A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 85: Under The Sands. Part 1.

*Point of view: Engineer*
*Location: Bone Dry Desert*
*Time: Two-thirty in the afternoon. Eight days Later*

Under the blazing late day sun of one of the most inhospitable and life deprived lands of Equestria, Engineer could be seen laying sideways and on his back, while also on top of a camel That lazily moved along the sand. His arms and legs were dangling off of both sides as his head hung so that the world was upside down from his perspective. A long and obnoxious moan erupted from his mouth and trailed for nearly half a minute before Daring Do, who was on another camel and just up ahead of the line of travelers turned her head in his direction to scream with much indignants behind her voice. “Could you please cut that out already?!”

With a board face and eyes that were similar to those seen on the cartoon’s main character, Hey Arnold. Engineer listfully turned his head just enough to look at her from the corner of his eyes before replying in a whiny voice. “But I am so boooooored! We've done nothin’ but ride these camels for almost two whole days and we have bumpkiss! What happened to all those reports about monsters? I was hoping for sandworms or living piles of sand. I've even take a stupid mirage that would make me jump into the sand and swim around like a flopping fish over this hellish boredom.”

The Pegasus was pinching the bridge of her nose as she mumbled the following just loud enough for him to hear over the crunching and sifting sand. “I was hoping that piece of string would keep him occupied for a little longer...” This got an indignant response from Engineer as he threw up his arms in front of himself like a little kid and proclaim the following. “It's not my fault that it broke in half and I lost it! I would have jumped off to find the thing if it wasn't the same color as all this stupid sand! You won't even play "I Spy" anymore. What I wouldn't give for a rad scorpion to just jump out of the sand right now! Even those annoying Scrap Bots with that stupid looping message would make this fun! Yeah yeah, I know I’m a broken record.”

Daring Do then said, “The answers are always going to be bones, sand, sky or clouds! And I don't know what a rad Scorpion or a Scrap Bot is, but I get the feeling that we don't need those around. It's going to get a lot busier once we get through THAT!” That was when she pointed up ahead and there was a rotating sandstorm flowing towards the right. The top of which reached just past the height of the clouds that sparsely dotted the sky.

According to Daring Do, it was so wide that a Pegasus flying at full speed would practically need a half hour to make a complete circle. Just taking a couple of steps in would cause a person to be completely obscured thanks to the density for anyone standing on the outside. This meant that there was a high chance of being lost within seconds if one was to go in without any precautions to be taken beforehand.

Surprisingly enough, there was no crackling of thunder or howling winds as the surrounding area was strangely calm. If anything, one might confuse it for being a glass enclosure with swirling dust floating in a large amount of water with how it barely lost any of the particles beyond the border. Engineer got excited and rolled right off his camel and onto the ground with both his hands and knees with a thud before getting up and making a dash past the group of fifty or so other people who were a part of the caravan to get up to it first. This even got a loud number of cheers from the rest of them as a couple loudly screamed thank Celestia when they realized that Engineer was no longer going to act as a child without any toys to play with.

This only caused During Do to tilt her head down to hide half of her face in embarrassment as the camel she was sitting on was gently ushered to speed up with the use of her hooves kicking its sides. He was just about to rush right in when the Pegasus launched herself off of the camel and swooped down to grab onto the collar of his jacket to stop him just a couple of inches away. Without too much effort with the way Engineer gave little to no resistance. He was dragged off to meet up with the others as a small whimper escaped his lips.

It took them close to an hour to gather their things and to form a group to travel through the sandstorm in a straight line. This was done by attaching ropes and guiding their equipment and camels so that everyone was able to see the person in the front and behind themselves to keep the formation from veering off course. If they were not careful, then they would probably spend way more time with going in loops while within the tornado of sand. Most of their bodies were covered up in wrappings and faces covered thanks to bandanas and goggles. The camels themselves had hoods that would filter out the air and prevent their eyes and ears from being hit with the blasting sand.

Eventually, they made it through and resembled sand versions of snowman upon reaching the eye of the storm. Engineer began to shake himself off no differently than a dog and scattered quite a bit onto the sand and reduced his new form down to half of what it was. Daring Do and the rest of the caravan were in similar positions as most of them were now crawling on their hands and knees thanks to so much of the weight clinging to their bodies. When he turned his head to look at them. He could not help but to imagine Arabian Nights and wondered if any of them were called Aladdin thanks to all the robes and turbans.

When he was done with making sure that Daring Do was okay and attempted to assist with dusting her body off, to only receive a slap to the hands as he got a little too close to some private areas. The obelisk was the first to draw his attention with how massive it appeared even though it was so far away. It seemed as though they were a little off course and the campsite was about a five-minute walk to the right. Makeshift tents of bright colors were set up as fire pits and containers could be seen nearby. Small shops and stalls were already hastily put together to sell their wares to anyone who required additional equipment while on the site.

A large tent could be seen at the center that acted as not only a cafeteria, but a meeting site for any large-scale discussions. The ground itself lacked any vegetation at all. In fact, there were no traces of even dead plants that he himself had noticed during their slow and very boring trudge through the isolated desert. It was almost as if they were inside of a giant box and someone had just poured a fresh bag of sand inside and plopped this odd structure in the center. After taking out the scope for one of his guns to take a look at the middle of the eye for the storm. Engineer could not find a single one of those reported rock-based monsters anywhere.

More so was the climate no longer feeling as though they were in a scorching desert. If anything, it felt as though it was a normal spring day that barely reached seventy-five degrees. Even with the wall of shifting sand being within a stone's throw from where he stood produced no sound at all. If it were not for all the talking of those around, then Engineer might have started to hear that weird high-pitched noise in the back of one's ear that everyone hears when there's absolutely no sources of sound within a room. Daring Do and Engineer joined the encampment and went through the trouble of setting up their tents next to one another and hurried along to the meeting area when an announcement was given not too long later.

