"Twilight, Rainbow Dash. I have called you both here for a reason, you may explain this to your other friends when you see them after this but it is imperative that you do not tell any another pony aside from them. I cannot stress this point enough."
Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked up at the princess with serious expressions on their faces. They said simultaneously...
"We pinkie promise" They both performed the necessary action that comes along with this promise. With the princess giving them a strange look after wards.
The princess could not help but smile a little bit, but remembered why she called them to the palace in the first place.
"Twilight, Rainbow Dash. Our relations with the Griffon Empire have become stranded over the last few years. While we seem to be on good terms with the ambassador, reports have been telling me that their leader is currently stockpiling weapons and training new soldiers at a much more regally pace than they have done so before. I cannot help but feel like they may declare war on us." She finished with a somber tone.
To say that the two ponies standing before the princess were shocked would be an understatement. They mouths were open so wide that one could probably fit a bowling ball in there and still have room to spare.
"But what do they want princess? We have done nothing to them! Why would they just attack like that?!" Twilight said, still in a state of disbelief and shock.
Rainbow puts her wing over the purple unicorn to try and comfort her a little. She pulls rainbow into a quick but tight hug and turns to face the princess once more.
"Twilight, please remember that they have not actually *attacked*. All we do know is that they seem to be gathering up their strength. Which makes this next fact even harder for me to say..."
Both girls look into the princess's face with soft sad eyes.
"We simply don't have the capability to defend ourselves, let alone go into full scale war. The results would be catastrophic for us...but there is hope yet."
Celestia turns her full attention to the ponies before her.
"You must go into the ruins of me and my sisters old castle. Deep under there you will find a runic chamber in which rests a spell tome which might just hold the key to us staying clear of war. I cannot say what this tome does now, but its affects will become apparent if...or rather...when...you find it."
Despite her best efforts, could not stop the smile spreading across her face.
"So were going to go into some old dusty ruin to find some old book that will protect us from the griffons?"
Her smile was literally touching her ears. Twilight was in shock as to why her friend was so happy about it.
"How can this be 'funny'? This is a serious matter!"
"Yeah, but its like something straight out of a Daring Do book. Iv always wanted to do something like this. Its going to be totally and completely awesome! Err...Twi...close your mouth, i think i can see your breakfast."
With that, Twilight snaps out of her trance and promptly closes her mouth, less any droll sneak its way out and onto the royal carpet.
"Its going to be very dangerous my little ponies, but i have trust in you that you will succeed. For the very survival of Equestria depends on you retrieving this tome. But it is too dangerous to go alone, so take this"
The Princess levitates a small box towards twilight.
"Inside this box is a necklace which will grant you access to the deeper levels of the 'castle'. Be sure to keep it safe for it will guide you."
Twilight takes the box and opens it. To see that the symbol on the necklace was split in two. Half of it showing the sun, the other half showing the moon. She puts the necklace on and faces the princess for the final time.
"We will bring this tome back princess, you can count on us." Finishing that sentence with a smile, for the first time since she had arrived at the palace.
"I know i can my favorite student. Now go forth and protect Equestria."
Twilight and Rainbow Dash bow their heads and run out the door.
Hurry Twilight, for i fear we may not have much time...
***
"Well this is certainly unusual. I have never come across such inscriptions before"
The camera zooms in on the patterns and drawing above the archway, which lead deep into the ruins of the temple she had been exploring for some time now.
Speaking into her camera. "Iv only heard of a few civilizations that depict the sun like a deity in this sort of way beforehand. Although this seems to be quite remarkable."
She zooms in as far as the camera will go to get a better picture of what she is looking at.
"It appears that these two...'Equines'...are able to raise the sun and the moon. The 'Sun Goddess' being stated as ' Princess Celestia' and the 'Moon Goddess' being stated as ' Princess Luna'. This is indeed quite extraordinary. Maybe I will find more answers further down"
She closes the camera and carefully stows in away in her backpack. Before switching on her should torch and heading down the gloomy steps, deep beneath the temple.
***
"So let me get this straight, the princess wants us to travel too some ancient ruin to get some dusty old book that might or might not protect Equestria??" It was hard for Rairty to brush her mane and digest this information at the same time.
"Uhmm" Was the only reply she got from Twilight who was busy packing her saddlebags.
With a deep sigh, The white unicorn put her brush down.
"I suppose the princess knows whats best to do. Well i'm packed and ready to go."
Twilight turned to face Rarity with a look of confusion on her face.
"Your packed *ahead* of time? You do realize we could be out there for a good few *days* right?"
"Hey, a mare of my equity is always...wait...a few DAYS??"
Twilight nodded her head, while rolling her eyes as she knew what was going to happen next.
