Prologue: The Darkening Skies

The swiftly darkening skies could only mean one thing, there was a hailstorm coming in. Its boiling dark greenish underside of ragged clouds constantly torn apart from raging winds was just becoming visible over the steep headwall of the valley.

Twilight Sparkle sighed in exasperation as a jagged bolt of blue tinted lightning struck one of the higher pinnacles of rock along the valley ridge. It seemed that the good clear weather this year’s expedition had been lucky enough to enjoy while making the mountain trek to this location and setting up their semi-permanent research camp was about to come to a swift and violent end. She stood stoically on a large flat-topped boulder, back legs spread slightly for greater stability, mane and tail whipping in the strengthening wind.  She looked down upon her expedition’s camp situated on one of the few relatively flat areas clustered near the large swift stream which inhabited the valley floor, it’s blue tumbling flow crashed over massive boulders and swerved violently around still larger ones. This minor torrent provided the best supply of pure cooking and cleaning water that a wilderness camp could hope for.

Though this was the third archeological expedition the newly ascended -it had only been eight years ago- Princess of Friendship had led it was the first to come deep into the interior of the Unicorn Range over a thousand kilometers from the familiar rolling hills and quaint villages of the Celestial Valley. However, Twilight forcibly reminded herself; as chilly and apparently stormy as this place may be she was glad not to attend another expedition into the arid waste south of the Everfree Plains. It wasn’t the location itself that put her on edge; it was the city that had been unearthed there five years prior. Perched amid the crumbling dusty plateaus it was a city not only built by and purely for the Unicorn race but a city built after the Celestial Ascension, after the foundation of Old Equestria nearly two thousand years gone. A city purposely far removed from Alicorn rule to allow the inhabitants to continue in their remorseless ideology of racial purity that had infected the Unicorn Kingdoms of old for thousands of years. Twilight figured she would likely spend the rest of forever being unable to forget the discovery of the self-inflicted horror that had eventually overtaken that eternally damned place.

Shaking herself mentally to be rid of thoughts of such distant yet unsettling locations Twilight turned her attention back to the newly erected camp. It was overall, Twilight decided, a good campsite considering the difficult surroundings. Comprised of near on fifty, one to four-pony tents of various shades of brown and green fabric arranged in rough concentric circles around a trio of larger tents. A dining tent, a meeting and equipment storage tent, and a somewhat more ornate tent provided by the Chrystal Empire which Twilight would be sharing with her dear friend, childhood filly-sitter, and occasional lover, Princess Cadance. Cadance’s company at least would be enough to keep Twilights spirits up no matter how many storms she would have to put up with.

Truly if it wasn’t for the frustrating propensity that the central Unicorn Range had for generating powerful autumn thunderstorms which had a nasty habit of appearing over the mountain peaks with almost no warning and producing hailstones large enough to give serious injury to a pony so unlucky as to find themselves stranded outdoors, she might even have gone so far as to consider this valley an unusually good place to come on vacation this time of year. What with the Aspen Trees beginning to turn their famous blazing yellow. Incidentally this weather phenomena was why all the members of the expedition, not just those ponies hired to help with carrying supplies up into the valley from the tiny villages forty kilometers back down the steep trail but also the archaeology members themselves were rushing around like flustered chickens busily securing equipment and reinforcing tents before said items could be beaten down and blown away by the powerful winds and hail of the swiftly approaching storm.

Well, the Princess of Friendship decided with another sigh as she shook her mane and turned back to descend the path down to her large circular tent, it seemed that her planned early evening excursion up the precarious switchback trail to the dig site would have to wait until the first light of the morning. She hadn’t even been here at camp for more than eight hours and already her meticulously detailed schedule was in for a complete revision.

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Princess Cadance looked up from her investigation of some promising looking mushrooms growing between two moss covered boulders perched above the roaring stream five meters below. She could see in the swiftly dimming light the lone violet furred figure of a young Alicorn turn off of and walk down behind a large flat boulder a bit above the arranged tents. Cadance smiled to herself as she resumed her progress toward camp having decided that fat brown mushrooms, no matter how tasty, were not worth getting caught out in a storm over. It was the Alicorn with the light purple coat who was responsible for her smile, as it had been far too long in her estimation since she and Twilight had been able to properly spend time with each other. It had taken a good few years of careful attention and guidance but the Chrystal Empire was once again becoming able to function under its own governance without her and her Imperial Military Consort, (a posting steeped in tradition) having to guide the populace by the hoof every step of the way.  This improving situation allowed for either her or the Prince to spend longer periods away from the Chrystal Palace in the far north and come south to Equestria where under the pretense of maintaining strong diplomatic ties with the central Equestrian government they could relax in a kingdom which they didn't have to bother overseeing. It was ironic, then, Cadance mused to herself that she should be spending her time out here in a primitive wilderness camp about to be pounded by a vicious mountain thunderstorm when she could be sprawled out on a goose down body pillow next to a hot spring-fed pool in any one of several elite Canterlot bathhouses having her every need attended to by beautiful teen mares. However Cadance knew better than to believe that such an experience would be any better than what she could and indeed did have available to her in the Empire. She didn't go on these trips to be pampered, she had enough of that in her daily routine, she departed the Empire on occasions like this to have an adventure and in her experience there were few better ways to find adventure than to tag along with one of the most powerful, wealthy, unnaturally curious, intelligent, and yes adorably sexy ponies to be found in the world.