There was a large and heavy cat person garbed in vibrant robes and an impossibly large wrapped up turban on his head. If anything, Engineer wondered if this cat took all the bed sheets from hundreds of mattresses and use that for his clothing. Also, how was it possible that his neck did not break with how much weight was on top of his head. Clearly, Daring Do sensed what was going on with him and elbowed him into the sides of his ribs to get him to not stare too much at the gigantic hat and to pay attention to what was going on.

The long and short of the meeting was to go over the ground rules and any updated news that did not reach the outside world. Multiple attempts were made to enter the structure after finding more than one entrance. Yet each one resulted in a failure with either traps or Monsters getting in the way. Skilled adventurers were not on site up until just recently and the number of casualties has plummeted thanks to being able to fight off the unwanted defenses so that everyone could retreat to the safe distance of the camp. Most ways going in consisted of tiny holes that would require someone to crawl on their bellies to navigate.

Some would just barely high enough for an adult to crouch down to half their height. Although there were two entrances that were a good two and a half meters wide and equally as tall on the Southwest and Northeast sides. The only problem with those spots turned out to be the traps and impossible to break doors at the end of what some of the residents would call the death walk. According to them, anyone who even got close to the end would eventually be taken out by the final trap that would always activate after a full minute and a half had passed. The trap being a powerful gas and acidic spray that would eat through both flesh and metal within moments.

Spikes, blades, moving stone walls and what is described to be countless small creatures that resembled scarabs would come out of almost anywhere to try and devour anyone who was not paying attention as a large swarm would come rushing out of the walls or floor. A few of these did get disarmed, but at the cost of a handful of lives. Engineer looked over to his right and was watching how Daring Do was keeping most of herself covered and only allowed her eyes to be visible. He also could not help but to look at where she was staring so intently at. Which just happened to be a group of mercenaries dressed from top to bottom with thick black that were on the far side of all of those attending.

He then carefully nudged her as he whispered the following so that the pair could have a quick conversation back and forth without getting anyone's attention. “Is it someone you know?”

“Not too sure yet. I've learned to trust my instincts and it's telling me that we need to watch out for that group over there.”

“Sorry that I can't really zone in on those. This place is so tightly packed that it's one giant crock pot of evil vibes. It’s taking pretty much everythin’ I got to not go all hell raiser on their ass’s.”

“The last thing I want you to do is to go and do your whole fire and Tartarus performance while in such a big crowd. They're probably from one of those big outfits that gets hired to go on these trips. But it won't matter as we are going to get to the treasure first.”

“Do you really think there's treasure in there?”

“Are you kidding? No one's ever set hoof in that place. I don't exactly know why it is that this structure hasn't been seen or noticed by anyone up until now. Otherwise, this whole storm would be common knowledge to the locals. It's not as if it just popped up out of nowhere.”

“Hmm, maybe it did just that? Who knows. By the way. I know nothing about ancient equestrian writings.”

“I've got that covered. Years of travel and attending college on ancient civilizations tends to come in handy in this line of work. After all you're talking to a mare that can speak up to five tongues fluently.”

“Do you know I find that hot? I’m just thinkin’ about how you can use those five tongues in a certain way.”

This clearly flustered Daring Do as she gave him a hard shove to shut him up as the meeting was coming to an end. Although he was beginning to feel a little unease with how so many were dressed up to resemble mercenaries. A majority of them even sparked a couple of images of the thugs and bandits that he would have to run across on a daily basis back in that Fallout world. Well, there were even a couple of Minotaur’s thrown into the mix that wore heavy plated gear that slightly resembled power armor with how bulky their frames were. This of course brought on memories regarding the Brotherhood of Steel and other such competing factions.

Soon, his eyes trailed on to Daring Do and a sinking feeling was slowly forming in his gut while following her out of the tent. Somehow even memories of when he was protecting his companions back in the other world would flash by as his mind wandered after a little while. He soon found himself and Daring Do with an assigned group that would enter from the southern entrance. This comprised mainly of Ponies, a few Griffins and a single Minotaur that wore the full body plated gear. Only a couple turned out to be adventurers as the rest were either there for support when carrying goods or archaeologists that would trail behind and stay out of danger.

Most of their group were around the age of twenty-five to forty at most. Although there were a few that were around late teens and obviously students. The scene then transitions to the group slowly making their way through a long winding corridor with obviously dismantled or destroyed traps thanks to the abrasions to the wall or littered parts scattered on the ground. All being the obvious signs from previous groups. Whenever there was something that would draw the attention of the others. Engineer would quietly whisper to Daring Do on whether or not it was a good idea to go with so many at once when she obviously hated to work in large groups.

She then told him that among the info that she was given from that one meeting with the gangsters, was also some inside knowledge on a couple of the sections that barely got discovered at the time. Apparently, a hidden passageway was right in plain view not too far from the doors that kept everyone at bay. The only problem was that there was a section that was blurred out thanks to somebody placing their finger part way over the lens and she needed to see it in person to figure out how to open it up. Originally, the plan was to come up with some excuse to stay behind with some fake injury and let the others go ahead so that the pair of them could take this secret passage.

He then asked her if she was okay with going through with some underhanded stunt like that and ruin her reputation. But all Engineer got was a roll of the eyes as she made it abundantly clear that her name was not given and she was going under the presume identity of Sandy Flash. This of course sparked is curiosity as he recalled all the times that she neglected to give out her name during the interview and forbid him from saying it out loud ever since they got off the train. He then wondered as to how many aliases she had. In the end, he just shrugged his shoulders as they kept up with the remaining members of the group that did not stop for one reason or another to examine the mechanisms that they all passed.