Rarity proceeded to collapse onto the conveniently placed sofa behind her.
"Urgh! Now i have to unpack and re-pack EVERYTHING."
Twilight, who was now packed and ready. Turned to face the ever distressed Rarity.
"Look, we are not leaving until tomorrow morning, so you have plenty of time to get everything ready. I mean its only 3pm now anyway."
The fashionista proceeded to turn on her side and look at the clock hanging on her wall.
"Well i suppose your right darling, I mean this is not the worst possible thing that could have happened i suppose..."
Twilight proceeded to roll her eyes again before leaving the boutique.
"Just remember to be outside Sugar Cube Corner tomorrow morning okay?"
The lavish unicorn turned on to her other side to look at twilight, still sprawled all over her sofa.
"Yes darling, I wont forget. Have a nice evening." She finished with a smile.
Despite her shenanigans, Twilight managed to find a smile herself.
Yeah, you too Rairty, good night."
***
"Okay girls. Are we all ready?"
Twilight looked around her friends to see they all had their saddle bags packed and ready.
"Spike, can you go through the check list for the check list please?"
Spike proceeded to bring a quill and some parchment out.
"Emergency rope and medical supplies?"
"Check"
"Extra food in case you run out?"
"Check"
"Extra quills, ink and parchment?"
"Check"
"Mr Smartypants...?" He finished that sentence with a rolling of the eyes.
"A big check right there spike" She said with a smile.
"Remind me why you are bringing him again...?" He said with a confused look.
"Because spike, Mr Smartypants here is my good luck charm and I want to make sure that we succeed on this mission on matter what."
"You make it sound like you might not come back..." He finished a tone of sadness.
Twilight sat down and spike slid off her back. She turned around and gave him a tight reassuring squeeze.
"I will come back, nothing will happen, okay?"
Spike knew better than not to trust that gentle reassuring smile. He returned her hug.
"You big a good boy and keep the library in good condition while i'm gone, okay?"
He gave her a warm smile.
"I always do Twilight.
***
A loud scrapping sound could be heard as a grapple came off a wall.
Oof, that was a hard landing. IL make sure to have a better foothold next time
She took note of her surroundings and she brought out her camera.
"Lots more of these inscriptions and drawing of those two goddess's. This just gets more and more interesting with every corner I turn."
Even an intrepid explorer such as herself could not stop the smile spreading across her face.
I could be the first person to record evidence of an ancient civilization that no one has ever heard of. This sort of breakthrough only comes once in a life time.
She walked further down the passage way and soon came to a huge chamber, with 2 large statues depicting 'Princess Celestia' and 'Princess Luna'. What was more intriguing was that there seemed to be some sort of shinning door in-between the two statues. She pulled her camera out once again.
"This, right here, is truly the stuff of legend. It appears to be some sort of doorway, probably leading to another dimension.
She approached the 'doorway' carefully.
"I suppose there is a first time for everything."
And with that, she stepped through.
***
Twilight and her friends have been walking for hours. It was getting to be late evening and they had just reached the ruins. Twilight looked around and saw that everyone was exhausted.
"All right, girls. We will stop here and have a break before proceeding inside the ruins. But we cannot linger too long as i would not like to be near the Everfree when it turns properly dark."
With that said, they all drop their bags and do various stretches and groans as they move muscles have that not been moved in hours.
After about an hour, they had all had a stretch and had some water and food down their necks.
"Alright girls, lets go" Twilight said with plenty of enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, the others did not really share her high spirits with her.
"Come on Twi, do we have too?" Groaned Rainbow.
"I mean, we have been walking for hours and hours today..."
She looked around and saw the others nodding their heads in agreement.
"Rainbow, i would love to have a break as much as you but its simply not safe up here during the night..."
"But what makes you so sure that it is any safer down there?" Protested Rainbow, pointing to the dark set of stairs just ahead of them.
"Well the fact that nothing has set hoof down there in thousands of years" Twilight replied back playfully.
"And besides, we wont even be walking that far. We only need to go a little bit underground and then we can set up camp. I promise"
Rainbow stood there for a moment and looked back at the others.
"Il go with whatever sugarcube"
"Same, just so long as we can find somewhere...remotely comfy and dry..."
"I will do what you girls are doing...you know...as long as that is what you want to do..."
Pinkie just sat there with a big smile on her face.
"Alright, lets go" Rainbow grumbled.
It was a fair distance, but the shallow angle of the stairs meant that the walk was not too tiring.
"Alright girls, here we are" The smiley purple unicorn said.
Just before them was a solid stone door covered in glowing runes. Most of them were blue and twinkling, probably due to the time of night it was. Twilight stepped right up to the door and pressed the necklace into a perfectly sized hole in the middle of the door.