Within the circle of tents and covered equipment the gusting winds seemed to loose something of the haunted quality to be found amongst the swaying trees of the darkening forest.  With the imminent onset of the first bands of rain Cadance formed a softly glowing force bubble about her body tinted a light blue to match the aura of her horn. Despite the fact the she had performed the creation of a force bubble countless times throughout her life whether just for practice or out of necessity and could do it without thinking as easily as she could place one hoof in front of the other, she could if she concentrated, feel the binding energy somehow adding structure to the air around her. It was almost as if on the point of performing the spell she became aware of an ever present granulation in the air on a scale so small it would be impossible for anypony to see yet she felt nonetheless as though the field was taking thoes loose grains and somehow gluing them together in a rigid structure and expanding that outwards. She had no words to describe the sensation of the process and though she had considered investigating some text on the subject of which she was sure many could be found in the Imperial Archives. She had never gotten around to uncovering anything conclusive on the matter and yet again reluctantly stored such considerations in her mental category of intriguing thoughts that she ought to ask Twilight about.

Body properly shrouded from the now beating rain Cadance came crunching down the newly spread path made of stone chips towards the center of the camp. She couldn’t help but notice that a few of the ponies she passed by glancing her way through open tent flaps had slight frowns of worry creasing their faces as they gave small bows of their heads in respect to the Princess of Love. This concerned Cadance slightly, she was quite sure this behavior was due to the fact that many of these ponies probably felt at least some trepidation at seeing an Imperial Princess out in the rain having to shield herself from said rain and not accompanied by any guards. A situation that they were afraid, she was sure, would reflect badly on the conduct of the expedition members if word were to get out. She would have to take the time tomorrow to reassure them that she was very much here of her on volition and that they did not bear any responsibility if her solid gold horseshoes got muddy or her mane, Celestia forbid, got damp. It never failed to worry and exasperate her, at least to some degree, how ponies always seemed to be surprised when royalty acted in any manner other than stuck up and prissy.

As Cadance approached the large tent directly in the center of the their little portable village the right hoof flap of the tent flipped open and immediately out popped the aging yet still spry head of Dr. Oldstone, one of the preeminent researchers of the Royal Academy of Science and Magic.

“Ah! It’s such a relief to see that you’ve gotten back! And just in time it seems!” Dr. Oldstone said looking through the dome of the force bubble as the fat drops of rain pounded down over its glass-like surface.

“We were all afraid that you wouldn’t be able to return in time!”

“I’m sorry for worrying you Professor, I was distracted by the beauty of the countryside on my little hike of the surrounding area and nearly didn't see the storm coming until it was in the valley itself. I’ll make sure to get home sooner next time.” Cadance said with a giggle. This got something of a blush out of the lively old professor.

“Was there something you wished to discuss with me?” Cadance asked while turning to trot under the tent awning and through the open flap.

The “command tent” as it was rather pompously referred to was essentially a large rectangular canvas covered room large enough for around ten ponies to fit comfortably inside staked solidly to the ground with two dozen long steel spikes. This capacity was of course only true if and when the tent was empty which was certainly not the case at the moment. A third of it was piled to the celling with boxes of research materials including not fewer than a hundred charts by Cadance’s estimation and several times that number of books, mostly still packed away in boxes. Cadance couldn’t help but cringe inwardly at the thought of the ponies who had been given the task of getting all thoes books from the end of the wagon trail twenty kilometers back. The next third was filled with a large wooden table covered with yet more books and charts and from the looks of things professor Oldstone had probably gotten into his research before the tent itself had been raised up around him.

“Well… truth be told…” he said looking somewhat sheepish, “I had been expecting Princess Twilight to be with you as she is the one who had asked me for some input on a hypothesis or two of hers earlier in the day and I have only just now begun to feel confidant that I can give her good enough answers to her questions.”

“Oh, well I suppose I could go and find her if-” started Cadance.

“Ah, goodness no!” Interjected the old professor.  “I wont have you going out to hunt down Princess Twilight just for my sake, and especially not in such weather! Why I should think Celestia would have me thrown out of the Academy is she knew I was imposing myself so!”