When the section of the hallway came to a familiar sight. She gave him a heads-up right as she pretended to twist her ankle on a rock and fell over. Although she ended up going a little too far and fell right into Engineer. Seeing this as a great opportunity to play on the sympathy card. It was him who cried out in pain and clutched onto his leg to take on the role of the injured male in distress. As to be expected, he got a bigger turn out then Daring Do would have received and all the females which comprised nearly the entire group aside from the Minotaur came rushing to his aid so fast, that he wondered if any of them were expecting this to happen to jump on the chance to show their chivalrous side.

It took some convincing to send the rest to continue, while Daring Do stayed behind to tend to his wounds as they were traveling together. Although, there were some protests before she made sure to tell them that they would be right behind them. But at the same time, the Minotaur was scoffing at him about being so weak and made some off comment about stallions needing to get a little tougher. That type of talk only got him some harsh glares from the females and he immediately backtracked and pretended that he did not say anything as they all went further down the corridor and right around another bend so that they were out of a direct line of sight.

As soon as the coast was clear. Daring Do quickly got to work and went to decipher the section that they were stopped at while the two started to talk as she was keeping herself busy from going to one symbol to the next and writing some notes on her book. Engineer then said the next part as he was glancing over her shoulder. “You sure this is the spot?”

“Yes, it's right here. There's a quick reference about one path closing in another one opening in its place. If there isn't a passage, then it will at least point us in the right way to go.”

“Okay. Anything I can do to help?”

“No thanks. If I need a demolition crew you’ll be at the top of the list.”

Engineer gave out an annoyed grunt as he leaned against the wall just a little over to the right of Daring Do and crossed his arms for a couple of minutes before he started to speak out again. “What's the verdict?”

The Pegasus was now scratching the side of her head as she was clearly looking at her notes with confusion before she replied. “There's obviously a message as part of the words are jumbled around. I can only guess that it's a code.” Her hand went to one of the symbols on the lower right and was pressing her palm onto it for a couple of seconds before the picture started to go into the rock by a few inches. This was preceded by a subtle amount of grinding and clicks on the other side before she spoke up again. “Most of it makes no sense apart from a few keywords.”

“Okay then, hit me. I'm sure a couple of extra brain cells might do the trick.”

She glared at him with confusion on that before she rolled her eyes and started to read out from her notebook. “Okay this part here obviously asks to give a name... I think. Then the word “Sanctuary” and “Hill” are shown close together.” This caused him to scrunch up his face as Daring Do continued. “Then there's the phrase, last of the fast rescuers. Apart from that, none of the rest makes any real sense and just comes out as garbled sections of words and letters. I'm guessing that's the part that we need to enter the password. But I have no reference to any of these terms that would work here.”

The Pegasus was beginning to lightly bang her forehead onto the stone wall as she kept trying to go over what the meaning could be. “What is this about a Sanctuary, and what Hill? Is it referring to this monument? This was built a long time ago so... I could see it being a hill at the time as the sand kept on rising to bury it. And just who is the last of the fast rescuers? It might have to do with ancient knights. For Celestia's sake! There are no records of any civilizations down here before the three pony races joined forces. Unlike the outside that's made of metal. The stones down here are clearly well preserved and could have been here for thousands of years.”

All Engineer could do was to lower his head as a serious expression came across his face. Without so much is even looking towards her, he said the following. “I got an idea. It's a long shot though. Try putting the following letters. P R E S T O N.” When she was halfway going through with pressing the corresponding symbols. Engineer glanced over and realize that everything was laid out in a particular order to strongly resemble a keyboard for a computer. When the last letter was pressed. There was nothing for a couple of seconds before there was a small rumbling and the entire wall sunk inwards and retracted down to reveal a dark hallway that was just barely large enough for a single person to walk through comfortably.

A torch was in the middle of being brought out of their bags when the glow of crystals sparked to life and illuminated the passageway with a ghostly green tint on either side. From what they could tell. It could have gone nearly fifty meters before making a turn to the right. By the time they had nearly gotten down to the end. The secret door began to close in a matter of seconds and sealed them both inside. Instead of getting freaked out, the pair just shrugged to one another as though it was the most normal thing in the world and continued further down.

The right turn led down a stairway and went on to another long hall of equal length to the first. This went on for a good while as the pair made sure to progress slowly so that they could watch out for any hidden traps. Although they did not come across any before the end brought them to a dark room that was lined with stone pillars. When they went inside. Engineer stepped on a tile and triggered something that closed off the hallway so that they were trapped within a rectangularly sized room that was about eleven meters wide and twenty-five long. The ceiling itself was nearly up to seven or eight.

Multiple glowing stones line the walls and depicted strange events. One side on the left showed towers and many rectangular shaped objects with lines trailing behind them on the ground and in the air. The opposite showed another version where most of it was covered in cracks and pieces broken away to show that's some catastrophe had occurred. On the far wall between both of these murals was a series of connecting round objects on the sides and a mushroom cloud in the center. There was even the unforgettable icon of the atom at the very center of the cloud.

When Daring Do got closer to examine one of the walls for more details. The pillars in the room popped off a few sections along the ground and going to the ceiling and gushed out a continuous stream of sand that started to fill up the room at an astonishing rate. With how fast it was going, the room itself would be filled up in a matter of minutes as the way they came was receiving most of it and flowing towards them and the center mural. This caused Daring Do to scream out in frustration. “I've had enough of sand for one day!” He then chimed in with, “Hay, at least it's not snakes. Oh… I had to open my mouth, didn't I?” Along with the sand came a number of snakes that would slither out of a couple of the holes that were now pumping into the room.