Just as she did, the ground and walls began to shake violently.
Before any of them had a chance to understand what was happening, the floor underneath them turned into a steep angle as the door open. They all slid down the open hole screaming into the darkness.
***
"Urgh...il make sure to carry more paracetamol with me next time..."
Despite the thudding headache, she seems to have awoken in a chamber similar to the one she just left. But there was something very different about this chamber though...
There were small pools in places around the room that glowed an eerie blue light. She looked up and saw there was a large number of glowing runes in the ceiling. She quickly brought out her camera.
"I can only guess that these runes depict the night sky and that the center of the piece must be the moon."
Further down the wall was a glowing mosaic Princess Luna who's horn was glowing.
Just as she gazed in awe of her surroundings, she could hear a faint scream coming from one of the tunnels. She quickly moved behind one of the statues and waited.
The screaming got louder and it sounded like there was more than one coming down the tunnel.
What she saw, she almost could not comprehend.
There in front of her, only about 10 meters away, was a bunch of colorful...ponies?
Ahh, this was beginning to make a little more sense. But she was still confused.
The blue one stood up and hovered over the group using wings.
Hmm...a blue pegisai...I don't remember seeing that in anything iv seen so far...
"Nice going Twilight, now where are we?" She asked with frustration.
"Urgh, just give me a minute to stand and think will you?"
A purple unicorn? Now this is getting very---
She could not finish her train of thought as something began to emerge from the pool.
It had the skeleton of a ponie but bright glowing blue eyes. It turned to face the group and let out a scream of the dammed.
Causing all the other ponies to start screaming in terror. The purple unicorn managed to fire what looked like purple magic bolts at the thing. The unicorn managed to make it collapse. They breathed a sigh a relief. But from her hiding place, she knew better.
Bloody thralls...why...why always thralls or some kind of demonic possession?
The chamber was then filled the sound of clunking as the small group of ponies watched in pure fear as the creature put its self back together.
"Right, my turn!"
She pulled out her pistols and let loose on the creature, its screamed and charged for her. She ran towards the creature and less than a meter before it ran into her, she jumped on its shoulders, back flipped and landed two consecutive rounds straight into the head of the creature. Causing the thing to explode into a pile of bones. She then pulled a front flip and landed on the pile of bones, scattering them everywhere and effectively 'killing' the creature. It let out a deathly hiss as the pile of bones was destroyed.
She turned to face the ponies who were huddled up in a tight bunch. She knelt down next to them.
"Its ok, its dead now."
She could not tell if they understood her or not, but a few of them eased up a bit.
"Do you understand me?"
The purple unicorn turned to face her.
"Yes, we understand you. But what was that THING?"
She turns to see the spot where the pile of bones once was, to make sure there was nothing there.
"Its called a thrall, its the bones of the dead that have been possessed by some ancient force. I have dealt with them more times that i would like to have done so."
"You have fought these things before?" The unicorn asked.
She nodded and turned to face the cyan pegasus who had hovered next to her.
"That was probably one of the coolest things i have ever seen! You ran towards it and jumped and used those things and it exploded and then you---"
She didn't let the pegasus.
"yes, I know. Like i said iv have 'killed' these things before hand'
The white unicorn got up and walked towards her.
"But just what 'are' those things you used?" She inquired.
She pulled one of her pistols out from its holster.
"This is a device that fires projectiles at incredibly high velocities. These 'pistols' or 'side arms' if you want to get technical have saved me more times than I can remember."
"So their tools used for killing things?" She asked, yet took a step back.
"Yes, but only things i don't like or things that are trying to kill me. That thrall comes into both categories." She finishes with a smile.
"So, do you guys have names?"
"Yes thank you, I'm Rarity.
"Howdy partner, I'm Applejack'
"I'm Pinkie Pie!" She finished that sentence by setting off a bunch of party poppers
She raises her hand but the purple unicorn stops her.
"Its best not to understand her at times...I tried once..." The unicorn finished that sentence with a grim look. She decides not to peruse any further.
"Anyway, I'm called Twilight Sparkle. But you can just call me Twilight."
Its a relief to see that unicorn smile
She turned to face the cyan pegasus.
"And I'm Rainbow Dash, best flier in Equestria."
She smiles softly at the pegasus. Ahh, so these ponies are from the land iv been seeing in the inscriptions.
The last member of the group still had her mane covering her face.
"My name is Fluttershy..."
She can tell her that names lives up to her personality as she walks over to the shy pegasus.
"There is no need to be scared, you were very brave facing that thrall. Everything will be ok."
The yellow pegasus looks up to her and manages a small smile, she gets up and faces the group.
"Whats your name" the pink ponie cheerfully asked.
"Lara. Lara Croft"
