Author's Note

This is something to take me from another story I'm doing to keep my mind fresh and it was something I wanted to do for Terra Equestria but thought against it. Enjoy the story.

Discovery and History (Edited)

6 years after Luna's banishment

Perspective: Ancient Dig
This was by and far one of the worst expeditions I've ever been on. I like a good bit of danger and all, but the lack of it, environmental or written history is just boring. I never thought I'd miss the action until there was none and the fact that nopony can chart a course to save a worm from the safer road. Honestly though, it was a nice change of pace as well since significant areas and environments had there own story to tell. When I get the offer to explore a tomb, I am on that like the sweetness of honey and cane sugar.

Getting the request though is only the first thing. After that there are papers to sign, legal fees for damages, the prices to transport said item or items and then there is the cost to restore the item, if possible, and so on and so forth. Depending on the condition of the relic, or relics, an the visitors it or they attract, it will make or break the cost of the expedition. And that's not even getting into the legal acquisition of these items, if that's even possible. I've lost the right to acquire some items because of their unknown origin or because the princess has a hidden history to them.

Regardless of what I think, getting there is one thing and the journey is another and both are undoubtedly fun but not knowing where it is can be just as bad as not knowing where you're supposed to go. That's the reason maps were made. I need to know where to be so me and the team can be there at a certain time and place. I'll bet just about anything that the nobles fudged the map on purpose and are now at the tomb, bribing the teams just to take the artifacts and make their money back all for stories of how brave of them it was to save this important piece of Equestrian history when all they did was bribe a team for the piece just to gloat at how they got to it before me. I finally had enough and flew up into the air to find that the map led us way off course.

So me and a guard or two flew into the air and we noticed where we kilometers from the sight. Telling the others to get there, the pegasi, myself included, arrived just in time to stop, you guessed it, nobles from taking a single thing. "Hold it!"

"Miss Dig?" One said clearly shocked I got there before anything could be hauled off. "Thank goodness. We were in the middle of-"

"Unloading every single thing you have before I give you the wet works." I interrupted him, not having any of his fake story.

"Miss Dig I do not understand-"

"That if you do not unload the artifacts like she said, all of you will be arrested under the charges of trespassing, theft, breaking and entering, forgery and four other notable charges, all of which will be written along with the parties involved and sent to Princess Luna" The guards words seemed to bore them, thinking they would take it to Celestia, where they could pay off her guard. Luna and her guard, on the other hand, do not let any charges off by paying back to the public. You want out of prison with her then you have to work for however long she sets and good behavior does not get you out faster, it just humiliates you. It was an unbeatable system. Celestia called it tyranny, thinking it was wrong. I'm with Luna when she said that work and effort should be payment enough for your goals, not money and deception. Princess Luna practically made it a law that was effectively carried out without question, something to be admired.

The nobles put everything down while one or two were searched for anything else. We don't let so much as a possible key slip by us unless we want an open door to an empty room like last time. I'm prepared with the nobles. Once they left, I had the guard categorize everything that the nobles got out. Thankfully they didn't get much and seemed to have just started so we made it before anything turned up missing.

Sorting through everything, we found plastic film that was hard as leather and had gold bits and black strips, possibly for show or for security. More were found with pictures of some nearly hairless creatures, the only thing on said picture was the face and that was it. The deeper in we went, the more we found until one of the guards touched something and a moving picture was seen with something speaking. "Everypony stand back and let this play."

"Previous results have yielded outstanding benchmarks." One creature on screen said in awe. "Never have I seen a whole nervous system be reconstructed from a single brain cell." Gestures to the organs behind it, much to the crews' disgust. "It may be prudent to use the knowledge it is gathering for surgeries in the future as these creatures, as I call them, may not last forever with enough cell division. We can't trust technology with everything if we want to avoid the terminator scenario or worse."

"You have nothing to worry about doctor." Another one called. "We've been making strides for these biomachines to connect with the host's brain cells for them to use as they so wish. This way war can be fought without guns or weapons, but we do hope no such thing comes to pass as there are too many variables."

"That may be, but these notes and our research do yield that the volume of them will be fixed unless, as you said, they will fully drop the restrictions for any number of what they can create." The previous doctor explained. "What is the malleability of the cells doctor?"

"You won't believe this." The recording shows a pairs of crudely constructed, mechanical wings on the board that were refining their shape to something more detailed. "And that is from simulations and controlled electronic stimulation, which will be redundant once they inhabit the brain, where they will protect the brain from excessive injury and the brain keeps them from shutting down or going out of control involuntarily."

"Excellent doctor. These Organites may just be the key to a better world peace."

The recording ended. "Find more of these and try to extract them without damaging the contents. I want a full review of everything before it goes into a museum."

"Dig." And old friend called me, it was Rare Finding. "I see you were able to save the party." I waved him off with a smile. "What do you think?"

"It doesn't look that ancient. If anything this place looks brand new and high tech." I explained, still in awe at the construction of this place. "The organic remains are worn from age but everything else looks perfectly preserved."

"I'm not surprised that you are so skeptical. These ruins are carbon dated at 22 million years." I broke as my mind was trying to fix itself. My expression must have looked unprofessionally stupid. "Um... Ms. Dig."

"22 MILLION YEARS?! THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT!" I was an absolute mess at the moment as I was breathing rather hard. "This has to be a mistake. There is no way anything can predate Equestria itself!"

There was a sound from further in. "Rare, Ms. Dig, I think we found something!" We made our way down the hall to see a giant door.

"Is there a handle?" The guard shook his head as I tried to find the handle. After some looking, I found a lever on the way. Taking three breaths, I gave it a hard pull and there was a loud thud, most likely the door releasing the pressure. Clanking and banging was heard before the giant steel wall seemed to split down the middle, retreating on the other side of the wall it was connected to. More of those devices were found in here, with strange, large boxes that have survived the test of time.

One of the guard got a panel on and called to my attention. "Ms Dig, you may want to see this." The files were history and research labelled 'Orgamech'.