Aside from the two on the left and right. The center was the only one that had symbols at the bottom and they both made a run for it so that Daring Do could decipher what was written. But to their surprise, all that was there, turned out to be a series of numbers that would start at zero and stop at nine. There were even multiple additions of the same one that would appear in a row underneath. She then cried out as she punched the wall in anger. “Don't we even get any kind of a hint for this one?!?!” Engineer called out the following string of numbers hurriedly as he grabbed on to her shoulders and pointed her towards the stone buttons. “Don’t ask, just do! 0 8 2 3 2 0 7 7.”

Seemingly to not want to argue as he already got them through the first door. Daring Do immediately press the buttons in order and started a mechanical whirling sound that seem to be coming from all over the room. Suddenly, a row of tiles fell away to separate their section from the part that was being filled up with sand and snakes. This was only replaced by a stone wall that would come down from the ceiling to isolate them into a narrow section that gave them just a couple of meters out from the mural. This left them both to be an utter darkness as the Pegasus eventually found him and gave a light punch before calling out. “Now what are we-.”

However, her sentence was cut short when there was a sudden feeling of falling as their bodies were beginning to float in the air after a loud rumble was made from outside of the room. This only grew louder and louder and caused Engineer to hold his ears down and flat as their bodies were slowly being brought up to touch the ceiling. This went on for several long seconds before the sound grew even louder and they were slowly brought down so that they could set their hoofs onto the stone tiled floor. When it finally stopped. The wall retracted back into the ceiling and revealed a large hollowed out chasm under the surface of the ground that could have been big enough to fit five or six of the largest football stadiums inside.

The center had an odd dark cylindrical pillar that was easily a hundred and fifty meters wide and stretched down into a hole that could have gone for who knows how long. This was only made unclear as it was too dark to see after it went into a tunnel that was just a little bigger than the pillar itself. The entire thing was slowly rotating with different sections that would go in the opposite direction. Long slits that were just barely big enough for a person to outstretch their arms and touch the edges ran up the length. Between the sections and the open bits, anyone could see a faint bluish light emanating as a low hum fill the chasm.

There were also other structures nearby that resembled odd pylons as jolts of electricity arched between them to create a semicircle and towards the divided sections of the pillar at random intervals. All of which were made of black metal and covered with ancient equestrian writing. Daring Do was gawking at all of this with her jaw dropping and releasing a thick line of drool at what they discovered. Engineer however, went and pulled out his hat from his Pip-Boy and placed it on his head so that he can lean it back and let out a long whistle. He then playfully said, “Phew! Their electric bill must be through the rooooof.”

Nearly a quarter of the way to the left in order to get to the other side, was a facility that took on a Mayan temple theme to it. If anything, it might have just been one side of a pyramid as the rest of it was melded into the stone cavern. Large urn shaped figures that could have been four times the size of a pony were at either side of the bottom stairway. There were also miniature versions that ran up the length of the steps until they reached an archway that would lead into the building. With a nod of his head, Engineer said the following in a sarcastic tone.

“We can investigate the part that could easily go zap zap or the foreboding Temple. I'm up for either one.” Daring Do's answer was to take off and do a quick barrel roll to snatch up Engineer and to fly towards the top of the Temple and right through the entrance. Along the way the pair had to quickly dodge as seemingly random bolts of lightning nearly came close enough to knock them out of the air on more than one occasion.

What they found were more symbols carved on every surface as they went through one hallway and set of stairs after another that would lead to the lower levels. Various rooms were explored and found many oddly shaped contraptions in disarray. Some of which were made of the same black metal from outside, while others were crudely fashioned using copper ore. Engineer even found some tools of odd designs that he was having trouble with making heads and tails of when it came to how they were meant to be used. Some designs included can opener shaped sticks and what could only be closely resembling an ice cream scoop with one of those pressure buttons to cause the icy confection to come off.

Some of which were clearly powered at one point or another thanks to a tiny crystal that long since lost its brilliant shine of energy. There are even lumps of stone that were halfway through the carving process to be made into arms and legs. Another room was filled with panels of black metal being suspended by chains. One side would have the ancient Equestrian writing, while the other showed intricate lines that ran in a similar manner as those seen on a computer chip.

These would range from just under a meter in length to as wide as a person. When it came to the lower levels. They even found some decayed remnants of decomposed paper that was laying on top of a stone slab. What made it stand out even more among all the rooms was how there was only a single chair when all the others did not show anything for a person to sit on. Upon realization by this point. Engineer even recalled how so much of the furniture was just a little too high to be practical for a pony to stand at and work on their projects.

Aside from the stairways. The rooms would elevate and drop as ramps were seen all over. Obviously large items were meant to be brought in and out, yet it made no sense as to how most of the equipment was meant to be transported from the rooms themselves. Upon closer inspection of the slab. Some utensils for eating were located after Daring Do carefully used her wings to blow centuries upon centuries of dust away without doing much damage to the surrounding objects. When they did not find anything else and moved on to what they thought to be the last room at the very base of the temple.

All that was within the living room size chamber was a single device that jetted out from the ground. It was only a little taller than Engineer and a couple of feet across. At the midway point, they could see that something resembling a smooth orb-like protrusion that was being covered by a thick layer of dust. After running his hands over the surface and finding it to be as smooth as glass. A faint blue glow began to emanate and fill the room with a weak level of Illumination. Suddenly, multiple panels of projections were opening up to obscure the object.

Most would continuously flicker to show nothing at all aside from obscure and broken images that could barely be made out. Other showed segmented drawings that closely resemble the tower that they saw rotating in the middle of the underground facility. Daring Do started to point at one of the windows that depicted a line drawing of the obelisk from the outside. It even showed a grid pattern that extended well past the range of the storm which was being highlighted by moving particles of light. Just within said storm was a large cluster of yellow dots which they both assumed was the base camp.

When the Pegasus mare touched the screen. It caused it to shift to show only what was underground and displayed a network of confusing tunnels that would zigzag all over the place just underneath the surface. Although, there was just one shaft that was leading straight down and into where they were. Judging from the scale and the additional shaft that was located in the middle and going even deeper. It was easy to see that the odd pillar was going down deep enough to reach close to ten kilometers deep. Engineer waved his hands over the screens even more but much to his disappointment, he got no new relevant information.

