Author's Note

So a little info for everyone since this is very late.

I'm currently in the hospital for a ruptured appendix. I've been in here for 11 or so days already, and I'm tired as shit. I'll post the follow-up to this chapter soon (probably when I get out), but I can't guarantee a time for the chapter after that, considering recovery.

Anyways, that's all.

13. Aqueduct

"We're not going right to the bottom, are we?" she asked, leaning over the railing to look down the deep chasm that formed the aqueduct's sewage main. Far below, a rush of dark, murky water flowed through the main, carrying with it a foul stench. Pipes and outlets poured more of the same liquid into the main, before it all disappeared around a corner and poured out into Old Yharnam.

Eustace wrinkled his nose and made an ugly face. "No, thankfully. There's a small bridge that connects the aqueduct in Central Yharnam to the Cathedral Ward, that's our target."

Celestia "mmhmm'd", turning to follow him as he continued along the ridge. The only thing stopping anything from falling over was a short railing, barely reaching even Twilight's chest. At the moment, they were at the uppermost level, left-hoof side of the aqueduct's maintenance structures, looking down an easily thirty-meter drop into the turbid river below. The other levels descended in six-meter intervals, before, presumably, a fifth and final level that lay beneath the aqueduct's water level.

Celestia couldn't help but wonder why it was called an aqueduct, when it was clearly little more than sewer. "Why do you call it an aqueduct if it's little more than a sewer, anyways?" she asked, directing the question at Eustace.

He "hm'd" at her. "Good question. From my understanding, it's because it was an aqueduct at one time. See, Yharnam is an old city. Not just old, but very old. It's been here since long before the church, and even before our earliest records. When it was an aqueduct, nopony knows, but it probably was, at some point."

"Interesting" Celestia said. So it was old? She wondered just how old. Perhaps being teleported to the past had its benefits? "Exactly how old, do you know?"

"Again, good question." He rubbed his neck against the handle of his blade. "Gods, it's been a long time since I last thought about this. I think it was… four-hundred fifty years ago that our first records over trade with the Gryphons show up. Before that, your guess would be as good as mine. I'm sure the Church knows something, but that isn't for a lowly hunter such as myself to know."

Celestia nodded deciding that being so far in the past did, in fact, have it's benefits.

Then another thought occurred to her. If the tribes were still around, then Yharnam was certainly before the Discordian Era. That meant that whatever was left of the city before Discord was likely gone back in modern-day Equestria, along with whatever knowledge the city held of pre-Discordian pony politics and cultures.

Astral wasn't what she'd call an impulsive pony, but the temptation of knowledge from a time before her own birth was hard even for Celestia to resist, Yharnam or not. She had to wonder if Astral would pass up on an opportunity as golden as this, seeing as how unlikely it would be that they'd ever return here. Astral always had been more of the scholarly disposition, and the allure of such forgotten and sought-after knowledge would be even more enticing for her.

Celestia nearly laughed at her next thought.

"What if Astral stayed and became my mother?"

Actually, she did laugh. Preposterous. Utterly preposterous. She might not remember her parents, but she didn't think Astral was her mother. Not at all, absolutely not. It's not like she'd even let her stay after all this hell, right?

Right?

Before she could think herself deeper into a hole, however, they came to the end of their maintenance level. Eustace turned to the side, into a doorway built into the bricks of the aqueduct wall, barely big enough for Celestia. There was no lighting inside, it simply led downwards. The acoustics of the stair amplified the sound of the rushing water below, turning the moderate rushing into a roar while near the stair.

Eustace started down the stairs first. "Watch your step, I'd rather not wind up a mess on the next landing."

"I thought you said we weren't going any lower?" Twilight said, whining a little bit.

"I said we weren't going all the way down, not that we weren't going lower. Now buck up, and let's get going."

The descent wasn't easy, the stairs were uneven, the amplified sound was disorientating, and the only light was provided by Celestia and Twilight's horns. There were a few points where Celestia nearly slipped, saved only by the fact she was nearly as large as the passage itself. Twilight had an easier time, and Eustace had no issue with the stairs whatsoever, as usual.

Soon enough, they emerged on the second level down, the water nearer, louder and just as smelly as before. They were closer to the curve in the aqueduct now, but it was still a fair distance away. Celestia was glad she had brought up magic when she had, otherwise this would have taken far too long. As it stood, she didn't think she'd be able to get the smell of this place out of her nose for a full century.

"Can we expect resistance on this bridge?" Twilight asked from behind, who looked just as discomfited by this sewer as she did.

"Not likely, but I suppose it's possible. Take it slow and we'll be just fine." Eustace said, keeping pace as they continued on.

When they finally reached the accursed bend, Celestia could hardly keep herself from galloping to get away from the horrid smell of the sewer. Not so far off, she could see the gate that led on to the bridge, and the walls of the Cathedral Ward beyond. "Why is there a bridge here?" Celestia asked, genuinely curious.

Eustace flicked an ear. "Don't know. Maybe they just wanted another way out that didn't go through Old Yharnam?"

"Seems like an unnecessary security risk to me," she said, raising an eyebrow at Eustace's back.

"You and me both," he scoffed, "but times change, I guess."

Celestia left it at that, and let her mind wander to the past. Or, well, now, she supposed. She had to wonder just how far back they actually were. As she'd decided before, they were definitely before Discord, but if ponies outside of Yharnam were still referred to as being in "tribes", then it was possible that Equestria had yet to form as a nation. In fact, it was entirely within possibility that the Long Winter hadn't occurred yet, and that they were further into the past than most historians could dream of.

What little they had in the modern era that revealed the politics and culture of the time before Discord came almost exclusively in the form of oral history, traditions, gryphonic records or scattered texts in primitive Equestrian. Even that was limited, as the traditions and oral records were prone to both fabrication and corruption, the Gryphons had suffered similarly under Discord, and what Equestrian text survived from that period formed only the most fragmented idea of what society at that time was like.

Hearth's Warming was the most popular of those traditions, and interestingly also formed the basis of the modern view on the pre-Equestrian age. Very little else remained of that particular era, so to find a pre-Equestrian character in common literature here…

Indeed, it was very tempting to stay.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt the wind from the valley between the Ward and Yharnam on her coat, blowing much of the wretched smell away from her. To her right the railing peeled away from her, joining up with the other side of the aqueduct's maintenance level in a small platform that was suspended over the sewer.

Directly in front of them was a double door gate, about twice as high as Celestia. Producing a thin key from his leathers, he pressed the key into the gate, turning it sharply, and pulled one of the sets of doors open, allowing all three through. As soon as Twilight had passed him he closed the gate, and it locked automatically behind him.