[Chapter 1] Of Ponies and Ice
Deep, into the unforgiving sands of a desert whose name was lost to history, lies the ruins of ancient pony civilizations, savage tribes and gangs hostile to any but their own members, small settlements full of endearing adventures, merchants of the most exotic of items and natives who live their lives in the blazing sun that has claimed more lives that many wars in Equestria's past. It takes more than a brave heart and a determined soul for a pony to venture into the endless sands in search for loot, treasure or fame.
One such pony, who many debated if she was mad as a starved hyena or courageous as an alpha manticore, took it upon herself to search for the most forbidden of secrets in the most dangerous of places of Equestria and beyond. Her search for the forbidden had led her to the Tomb of Hunkomamon, a place even the ponies who had been born in this desert knew was too dangerous to even approach, for it was regarded as sacred by the Bumba Tribe, a vicious, elder tribe who murdered anypony who approached any of their sacred pyramids and monuments. The sun began to set on the horizon, and as she looked through her spyglass toward the entrance of the pyramid, she noticed that the guard positioned on the archway was on the verge of falling asleep, which only meant that very soon they would have to change shifts with the guards that had rested during the day in the interior of the Pyramid. A shout in an unintelligible language was the signal she needed, and as soon as the guard turned around in the hopes of getting some well deserved sleep, she sprung up and galloped at the best of her ability to the entrance.
As she got to the entrance, and hid inside a rather large pot set on one of the corners of the large archway that signified the entrance of the sandstone pyramid. She patiently sat still on her lucky hiding spot for the next guard to pass and turn his back on her, and as soon as the easily recognized noises of hoofsteps began to pass in front of her pot, she prepared herself to silently sneak out of the vase and head silently towards the main chamber. However, as soon as the hoofsteps began to fade a large scarab decided to climb her leg and just as she noticed the unwanted assailant, a loud "Eeep!" escaped her snout. Slamming a hoof a bit harder than what would normally be pleasant to her lips, she noticed that the sounds of hoofsteps had stopped. After what seemed hours of tense silence, the guard gave one last look to the short hallway of the entrance and shrugged, thinking that the cold night air of the desert might have only resonated on one of the vases.
Meanwhile, the daring pony hidden in the large, ornate pot let out a short sigh as soon as she heard the hoofsteps start again and fade into the outside of the Tomb. Peeking her head out, she quickly checked the dimly lit hallways of the interior in search of any more guards, satisfied by finding herself alone, she quietly slipped out of the vase and headed into the direction the old, tattered map she had acquired said that the main chamber was located. Silently creeping through the places that the torchlight was less abundant, she found herself in a large seemingly empty chamber; a grin escaped her lips and she trotted smugly to the center where she found the only feature that separated this room from all others in the inside of the pyramid: a long disk that in the middle in which, presented like an offering to an ancient deity, was a sharp dagger, with an indigo colored blade and a ornate, light-gray metal handle. As soon as her hooves inched closer to the legendary Dagger of Hunkomamon, the walls and roof of the chamber started to crumble and fall away to an unknown darkness. She panicked, looking around for an exit, and in a desperate attempt for salvation, she approached one of the edges of the now, seemingly floating floor but was only met with an empty void in every direction. The platform she was in started to shake violently, an earthquake the likes nopony had ever felt and after moments of tumbling from side to side, she held into the large circular structure in the middle of the floor, hoping on top of it, she noticed the dagger was gone and a pair of fiery eyes appeared above the her.
"Emerald~~", said a distorted, almost demonic voice from all directions, making her feel every letter on her bones.
"NO, no!, G-go away!", she almost cried at the monstrous eyes that seemed to be planning on thousand of ways to feast on her, "I-I'll leave without it the dagger, I DON'T CARE!"
"Eme~rald~~", repeated the voice, a mouth made of the same fiery materiel, opened wide and started to close in to the platform the pony was in. She was terrified, more terrified that she had ever been on her entire life, as she accepted her fate and prepared for the pain that was surely to come...
"WAKE UP!"
Emerald Layer screamed at being so violently woken up from the nightmarish dream she was having, flailing her legs around as she fell from her makeshift bed into the cold, stone floor that had housed them from the night. A hearty laugh echoed from the cave walls and as she popped her head out from the haystack she had fallen in.
"The blizzard's over, we're moving out before it picks up again, please, try to look somewhat presentable!", the large, brown colored crystal pony with a dark blue mane said with a mocking tone, as he began to pack the items on a large saddlebag on the other end of her bed.
"Can it Blunt!, a lady's gotta get some beauty sleep...", she commented dreamily as she started to slowly get up on all fours. The two of them had been assigned by the Crystal University to find what ancient crystal ponies thought to be a place of great mystery and, by some, a sacred temple of the unknown. The University thinks this tomb might be of great cultural value for the Crystal Empire, however, it was deep into the dangerous climates of the Crystal Mountains, so they searched a pair daredevils and sent them on a quest that they were likely to not return from; those to unlucky daredevils were Emerald Layer and Blunt Pick.