Upon putting his hand back onto the crystal. There was a low rumbling sound as a section of the wall opened up after going up and into the ceiling to reveal yet another passage. They both peaked their heads to look within from either side of the entrance and found that it was too dark to see anything. Daring Do brought out a torch and quickly lit it up before stepping inside. When the flame was in full swing and she started to turn in place. The mare released a startled yell as she pulled out her knife for combat when something was close enough to nearly bop her in the face.

The knife was swung and all that happened was a loud clang and a few sparks to be produced as the weapon fell out from her hands thanks to how hard the object turned out to be that she attacked. Engineer already pulled his gun out and took aim and was about to pull the trigger when he paused and noticed that it was just a statue of a pony. From its positioning, it looked as though it was a stallion in mid-motion of stepping back with both arms held up to try and cover its face. A few cobwebs littered the room and attach themselves to it, while decayed bookcases littered the very edge of the torches light.

Even their clothing looked as though it was from over a thousand years ago thanks to the style. A thick robe covering a tunic and baggy pants were shown. The sleeves for the robe itself was all bunched up to indicate that they were just a little too long for the arms and had been rolled up halfway between the wrist and elbows. Once Daring Do picked up her knife and silently examined the statue in more detail along with Engineer. An emblem with the letters “M.A.” were visible within a shield.

This caused her to go wide in the eyes as she immediately exclaimed the following in clear disbelief. “T-That's the old crest for the Magic Academy! The very same one that was started by Star Swirl the Bearded and a handful of Unicorns when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came to power! Engineer! This Pony must have been petrified when Princess Luna was banished! This is huge. Not only did we find out what's underneath the obelisk. But we even found a fully intact petrified stallion that survived so long without getting damaged! Hold on... if he's here... then does that mean the princess already knows of this place’s existence?”

Engineer pointed towards the statue with his right-hand thumb as he spoke up. “There's one easy way to find out. Why don't we ask him?” At the same time, Engineers freehand was already holding on to a Golden Needle between his thumb and index finger with a mischievous grin on his face as it was hovering dangerously close to poking the stallion in the butt. Daring Do screamed out the following as she grabbed onto his arm before he made contact.

“Are you out of your mind?! Uhg... okay I know I just walked into that one. What I mean is, I don't think it's a good idea to just wake up a stallion that has been petrified for a millennia without a plan in place. Engineer raised an eyebrow to this as he answered. You want answers. I want answers. And he obviously has 'em. Just let me give him one little poke.”

She tightened her grip before retorting. “Absolutely not! Think of the culture shock. Deep underground in an unknown environment. We also are not sure as to what all of this down here is for. I think it would be better if we explored before we make any hasty moves.” He then leaned in to look her Square in the eyes for a couple of seconds before he said, “You just want to see if there's any treasure you can put in your pockets before we wake this fella up. I'm right, aren't I?”

Daring Do’s eyes were laser focused onto his before a bead of sweat formed on her brow and she began to drift her gaze off to the right. It was during that moment of hesitation when Engineers arm was let up by the lack of pressure for her and he went right ahead with poking the stallion with the Golden Needle.

Daring Do caught on to this and gave him a dirty scowl while all Engineer could do was to give a big innocent smile while saying the words, “Oopsie, hand slipped.” The result of making contact with the petrified stallion was the stone beginning to crumble and fall off at a surprising rate. Once most of his body was uncovered and only the limbs were left. The entire stallion slumped back and fell the rest of the way and onto his back with arms and legs sprawled in awkward positions. The collision with the ground even knocked off the rest of the flaking crust that covered what was left of his body and scattered across the edges of the room.

There was nothing but silence as they stood side by side and leaned over the stallion’s head that was being partially obscured by their right arm and started to whisper the following to each other. “Look what you did! He's dead.”

“Hey! You can't blame this death on me. If anything, he was already gone before we even got here. I just helped him fall over.”

“And I told you we should have waited.”

“Well, if he's not going to tell us anything, we may as well go through his pockets.”

“I can't believe you! At least have some respect.”

“It's hard to give respect to a person you've never even met. Besides, how do we know this wasn't a bad guy? Do you know how many movies there are that have the villain coming back to life after the protagonists wakes them up?”

“What is a movie?”

“Really?! Okay I need to tell you about-.”

The pair was interrupted by a series of coughing and wheezes as the person underneath them attempted to talk in a weak voice. Said voice came off with an English accent that was known to be associated with the nobility of Canterlot. “*Cough!* *Cough!* I yet still breathe! *Cough!* My word! *Cough!* Out of so many possibilities, the sound of a bickering married couple did not even occur to me as the first words I would hear. *Cough!* I can give you the name of someone to talk to about your marital problems. Blah! The taste of dirt is not leaving my mouth.”

Daring Do quickly took a couple of steps away from Engineer and angrily pointed at him while screaming. “W-We a-are not… NOT a married couple!” With the evilest “Grinch Stole Christmas” grin now creeping onto his face. Engineer acted as if he was having a heart attack and stumbled onto his right knee while shedding crocodile tears. A hand was brought up to cover his face as he gave a very convincing whale of agony as he said the following. “So true! She's always been like this... she still won't let me sleep in the same bed with her! *Sob.* I've never laid a hand on her and she always tries to punch me... I'm not even allowed to kiss her when we're alone!”

A loud gasp of clear disbelief escaped the robed stallion as he got to his hoofs and tried to dust himself off quickly. With the top part of his face being covered up by the hood so that only his mouth was visible. The unknown stallion stepped right up to Daring Do with both hands on his side before speaking up in an authoritative and deeply disappointed voice. “Milady! Is what he says true? To treat your husband with so much disrespect when he is suffering so much to break down with such swiftness is outright deplorable! I know not for how long I have slumbered for our society to decline. Mind you, I will not stand for the outright abuse of one’s spouse!”