“Hardly." Cadance said while mentally rolling her eyes. "Celestia isn’t the sort of mare to do such things, After all, even Prince Blueblood is still allowed in the castle, well, every once in a while at least…” Cadance trailed off at that realizing she probably wasn’t helping the conversation along anymore.

“Well regardless, it wouldn’t be proper.” Continued Dr. Oldstone. “Though since you are here, I might as well fill you in on what the princess and I were discussing earlier.” The Doctor said with a gleam in his eye that told Cadance he couldn’t resist the opportunity to lecture a new “student” who had so carelessly let herself be drawn into his domain.

“The mystery” he started in, striding over to the large table covered in various maps and pointing to what must have been a representation of the valley they were currently standing in.  “Began some 16 years ago when an old colleague and mentor of mine was doing a survey of early Tribal-Era Unicornia villages and watch posts in this section of the Range to better understand the Unicornia military strategies for defense at the time.  This era nearly six thousand years ago now is one of the first we have any real record of and was of course immediately after the first alliances the Kingdom of Unicornia had made with the Pegasi state and though things had gone well for over a century the Unicorns still had not by this point, and really never did I’m sorry to say, get over their fear of the Pegasi.”

At this he gave Cadance an easy to miss sidelong glance; (to judge her reaction she thought) knowing, as did the rest of the civilized world that Cadance had been born a Pegasus. “Thus,” he continued on, the Unicorns developed a habit of building watch towers and other minor fortifications in the tallest places they could figure out how to inhabit so that the Pegasi could not so easily get away with some sneak attack from high in the air.”

“This is why there are ruins of not one but three watch towers along the edges of this valley and with these eventually came Unicorn settlements along the valley floor where it was figured there would be a certain degree of safety should any conflict come about.” Early unicorns always were a suspicious lot I must say.” chuckled Dr. Oldstone, his light grey mustache fluttering with his soft laughter.

“This unusually high population left behind an equally unusual selection of ruins for an enterprising archeologist to study. Not only were there many sites to investigate but their remoteness meant they were well preserved as there had been nopony around to dig up the soil for farming or haul away ancient cut stone blocks to construct new houses as has happened in may other locations across Equestria.”

“My collogue, a certain Dr. Feldspar, had already visited this valley twice before and had spent most of his time looking at the sites surrounding Mid Lake. It was the year 996 when he arrived in the valley for his third trip.”

“Do you know Princess Cadance what occurred here during the winter of 996?” Asked Dr. Oldstone with the expectancy only a lifelong instructor could muster.

“…996? I was still a teen living in Canterlot back then, I mostly remember that being the year the fungus farming industry was privatized. And there were some scattered reports of an Earthquake, though I’m not sure if I recall…” Cadance trailed off.

“Oh, Don’t let it bother you Princess, I’m surprised you were aware of it at all, it was a while ago after all and this area of the mountains was even less populated than it is now. What occurred was rather a large Earthquake as it so happens! Came as quite a surprise to the geologists at the time I assure you, we had not seen any evidence of past earthquakes in the region and had thought the bedrock of the area to be quite stable.”

“Well, anyway, back to the story!” continued the professor.

When Dr. Feldspar arrived in the valley in late spring of that year he was fascinated by the evidence of strong ground movement all around him, rock slides, tumbled boulders, and unfortunately some damage to the various stone ruins. However he was utterly shocked when he came further up the valley and found that the entirety of Mid Lake had vanished!”

"Mid Lake?" I didn't see that on the map." Cadance couldn’t help mentioning in surprise.

“Nor would I expect you to, its no longer there. But let us not get ahead of ourselves now! …Um, Princess.” Dr. Oldstone hastily added.

"Now, Princess, I am assuming you know about Dry Falls, the cliff face that is about three kilometers downstream of High Lake?”

When Cadance nodded in the affirmative the professor continued.

“Well then, when Dr. Feldspar came up the valley he noticed before getting to the missing lake that Dry Falls was dry. This may seem now to be a redundant thing to say but before 996 Dry Falls was known as Mist Falls and the falls were very much active. However the stream which had once got over the top of the cliff was now emerging from a network of springs along the base of said cliff. It was only after finding the lake dry that Dr. Feldspar began to understand what was happening. You see the reason that Mid Lake and the lakes above and below exist at all is that some 47,000 years ago a series of large basaltic lava flows came down into the valley and dammed up the stream. The water collected behind this new rock barrier and eventually flowed over the top of it and down the other side forming the waterfalls and cascades that make this valley so beautiful. In the case of Mid Lake the ancient lava flow that created the lake has weak and fractured lower layers. These fractures were once fully clogged with eroded silt from the water flowing through them and rubble chokes.  When the earthquake occurred it widened these gaps and helped the water to flush out the debris. The process was not immediate but the flow rate was increased to the point that Mid Lake slowly drained out through these widened fractures over the course of several months so that by the time Dr. Feldspar arrived the lake was gone. It may return eventually given enough time assuming that the springs at the base of Dry Falls ever become blocked up again.