"'Sides, you know what we'll find... a bunch of empty vases and pots, old bones and dark corridors.", deadpanned Emerald, as she too began to prepare for the final part of the journey, donning a thick, colorless wool clothing and a large green scarf covering all of her face but her eyes.
"Nah, I bet ya we'll find something exciting, like walking mummies or something.", said the stallion. He grunted as he pulled the bloated saddlebag onto his bag.
"Sure, maybe also some aliens to boot!", Emerald remarked sarcastically, as she too finished packing a saddlebag and with a swift pull, she managed to place it upon her back, "Well? We going or not?"
As soon as the two of them stepped out of the small cave, the cold winds made itself felt upon them with a strong breeze, causing both of them to shiver uncomfortably, unaccustomed to the harsh climates of the northern mountains. Without anymore words exchange by the adventurers, placing one hoof in front of the other, they began their steady trot towards the supposed temple. Only a few minutes into their journey, they began to notice old crystal pony glyphs scratched into the stones that formed the walls of ravines and icy cliffs, these glyphs were used by the ancient Crystal Ponies as places where they could write down their traditions and feats and all of them were conserved perfectly from the dangerous climate by technics long lost to all of ponykind. Appreciating the sight for a short moment, a cold wind reminded them that they could not stop their quest or else they might face the unforgiving side of mother nature. An uneventful, almost hour long walk to their destination, prove unfruitful, for as soon as they arrived to the alleged entrance, they found nothing but mounds of snow and icicles littering the nearby landscape.
"We can't go home empty handed, ya' know?", commented a rather cheerful Blunt, as he pointed on the direction he had not looked over, "Have you looked over there? Over those rocks?"
"I have checked every rock at least FIVE times, there is NOTHING here, friend.", angrily barked the green mare, her yellow mane now exposed as she had lowered her scarf to cover only her neck due to the winds no longer harassing them.
"Still, we gotta find something, keep searching!", happily said the stallion while he used his hooves to clear up a patch of snow.
"And WHAT do you suppose we do?! Dig the BUCKING snow until we reach Tartarus?!", yelled the mare, after spending a good half-an-hour searching for any sort of entrance or doorway to the unknown temple.
As soon as these words escaped Emeralds mouth, a snowball impacted the back of her head. The entire snowy plane they were in suddenly felt colder and a deafening silence filled the atmosphere in which they resided. Slowly turning her head around in almost monstrous manner, the rage accumulated from being woken up abruptly, standing in the middle of nowhere and the frustration of not finding what could have been able to pay her rent for the next year, collapsed into an anger induced charge to her companion. Blunt, with his eyes wide as saucers, tried to evade the charging mare, but ultimately failed and he lost his breath as he went tumbling down a hill with a mare latched onto him with every intent on killing him. Thrashing, kicking, and screaming as they fell like a crystallized pony-ball, they were suddenly stopped as they finally hit the end of the small hillock they were standing on only a few moments ago. Emerald, now on top of the panicked stallion, raised her hoof that could at least knock him unconscious for a while, but before the blow could be delivered, the snow bellow them gave out and they fell for a good couple of seconds before hitting a cold ice floor below.
Blunt Pick took the impact for both of them, wheezing and coughing while Emerald looked around her incredulously, not caring to help her optimistic companion. Looking around the broad cave they were currently in, covered in familiar glyphs that represented her kind hundred of years ago what really caught her eye was a bizarre metal plate with a strange symbol on it. The plate was a dark-gray color, and its only feature was a a white square, with a black cross in the middle of it and four more black lines on the inside corners of the square that were bent on a ninety degree angle. Too perfect to be done by hoof of the ancient crystal ponies and even some of the most skilled of unicorns of these era, this was the only proof that she needed to know where they had fallen into.
"This is it! This is the old Crystal Temple!", she yelled enthusiastically at her still downed companion, who, in response, only grunted, as he was still unable to get up from the impact he had sustained, "Come ooon Blunt! We need to bring these metal thingy back to the Empire and get my rent paid!"
Blunt could only do his best to shakily stand on all fours, and as soon as his vision cleared, he too fell mesmerized by the strange metal plate that was housed in the chamber, looking back to see most of the content from his saddlebag had spilled out and a lot of it was currently broken, like their excavating equipment and lanterns, he decided rope the plate onto his back and leave most of the now useless items behind. As soon as the plate was securely placed onto the stallion's back, they continued down one of the paths the chamber they were currently in divided into. Looking at the walls of the cave system they were in, illuminated only by glowstone veins on the roof, dozens of bizarre creatures were stuck, frozen in the ice and preserved perfectly for hundreds of years. They gasped as they passed through what seemed a hydra with a thick fur and a snout shaped like a psychotic grin. And cooed at small cute balls of colorful fur with googly eyes. But soon, they reached a more narrow passage, darker than the others, and after looking at each other, they silently decided to keep going through the cave.