The Pegasus found herself leaning back as her ears were now tightly pressing down on the sides of her head all on their own. She even started to stare between the hooded stallion and Engineer in a quick succession as she attempted to raise a finger to speak on her behalf while in shock of the sudden predicament she was placed into. However, she did not get a chance as the stallion straightened up and allowed two points to slightly lift to indicate that he was raising his ears from underneath the hood. He also turned his head from left to right quickly. He then said in a confused tone while holding up a hand to his right side to aid and hearing something. “Pray tell, what might that be?”

As the pair were beginning to imitate him. The stallion quickly moved past the pair and into the previous room. Seeing that he was on the move. Both Engineer and Daring Do followed close behind and witnessed as the stallion was fiddling with the strange device and causing multiple windows to flash both in-and-out of existence. The stallion then said the following as his voice was shifting from both being excited and worried continuously. “Oh no-oh no-oh no-oh no! Come on girl, what's wrong? This can't be right! This over here is definitely not right! I dare say that I do not want to believe that this is right! Oh, wait never mind, this one's okay! Whoops my mistake! it's not right either! The fluctuations in the magic field have risen far too high to be normal.”

But before any questions could be given to find as to what the stallion was going on about. The pair found themselves chasing after him yet again when he dashed down the hallway with surprising speed for someone who had been fossilized for so long. When they were outside of the tomb and stood at the top of the steps to look at the chasm. The stallion reached up and grabbed onto the sides of his hood before letting out a startled scream. “Oh my, oh dear, that is not meant to happen! No way, nope! Absolutely not!” From where Engineer stood. The electrical arches were only growing in frequency as they struck from each towering pylon to the next.

There were even a few powerful discharges that were shooting from the large hole that was going into a deeper level that was definitely not there before. The stallion turned towards them and started to point at Engineer, Daring Do and then to himself as he called out. “You the crying one, you the mean one, and I are heading down there right now! Keep up! Also explain. Tell me all that has transpired since you all arrived! Hurry now, for we have little time to spare.” As they were zigzagging through what appeared to be a literal maze that line the bottom floor when approaching the whole. Daring Do attempted to fill the stallion in.

This included the sudden appearance of the storm and strange obelisk within the last month or so. The strange carvings and secret passageway. The riddles and mode of transportation to get down to where they were. All of this leading up to the moment that the stallion was unpetrified when they found themselves to be standing at a rectangular shaped cube of stone after several minutes went by that was at the end of the maze with no roof and was about three meters tall.

The whole thing was probably big enough to act as a garage for two cars by the size of it. Even with it standing out there was one more thing that that caused Engineer to wander as to why they were there. That just so happened to be the fact that there were no markings or grooves to show that it was anything but a piece of stone that was probably left behind from construction.

Engineer watched as the stallion rushed up to it and ran both hands frantically along the surface until a small hole was spotted at waist height. The stallion then started to ruffle through his robes with the sleeves being the first. The area for the chest was second. When it appeared that he had not found what he was looking for and was in the middle of pulling down his pants after lifting up the bottom of the robes. The sound of a metallic object clattering could be heard as it rolled a couple of paces away from him and snatched up quickly upon pulling his pants back up.

He then gave out a triumphant cry as he began to fiddle with what appeared to be a thin cylindrical object with a blue crystal that was the size of a thumb affixed to the end. The object was then firmly grasped in his right hand and pointed towards the hole. Nothing happened after a clicking sound was produced and he started to bang it on to his other Palm to produce an odd set of sounds of electrical pulses that would flicker to life with long pauses of silence.

While in the middle of getting his tool to do its job. The stallion then said angrily, “Ooh please still have a charge! The stasis caused by the petrification should have contained the residual energy enough to prevent a full drain of the darn thing!” After a few more tries and the sound becoming constant as the crystal began to fully light up. The stallion gave a loud huzzah as an unseen door was displayed and opened up to reveal yet another elevator to lead down to another layer built below.

When they got in and the door sealed up to disappear without leaving a single trace of the grooves again, they felt the room rumble to signify their descent. The wand-like device was then held straight up and produced the same sound from before. This made the grinding from outside that’s started off slow to increase in speed as a result. The stallion began to mumble to himself while walking back and forth along the length of the elevator just loud enough for the pair to be able to overhear.

“We just need to think about this logically. The magic field on the exterior has been pushed out due to a lack of containment. Of course, the rock and dust that was coding the outside was expelled and revealed the internal structure hidden underneath. Hence the storm that has been manifested. All the entrances are still intact as isolation procedures have been followed. There's also the matter of the monsters which coincide with the frequency oscillating structure and magical signatures regarding the earth-based creatures I have witnessed before. Reasonable to assume that they have been augmented into taking on new shapes as to adapt to their new wellspring of magic.”

“It would also explain as to why they don't leave a certain area of effect. This is no different than an animal that cannot go any further than their chain would allow. As for the secret passage, I do recall there being another entrance that I was unable to open after many failed attempts on the southern side. Hmm, obviously an alternative route was utilized to arrive down here. Judging from the buildup of dust and disarray of all my equipment, I can roughly estimate that I have been asleep for no less than... Hmm, I want to say six hundred years. I do recall that I charged the crystal on my tool just before the whole incident transpired.”

He even rambled about a bunch of other nonsense that was just barely recognizable as most of it turned into a quick paced and extremely longwinded monolog that went on for almost a solid five minutes before the doors open and he ran out so quickly that it nearly left and after image of dust between Engineer and Daring Do. As they were forced to follow again after the unknown stallion. Daring Do could not help but to comment on his strange behavior. “The fella sure likes to talk a lot, doesn't he? Most ponies that recover from what he went through usually are laid out in the hospital for weeks.”

