Darling's thoughts gave her pause as she passed the gigantic, looming stone hippogriff heads. Once the welcoming sight to every traveler for sure, now, overgrown with moss and vines, unkempt, abandoned, yet, they still kept the resemblance of their former majesty.
What could make such a civilization just disappear, into the forgotten winds of history?
Her wings carried her further in, every flap disturbing the nearby mist that covered everything like a blanket. Several of the stony buildings were cracked, or outright broken with pieces scattering the road beneath.
Daring paused at one of the broken windows, peering inside. Books spoke of the Hippogriff kingdom, but none of them were particularly old, not compared to other ruins in her line of work. Yet one day, the entire civilization just up and disappeared. “Leaving their once grand city like this.”
She normally did not venture out to ruins as recent as these, but the mysterious disappearance of an entire race and culture, it intrigued her, awakened the adventurous spirit within her.
“First of all, what made you leave,” that was the big question and Daring found herself searching through house after house looking for clues. One of the things that stood out to her, was how ordinary everything looked. Tea-pots were still out, standing on little tables ready to serve. Kitchen utensils were still laid out neatly at some kitchen tables, ready to be used if not for the dust and cobwebs. Whatever made them leave, made them leave in a hurry. Very few things were packed, everything was just abandoned where it stood. “Everything is too clean for it to have been a natural disaster, and if it was, there would have been no reason for them not to return. No bones or mass graves either that I saw on my way in,” she continued pondering as she trotted around the inside of the house, opening cabinets and pulling out drawers, searching high and low for clues. “Magical disaster is always a possibility, but one would think that would leave more of a permanent mark, no, this seems like, aha,” she pulled out a dusty and small book from inside the drawer next to a small bed, a diary.
She gently brushed the cover of the book with her wing, whisking away the dust and revealing its title. “Flowering Field,” now, who were you. Daring thought to herself as she settled down, and opened the diary. She skimmed a lot of the early pages, this was the diary of a foal, so there were a lot of unimportant things, details about their daily lives, her friends, all heartwarming stuff, but not important to the question that was burning in Daring's mind. Near the middle of the diary though, she found what she was looking for.
Mommy said that there was nothing to worry about, that we are strong and will not relent. But she still told me to pack my things last night, only the important stuff though, I want to believe mommy, but i saw her face, she was worried… I think mommy lied.
Daring turned the page and came upon one that ended halfway down the page, ending abruptly mid sentence.
I can't sleep, guards are yelling outside, running in the streets, all heading to the main gate. I don't know what's going on, but I can hear mommy from the living room. She sounds scared.
A few smaller crude drawings of hippogriff soldiers litter the page underneath before the next continues.
The soldiers are fighting, I peeked out of my window at one point, I saw one being carried away towards the hospital. He wasn't moving. I don't know what's going on, I'm scared too. Someone is banging on the door, they are yelling to mommy, who i can't hear what about, it's too noisy outside, there is screaming, crying, I do-
Daring turned another page only to find it blank, that's where it abruptly ended it seems. So, someone, or something was attacking them. That answered some of her questions at least. She put the diary down into the drawer she had found it in and closed it.
Flying along outside, Daring kept her gaze at the palace that loomed over the entire city. It certainly looked big enough to hold all the citizens. If they were taken somewhere, ushered there to defend, or barricade themselves in to buy time, that seemed like a prime place for it.
She was flying around the entrance outside, looking at the architecture, glancing in through some broken windows and openings, but all of them were blocked off, either by rubble or barricaded from the inside. She considered flying around to see if she could find some side or back entrance that may remain open, but before she could get that far, she spotted something. A small, almost insignificant opening in the rubble. It may have been nothing, but years of experience from adventuring and delving into caves and tombs told her otherwise.
After landing and squeezing herself through the small opening, it quickly opened up into a bigger tunnel, with some faint light coming from further within.
Further inside the tunnel opened up into quite the sight, a large room illuminated in a soft blue glow, two statues whose manes were a constant flow of water into the large basin below. And on the other side, up a small flight of stairs, a wall filled with what looked like ancient symbols. It was a breathtaking sight to behold.
Daring did not know if it was some sort of wall to record history, a door or gate of some kind, or perhaps something else entirely. But she could not wait to get started on uncovering its mystery. She put down her saddle bags, got out her own notebooks and settled down, writing down every single symbol, checking over her notes of other runes and glyphs, to see if any of them overlapped to see if she could discern their meaning. A lot of languages had similar origins after all.
It was a bit strange. She never had time to just settle down and decipher like this and just take her time with it without fear of her rivals showing up to stop her. Why? Well, they were busy with their own thing around this time of year, busy with something not even they would put aside to come to ruin her plans.
She continued working, double checking her previous notes, referring to older symbols, cross referencing, but her heart just was not in it. Her mind was stuck.
Even they had someplace better to be tonight, on this night of all nights, she was out working, adventuring. It was what she lived for, sure. She had chosen this, she wanted to be here. She wanted this.