Minutes passed in silence as the two crystal ponies made their way towards what they hoped would be an exit, however they were met by a very bizarre sight: a large door, at least 20 meters tall and 50 meters wide, made of what looked like a light-gray metal, and in the middle the same symbol as the one on Blunt's back was drawn in the same perfection as before. Before the door, a large ice chamber with no discernible features was large enough for the entirety of the door to be seen on its full splendor.
"What do you think it leads to?", whispered the stallion, in fear of awakening some ancient spirit guarding whatever was behind the metal behemoth of a door.
"Dunno, but I plan to tell stories of what is behind 'em!". said Emerald, as she walked to the door and started to push to the doors, failing to even budge them in any visible way, "Come on, help out a poor mare, will you?"
Grunting, he approached the doors and attempted to open them with brute force alone, but after heaving and pushing a dozen of times, they both realized that the doors were either too heavy or simply stuck in the ice that surrounded the rest of the chamber. In a lucky turn of fate, while Blunt attempted to create a fire inside the room they were in, Emerald starting to inspect the borders of the doors, looking for ways to open the room that had started to gnaw away at her mind since the moment they had discovered them not minutes before. Looking through the right side of the border of the doors, she found a strange red protuberance in the otherwise plain looking frame. With a confused look, she did what any sane pony would do.
She pressed it.
As soon as the button was pressed, a loud grinding noise filled the room and both crystal ponies folded their ears and covered their heads with their forelegs in an attempt to protect themselves from the extremely loud sound created by the door. In a final screech, the door stopped now fully opened, slowly and carefully both ponies looked up to the interior of the room hidden beneath tons of ice and snow above the surface. When their eyes fell upon what laid within, nothing short of baffled describes the bewildered look on their faces. Two large... things were resting within the now open hangar: the first object was boxy, seven-and-a-half meters long and almost four meter in width, with a sloped front and slightly tilted back plate, a long barrel started from a flat surface above the main structure, a slightly round design pulled back formed the turret of the infamous Tiger II tank, the jagged texture on the metal plates was colored in a camouflage scheme of two shades of green and a brown color mixed in. The next object was even stranger than the first, it had a long slender fuselage with large ailerons on its tail, and having two water drop shaped engines strapped on large, thin, yet powerful wings: the dreaded Hornisse fighter. Of course, the ponies oblivious to all of that were too scared to even begin to understand what stood in front of them, hugging each other as their eyes were reduced to pinpricks in fear.
Realizing the position she was in, Emerald shook her head and jumped out of the embrace of her companion, determination mixed with fear filled her as she approached the ominous objects in front of her. She began approaching the larger, slender one first, curiosity more important than self-preservation at the moment, with an amazed look to her face, she came to the front of it, gasping at the glass at the front of the machine, she began to raise her hoof, with full intent to touch the mysterious object in front of her.
"Um, E-Emerald...?"
"Wha-", she turned her head to face the scared stallion, but as soon as her head rotated she saw only the dark interior of a barrel pointing directly at her. Shocked in place, a loud growling noise of the underpowered engine caused her to snap out of her scared state and run screaming at the antechamber with her companion. The turret of the 70 ton tank turned and continued to point its menacingly long barrel at them even as they left the room. As soon as she left the underground hangar, a pair of door opened on the other side, temporarily blinding them as it opened not to another cave, but to the world outside. These outside doors seemed like a normal wall of stone from the exterior, but had always been in fact a pair of forward opening panels that once belonged to an empire of another world. Realizing their chance to escape the living machines, Emerald opened her mouth to explain her improvised escape plan to the terrified Blunt, however, before she could spill a single word, the sound of propellers beginning to turn came alive and the large aircraft began to turn around towards the exit. The tank followed his compatriot movements, turning both the turret and chassis towards the opened doors.
"Follow me Blunt!", she said as she started to run towards the exit, it took a couple of seconds for the stallion to process what was happening, but he too started to run towards the exit, unfortunately leaving behind everything he had on himself, including the marked, metal plate. The hydraulic sounds of the turret of the Tiger started again as it followed with its barrel both ponies as they escaped, it tried to follow them, but the slow acceleration gave the ponies enough time to escape, until they could be seen no more. Outside the hangar, the ponies began to tirelessly run towards their Empire, planning on telling the entire guard if necessary of the strange metal monstrosities that resided, deep in the snowy mountains of the northern frozen landscape.
Author's Note
I thank you all who read this, if you spot any errors, I beg of you, let me know so I may correct them. Downright mean comments will be ignored but any constructive criticism is always well received. More chapters are coming, no ETA yet though.