Engineer gave a quick laugh as he responded as they were now running across a catwalk being suspended by an unknown design as there was nothing connecting to it from above and only a massive glowing white surface that was hundreds of meters below. “Just goes to show that stallions were a lot tougher back then. Hey heads up. I think we’ve found what he's all upset over.” Up ahead in the distance was a massive flat platform made of metal and glowing pieces of rocks on the underbelly. The entire structure could be seen wrapping around the pillar that would have the end plunging into the massive white light down below.

If one was to take all of the buildings and roads of a town such as Ponyville and went through the effort of placing it all over the platform. Then they might have barely filled up a good two-thirds of it. The platform itself had many pulsing lines running along the surface as numerous shapes of moving objects were littering all over. Soon Engineer can make out what he presumed to be ponies who were wearing decrepit and falling apart pieces of armor. A majority of which were simply wrapped up in faded white bandages from top to bottom while shifting around slowly in awkward stances.

Large Beetle creatures and bodies of shifting sand that took on a Pharaoh's head and large detached hands on the ground could be seen in the mix. Among these were large Giants that were so tall that Engineer was nowhere close to being as high as their knees. Said Giants were mostly naked aside from a scrap of cloth to cover their privates. Even with their muscular forms, the rib cages and abnormally sunken in stomachs portrayed them to be extremely hungry. They even had some variations with large stomachs and one humongous eyeball over their jagged tooth lined mounts. Some were unarmed while a couple carried large clubs that almost made up their length in height that placed Engineer’s head just a little past their knees

Over towards the right side of the platform, was a strange creature that was just a little more than twice the height when compared to the Giants. It was very thin and dressed up in gold as rapping made up the rest of its clothing. In each hand were impossibly long and decorative sorts made of gold and black metal. It was apparently holding said weapons at either side and towards the air as arcs of dark lightning shot out from its body and into a swirling purple vortex of smoke that grew increasingly darker towards the center.

In the same fashion that garbage might come tumbling out of a tube that was being forcibly pushed from the other side. A number of creatures tumbled out and onto the platform before spreading out to join the rest. With the way everything was positioned. The two dimensionally flat portal was between the monster and the pillar. As one side of it was being attacked by dark lightning. The opposite side was having the same done as white and blue streaks were being pulled from the pillar. This sparked all of them to begin to yell out to one another as the stallion picked up speed.

“I feared they were on the move! I knew full well that it was just putting a bandage over a wound.”

“Oi! How about you start answering our questions?”

“Yeah! Do they rule this tomb?”

“Ha, they wish! The description of pirates is more befitting! They appeared with no warning and spread as quickly as the plague. Also, my dear! Please do not refer to this magnificent structure as a tomb! The technology housed within these very walls are far beyond anypony’s full comprehension! And yes, I do include myself in that statement.”

“Sweet! Definitely decades if not centuries ahead of everybody else and Equestria. Honestly, I’ve seen more complicated stuff meant to be a child’s plaything back home.”

“Everybody? Quite odd. I see the language has progressed and much has to be relearned if I am to reintegrate to society when all is said and done.”

“For being from ancient Equestria, your way of speech is not exactly what I had expected.”

“Ah-um! Thank you… I suppose. Contribute that to much studying and research to this brilliant structure of intertwined engineering and magic. I dare say that I speculate there is an energy field that stimulates one synapses and brings along some unfounded knowledge that I have yet to fully comprehend. Notions that boggled a mind would come and go as an autumn breeze for one moment and then a raging storm the next with epiphanies that would Astound most scholars until the end of their days. Oh, my apologies. I seem to have started to ramble!”

The stallion pointed over to the twin sword monster as they were approaching the platform at a full sprint and continued. “I utilized a tiny sliver of magic from the reservoir below us to interfere with the portal being created in the past. It was fine tune to cause harm to anyone aside from my own self after taking in my passive magic into consideration and using that as a reference point to adjust it so that I would be left unharmed. There was an ensuing pulse that destroyed most of the monsters and caused a stasis effect on the stronger ones. Alas, one of the creatures followed me up top and used a spell just as the wave struck.”

“Why not do it again and cause another explosion and wipe them all out at once? By the looks of it you got so much magic you could probably set a huge explosion that would tear this place to bits. I bet you could probably see it from all the way in Canterlot and be needin’ some sunglasses at the same time, Ha!”

“Ah, but that right there my dear fellow is the tricky part! I was under great constraint and in my haste, I only got the bare minimum requirements down to execute my plan. I would have already done so yet again if it was not for the terminal being significantly eroded due to the lack of neglect. I am rather ashamed to say that my last action may have caused many of the connectors to be severed and remote access is no longer possible apart from the low tier settings. Even so that is a huge number of monsters and that I am only one earth pony. What else was I expected to do?”

The Stallion then turned his hood so that he was looking at the two of them from over his shoulder as he continued. “Why your husband here is brimming with energy. I know not what the power is but it could contend with that of the princesses. Surely such a powerful knight would be more than equipped to handle this pretentious rabble that dares to desecrate this holy site of learning!”

Daring Do took flight so that she was able to land right in front of the hooded stallion only a few dozen meters away from the platform and screamed the following so loud that both him and Engineers stopped at a skidding halt. “HE’S NOT MY BUCKING HUSBAND!!! GET IT THROUGH THAT THICK HEAD OF YOURS!!!” The loud yelling from her caused every head on that platform to quickly turn towards them so fast that there was innumerable cracking of bones from the zombie like creatures.

(Play This music for the fight.)