“And so this means that…?” Cadance asked hoping there was indeed going to be a point to this exposition.

“Ah, well you see, with the lake gone Dr. Feldspar could easily see what had been under water and to his amazement there was not only the foundation of an ancient stone structure that had been previously submerged but below that was a basement level though this was still mostly full of water. It was determined by Dr. Feldspar and several of his associates at the time, myself included, that this structure had once been a mill for grinding grain and the basement level was a collection of underground storage rooms. Here are the two important points however, the first is that the lower meter of the stone wall is surrounded by a lava flow which can easily be seen to merge with the much thicker layers downstream and the second and most important point is that being a mill, it would have been built next to the stream at the time of its construction. A stream that had not flowed for any great length of time since the lava dammed up the river!

“Which happened 47,000 years… but that can’t possibly…” continued Cadance uncertainly.

“Rather what we thought ourselves in the Academy at first, but once we had our suspicions we began to look for other evidence in places we normally never would have bothered. What we did was we began to excavate the ground underneath the lava flow for conformation. I admit there were times we felt that we were wasting our time and money but we were persistent and now it seems such has paid off. Two years ago after a decade of digging we have begun to find evidence of habitation. We now have extracted several carved blocks of stone along with what appears to be a metal sheet and some hoof tools. All would have been located on ground level 47,000 years ago and were consumed when the lava flowed over and around them.”

Cadance’s eyes had widened at this revelation, it was one thing to consider some sort of extremely primitive paleo-pony artifacts from so long ago but evidence of a civilization potentially as advanced as modern Equestria? It was…rather startling to say the least.

“Now I see you are beginning to grasp the magnitude of the mystery we find ourselves in, and why it was decided to conduct extensive research here in these mountains.” Dr. Oldstone said watching Cadance’s expression.”

“But if this is so revolutionary, and I can see that it is, why have I not heard of it before now? I would think such a discovery would be the talk of Canterlot, for a while at least.”

“You see Princess Cadance,” Dr. Oldstone said with a conspiratorial smile, now that I have discussed the matter with you that makes you…probably the sixth pony in the world who knows what revelations this valley hold.”

“Only the sixth! Why the secrecy? Why tell me? …Why the uncertainty in the number?”

“Goodness haha! One question at time Your Highness. The secrecy is that exceptional claims require exceptional evidence, and we have been working for years to build up that evidence so we don't get immediately run out of the scientific community for being old eggheads that have finally cracked when we go public with our findings here. As to why I told you, well, the circumstances were good you see, you came by alone during a rather strong storm which would make eavesdropping not only near imposable but very unpleasant for the pony trying to listen in from outside the tent. Furthermore you are after all, an Alicorn Princess of Equestria -yes I understand you rule in the Empire now but we all know where you were brought up and who assisted in your Ascension. Your loyalty to Equestria is beyond any doubt. Also being a Princess and being on this expedition… well, you don't think I would have blathered all this to some undergraduate assistant do you?” asked Dr. Oldstone full of mirth.

“Well, it is nice to know that ponies hold me in such high regard, Thank you for seeing me as being so trustworthy. Now, if only I could get some of the older Equestrian aristocratic families to think the same…”

“Ha! Well, I apologize but I don't think I would be of much help there, I may have the patience to work on a secretive archeology project for fifteen years but dealing with nobility is another thing entirely!” chuckled the Professor.

“It has been a pleasure talking with you professor.” Cadance said inclining her head slightly.   Since you mentioned the storm a minute ago I noticed that it seems to have let up a bit, or at least the hail as stopped. Twilight is probably beginning to worry about where I may have gotten off to by now knowing her.

“Oh, goodness, I hope I haven’t delayed you unnecessarily.” Dr. Oldstone said with a tinge of worry in his voice.

“Hardly” Cadance replied, “Twilight is a grown mare, she can see to herself.” Well, sometimes. Cadance thought remembering a past event or two. “Don't worry on my account.” Cadance reassured him while turning to leave the tent. “I’m sure we will have more opportunity to discuss matters in the days ahead.”

“Have a good evening Doctor.” Cadance said while stepping out into the still heavily falling rain.

“And a good evening to you as well Princess!” the professor said his voice rising to be heard over the noise of the continuing storm as another rumble of thunder rolled through the now open tent flap.

Cadance, again enveloped in her softly glowing force bubble trotted onto the sodden path headed for the rather more ornate and blessedly less cramped tent where she hoped to find a lavender pony to reacquaint herself with.