“Are you okay?” Daring quickly blinked away any tears that had started to appear when she heard another voice.
She shot up and looked back down the stairs and the stone hippogriff head fountains. That had not been Dr. Caballeron, or Ahuizotl, no, that had been a feminine voice.
“Cause you dont look okay.” Glancing more down towards the water, Daring could see two shiny orbs looking up at her, eyes reflecting the light of the room. “You look lonely,” a light blue mane started to emerge from the water, a tip of it hanging slightly forward with a illuminating light shining from it, behind it followed a yellow head with two large blue eyes staring up at her.
“Hello?” Daring was not quite sure what she was looking at.
“Oh, im sorry, it's just that its Heart's Warming, and I wanted to sneak out since mom is busy, but then I saw you sitting there looking all lonely, and I was like, whaaat~” well, Daring was never one to shy away from new adventures, although this was certainly not what she had suspected to find when she came to this place.
Daring slowly trotted down the staircase towards the new creature who looked up at her with curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
“Hello to you too,” she greeted the newcomer as she settled down at the base of the stairs. “Sorry, I did not expect to meet anypony in these ruins, certainly not somepony resembling a seapony from the myths of old. I'm Daring Do, by the way, adventurer extraordinaire!”
“Ooh, an adventurer, that's so exciting! I'm Skystar!” The seapony did a little twirl in the water. “And I did not expect to find anypony here, especially not on Heart's Warming. Do ponies not celebrate it anymore? I've never talked with a pony before, so I wouldn't know.”
Daring let out a small sigh. “No, we certainly do celebrate it. I'm curious to hear that sea ponies celebrate it too though, I wonder if our traditions are similar. I was using the holidays to get some work done though, these ruins wont explore themselves! There are a ton of mysteries to uncover here.”
“But.. what about your family or friends?” Skystar questioned. “That's the most important part of Heart's Warming!” which was true, but it also made Daring raise an eyebrow.
“I could ask the same of you. Why are you sneaking out here?”
“Oh, well, it's really nice back home. All the lights and decorations, but mom can just be so, ugh!” Skystar threw her hooves up, sending a few droplets of water splashing onto Daring. “I just needed a small break from her, not that she would notice me missing anyway, and nopony would find me here, nopony ever comes here, well, apart from you that is. Now back to you deflecting that question!” Skystar got right in Daring's face who grumbled, she had hoped the seapony had not noticed. “Why are you out here all alone on Heart's Warming?”
“Well, truth be told, it's not often I do explore or adventure alone.” Daring admitted. “I got a pair of rivals, they are some bastards truth be told, but they do make adventuring a bit more exciting, always being on my tail, really making me work for the things I discover.” She let the sentence hang a bit in the air. “But I assume that even they are spending Hearth's Warming with friends or family, letting me get some work done in silence for once.”
“And what about you? Why are you not with friends or family?” Skystar pushed.
“Don't really have anypony to spend Hearth's Warming with,” Daring finally admitted. “Don't agree with what little family I have left, and due to my occupation, friends can be a tricky business,” she sighed. “So, i try to keep myself busy. I'd rather do this than sit all cooped up home alone.”
“That's sad, everypony should have somepony to be with on Heart's Warming,” Skystar put one of her hooves to her chin before her eyes lit up. “Ideeea~ why don't I be with you this Hearth's Warming?”
“What about your mother? Even if she can be a bit much, I'm sure she will miss you eventually, and I still have all this work to be done,” she gestured back to the symbol filled wall behind her.
“Oh, i'm sure she will throw a bit of a fit eventually, but she'll get over it. I think it's more important that i stay with you so you don't have to be lonely today.” Skystar gave Daring a small smile. “I'm afraid I don't have any gifts to give you, it's a bit of a swim back home and I don't wanna leave you alone.”
“That's alright, Skystar, I appreciate the thought.” She really did, she even felt a small warmth in her chest from the kindness this stranger showed. “I am an adventurer though, I have been far and wide on my travels, why don't we tell some stories to each other? I can't think of any better gifts than that.”
“That sounds great!” Daring was confused when Skystar disappeared down into the water, but she came out in a jump, landing and settling down right next to the adventurer. “Do you wanna start? I can if you don't, want to. I can tell you about how I found my two best friends and-”
“I don't mind starting,” Daring laughed at Skystars enthusiasm. When she set out on this adventure, she had hoped to uncover mysteries and find great things. But she had never imagined that she would find herself, swapping stories with a Seapony of all things. “So, there I was, deep in the thickest jungle imaginable. I was looking for the sapphire stone, I had been searching for over two months before-
She used tales she had put into book form, but told Skystar the real versions, the ones that had not been edited, told her about her real adventures, every single detail. It was a strange Heart's Warming for sure, deep in the middle of the ruins of an abandoned civilization, inside a cave. There, two completely different individuals found themselves enjoying the company of the other, with nothing else, they gave of themselves, making the experience that much more memorable.
Happy Holidays