There was an odd sense of silence that fell for a few seconds before one of the gigantic Cyclops Giants used one of their clubs to point forward and give its own roar of battle to the rest to start charging into their group. She then turned to the two of them and gave a forced smile as she said, “Okay that was on me!” While holding on to a flat expression. Engineer turned his attention over to the other stallion that seemingly mirrored his mouth perfectly before turning back to Daring Do. Then both him and the stallion said the exact same thing in pretty much the same pitch and tone to make it come out as a form of surround sound. “We need to talk later on your anger issues.”

A number of the zombies and mummified corpses were now running at them so quickly that they were practically on top of them within seconds. Daring Do pulled out her pistol and began to offload all of her bullets as fast as she could and reloaded thanks to a handheld device that would slide six new shells when the old ones were ejected. Engineer did the same with his rifle and substituted his offhand to hold a second one that was made to mirror the first. To save time on reloading. A magazine clip was installed so that he had a good thirty rounds before needing to worry about ammunition.

The undead creatures fell after a couple of shots were taken and limbs became nothing but dust after getting blown off by a well-placed bullet. The ones that did not fall and lay on the edge of the walkway would end up stumbling to fall off the edge and into the vast white sea of energy below and disappear. Not even a full minute had gone by and over several dozen corpses were now piling up to create a wall just a little higher than their own heads that the rest had to crawl over. The hooded stallion was holding his head from the loud noises of gunshots to call over to the pair. “Might you have other means of dispatching this rabble? We're running rather short on options as that portal gets bigger!”

Engineer called over his shoulder as he was already working on his third clip in both guns. “How much collateral damage can I do?” The stallion then reached over to one side of the railing to lean as far as he could to look past the pile of dead bodies and replied after a moment of hesitation. “Try not to hit the large cylindrical object spinning at the center and leave enough of the structure for us to stand on! Avoid hitting the crystals underneath or we shall all plummet down to our imminent demise!” With a malicious grin growing on his face, Engineer gave a loud laugh before saying, “Okay, no hitting the important stuff. everything else can go bye-bye! Daring! get behind me!”

As she took to the air and did a flip to land behind Engineer. The two guns were put into his Pip-Boy and replaced with a pair of small tube-like objects. Both were brought up to his mouth as he gripped his teeth onto a set of pins and yanked the items away before spitting the two pieces from his mouth. The objects in his hands were then tossed towards the pile of bodies a moment later. This resulted in the massive pile of bodies by now to be blasted away and reopened their path as a number of other zombies were taken out by the concussive force of the twins set of grenades going off.

As more grenades were chucked onto the platform. Engineers screamed out the following in a crazed manner befitting a psychopath that was having the time of his life. “Easter Bunny's here and I'm all out of chocolate! Don't worry, I got something else that can knock those teeth out! I'm sure glad I could use grenades~.” From behind, he could just barely hear the stallion asking Daring Do what the Easter Bunny was and only got a confused grunt of annoyance from the Pegasus. Meanwhile, the weapons would soar over a number of the enemy's heads and clatter on the ground before their feet.

Some that had not been able to see what they had done to the ones up front were curious as one of the zombies picked it up and allowed a number of them to come closer to look at the strange contraption. Even one of the Cyclops and normal Giants leaned in so that they were practically on one knee when it finally went off and erupted in a fiery explosion that either rip them apart or cause severe burns that would lead to their death. Seemingly to understand what was happening. The rest of the monsters began to charge as even more were being blown to bits. Engineer would scream things such as, “Batter up and who's next” as he transitioned to taking on a baseball throwing stance on a few occasions.

It was at these times that he would actually throw a grenade that was fashioned out of an actual baseball. Even one of the cyclops’s with the club ended up hitting one of these baseballs as it randomly swung and caused it to prematurely explode and take out its entire side that was facing towards the weapon and fall on to a number of zombies to destroy them in the process. Engineer laughed at that one and called out that they had one down and two to go as all bases were loaded. He did all of this as though he was some announcer up in the stands of a baseball game.

He even saw that there was an indicator on his Pip-Boy when he glanced at it in the middle of another throw. This made him realize that he had gone up another level and procured his second free point to put into his stats. He could even hear the stallion from behind as he was yelling over the explosions to who he presumed to be Daring Do. “Your husband is quite lively, isn't he?! It would just be fantastic if he could tell me where he got those toy’s.” This caused him to turn and catch a glimpse of daring dew who was in the middle of holding herself back from strangling the Stallion that had his back turned towards her.

Close to a third of the monsters were already taken care of and Engineer would have continued with throwing more grenades to finish them off. However, his stash was quickly dwindling with the constant use and he suspended that idea when there was a sizable free space on the platform that could be taken. Now that he no longer was restricted to the catwalk. Engineer ran up and occupied the space.

The smaller creatures were all pretty much taken out of the fight and this only left the larger ones which consisted of Giants, Living sand creatures and Scarab Beetles the size of a two-person Beetle car. Seeing as this was a good opportunity to rake up the experience points. Engineer ran forward and pulled out from his Pip-Boy a new weapon which consisted of a light brown baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped tightly on the end.

His body erupted in flames, much to the dismay of Daring Do who called out to him to stop. Once the transformation made its way over to his weapon and engulfed it in a heavy torrent of bright fire. What came out of it was an oversized bone with hellish glowing glyphs and both dark and silver spikes that covered everything down to the loosely wrapped handle that could easily be gripped by both hands. In a loud demonic tone laced with a sick amount of amusement. Engineer said the following while giving a few quick swings of the giant bone and creating a heavy gust of wind that caused a number of the enemy to buckle down from the pressure.

“Now this is a Swatter. Moe would have sold his own mother to get his hands on this.” His attention was then brought to the creatures as he threw it over to rest on his right shoulder. Engineer then proceeded with taking on a ready stance and holding it out as though it weighed nothing to him and screamed out to them. “The Commonwealth says Hello!”