenly feeling parched at the realization that she nearly hasn’t had a drink all day.
“Water it is then.” Chimes smiled as he took out a small glass along with a canteen. Placing the cup on the table after he cleared a small spot, he used his teeth to pop the cap off the canteen.
“So...” Ditzy started as she carefully watched the water being poured with one eye. While the other gazed at Chimes who began to share pleasantries with the Doctor once again. “What’s this entire... expedition about any ways?”
“And I was like, ‘I don’t even eat pasta!’” Chimes finished his joke and both stallions broke into a fit of chuckles.
“Oh that’s a classic,” the Doctor smiled his gaze drifting back towards Ditzy. “Excuse me?”
Ditzy sighed, this trip is getting more irritating by the minute. “Why are we here?”
Chimes pushed the glass of water towards Ditzy which she gladly took. Sitting down on his haunches he looked to the Doctor and frowned. “Is she saying you haven’t told her anything?”
“Well, I did–”
“No you didn’t!” Both her eyes snapped to the Doctor after she took her first refreshing sip.
“Well okay, I thought I did, and I was going to explain it to her before. But you kind of...” The Doctor rolled his hoof. “You know the rest.”
Chimes nodded. “Ah, well I’m sorry for interrupting your guy's conversation..." His eyes drifted towards Ditzy. "Eh, may I apologize, but I don’t think I’ve ever received your name?” He asked resting one foreleg on the table.
Ditzy also sat down along with the Doctor each pony occupying a side of the table, the Doctor being the closest to Chimes while Ditzy sat across from him her back to the flap. “Ditzy, my name is Ditzy.”
“Well isn’t that a beautiful name you have there, Ms. Ditzy. I’m Dr. Bell Chimes the lead archaeologist of this here expedition.” He explained gesturing to himself with a hoof.
The Doctor nodded. “Bell here is an old friend of mine I met back in Manehatten when I was working towards my degree. Him and I met during a project we were both assigned to on the Ancient Taliconian Civilization."
“Which was rather a very interesting topic.” Chimes chipped in.
“In which it was.” The Doctor agreed and continued. "After the both of us finished and passed, we just kind of shot off from there."
“Okay... but how does that explain why we’re here?” Ditzy asked once again.
Chimes took his hoof off the table, reaching below he took out another glass and poured himself some water. “Well I’d guess that judging by the amount of scientist and diggers we have here. You probably assumed that something big is going on,” Ditzy nodded her head while Chimes took a swig.
“Two weeks ago,” the Doctor began. “I received an important message from Princess Celestia, and Chimes just only hours between each other. Both explaining a major finding down here in the Bramble Wood forest.” He waved around at the surroundings with his left hoof.
“What did she find?” Ditzy asked growing more intrigued, she leant forward and placed her forelegs on the table.
Chimes smirked and raised his right eyebrow. “Didn’t you not see when you two flew in?”
“See what?” Ditzy frowned.
“I guess you didn't." He mumbled to himself. "The massive perfectly cut hole in the side of the mountain, exactly thirty meters high and twenty in width, nothing of that size has ever been reported in these parts of Equestria.” Chimes spoke his voice filled with suspicion. “Another question it, why haven’t we noticed it before? It clearly wasn’t made by any sort of animal, after further investigations we noticed that some of the rocks were chipped. Not because of erosion or anything natural, oh no, it was chipped as if somepony swung a pickaxe into it!”
“So... you’re saying this hole in the side of the mountain was dug out?” Ditzy leaned back, well so much for anything exciting.
“We don’t know," Chimes shrugged. "It’s as if it appeared over night or something, at least that’s what thought at first. But when we went inside, we discovered these...” Dr. Chimes placed his glass and canteen aside, rising up from his spot he made his way over towards the sleeping bag right behind the Doctor. He bent down and slid his right hoof under the covers, after a few moments of ruffling around he finally took out a few photos and a piece of torn paper. “My assistant, Mrs. Blossom Worth, found these with one of the diggers, Mr. Greaves, they were in hard metal box deep within the metal caverns.” He gently placed the three photos and torn paper onto the table.
The Doctor took one of the photos off the table and held it up to his face, squinting his eyes to get a clearer look. His jaw nearly hit the table once he finally realized what he was actually looking at. Eyes wide he placed the photo back on the table and glared at Dr. Chimes. “Chimes! Do you know what these are? I-I, I have never seen anything like it!” The Doctor literally now bubbling with excitement he beamed at his friend.
Chimes laughed and bounced a little in his spot. “I don’t know, but it’s extremely spectacular!. If I’m right,” Chimes reached towards the picture the Doctor was holdings and scooped it off the table. He then hoofed it over to Ditzy as he continued to speak, “These creatures must have been our forerunners.”
Ditzy took the image but before she even took a glance at it she frowned and looked at Chimes. “Forerunners... what’s that?”
“It means: a pony or thing that came before.” Ditzy nodded and glanced at the image while Chimes explained his theory to the Doctor. She two had to squint her eyes and hold the image close, once her vision adjusted she noticed how strangely crystal clear image was. And within the image held two odd ape looking creatures, each wearing a white lab coat similar to what the scientist were wearing outside. Both animals had one of their arms wrapped around the back of each others neck and were pulled in close to each other. Each bore a large smile revealing their teeth, behind them though was a railing that led out into a large town by the looks of it, which then stretched out to become a vast forest similar to Bramble Wood.
Looking over the image, Ditzy flipped it over to check the back side. What she found there was two words that read pass code which below that were a row of numbers. 623758. She didn’t really understand what it meant or what it was even for. So she turned it over and placed the image aside she then reached for the other two, each one mostly containing a large amount of these, ape things usually all smiling or working at these bizarre metal boxes.
Yet the last image was something entirely different though, just like all the other images it held one of these monkeys in a white coat. But behind it was a glass pane that revealed a massive blurred object that took the shape similar to a dragon. Like the others, the creature was smiling and in its hairless hand, it held a glass tube filled with a dark red liquid. Whatever this animal held in its hand, it seemed rather important to it.
“If my assumptions are correct, we as a species inherited most of what these creatures held for us.” Ditzy drifted back into the conversation listening to Dr. Chimes as he began to list off his assumptions. “Our language, mathematics, and science. All of these lead back to what me and my colleagues accumulated from these written documents!”
The Doctor nodded his head, he placed a hoof on his chin. “And where are you getting these interesting documents, Chimes?” The Doctor asked as he looked to his friend.
Chimes smiled. “Down in that hole on the side of the mountain,” He stood up. “We haven’t fully explored it yet, but I’ll tell you this, Doctor. The cavern is bloody massive.”
“Can you take us there?” Ditzy asked.
Chimes smile stretched from ear to ear. “I thought you’d never ask.”
