Uncharted: Starswirl's Secret

Drake hopped out of the cart, letting Twilight take the journal. She started frantically flipping through the pages until she stopped suddenly. “This wasn’t in here before,” she said, pulling out a small ring attached to a piece of string. Sir Francis Drake’s ring. Drake took the ring from her.

“I thought I’d never get it back,” he replied, hanging it around his neck. He heard someone clear their throat behind him, and when he turned around, he saw the same orange pony glaring at him. “Oh,” he said, scratching the back of neck nervously. “I’m sorry about the cart. I’ll pay for any damages I caused to it.”

“I hope you will,” she replied. She turned to look at Twilight. “Do you know this fellow?” she questioned.

Twilight nodded, not looking up from the journal. “That’s Drake. He’s… new to town.”

The orange pony inspected him closely. “Are you some type of rare, fancy dragon? Male, I assume, judging by your name. I’ve never seen your type around these parts of Equestria before. Do you come from up north, near Canterlot?”

“I’m not a dragon!” Drake replied irritably.

“Then what in the hay type of creature are you then?”

“A human. I come from a place called Earth. It’s a long, long ways away from here.”

“I would assume so. What kind of place is Earth? It ain’t no place I’ve ever heard of before."

"Uh... AJ?" A voice came from behind her, making the orange pony turn around. Drake hadn't noticed the red stallion standing there, and was surprised when he saw him. "We need to get this hay over to Fluttershy's house for the animals. She said she's completely out, and it's almost their feeding time."

Twilight appeared beside Drake. "I see you met Applejack. And this is her brother, Big Macintosh. They live at Sweet Apple Acres on the west side of town. I am sorry about being late helping you out. You could have had tons more hay over to her house if we had been there on time."

"It's fine Twilight," Applejack replied. "We can bring over another load later. We just need to get Fluttershy's animals fed for today. Then we could bring over the rest. We need to get going though. Come along Winona!"

The dog caught up with her, and Big Macintosh began to pull the cart. The sound that came from the back of the cart made Drake wince, pulling back and covering his ears. Big Macintosh turned back to see what the commotion was, although he was limited in movement by the harness. The back wheel and axel was cracked, most likely from the fall that Drake had. Applejack turned on him, her eyes blazing. "Look at what you gone and did!" She murmured under her breath. "Causing trouble with your fancy roof jumping."

"I'm sorry," Drake began. 'That was my fault. I can do something to help, if that helps in any way. Maybe I can... um... I can lift the cart where the wheel is broken so that you can take it over there."

"Well..." Applejack began. "I guess that would help a lot. And it would make up for you destroying it in your guys' game of tag."

"It wasn't a game," Drake replied, grabbing the cart and lifting. Drake hadn't realized how heavy hay was. But now he struggled, grunting with the effort it was costing him. He turned to Big Macintosh. "I'm ready," he stated simply.

It was costing Drake a lot of effort, but they actually managed to make progress like that. Once they got down the street, the same rainbow mare joined them, spreading her wings in victory. "I beat you guys! You are slow racers. Another victory for the world's fastest pegasus."

“We weren’t racing,” Drake said between grunts.

She just rolled her eyes. “Says the one who came in last,” she commented. “Name’s Rainbow Dash. I’m the fastest flier Equestria will ever know. I’ve won the Best Young Flier Competition. And I’m going to win it again this year.”

“Rainbow,” Applejack interrupted. “Stop bragging. He doesn’t want to hear you go on about that stuff.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow Dash said. “So what are you anyway? Are you one of those dragons from the north?”

“I’m not a dragon,” Drake said loudly, practically shouting.

“Alright! Sheesh…”

They arrived at Fluttershy’s house. Drake set down his end of the wagon, wiping the sweat off of his face. The curtains of the cottage waved slightly, as though a breeze had moved it. A second later, Fluttershy appeared at the door. “Thank goodness you came,” she said, walking towards them. “The animals are starting to get fussy. If you would have come any later, it would have been a disaster.”

“It was nothing,” Applejack stated simply. “We would have been here sooner, but Mister Game O’ Tag over here decided to go ahead and fall on the wagon. Now we got a busted axel. I don’t know how we’re gonna pay for it.”

Drake rubbed the back of his neck nervously, but said nothing. Fluttershy looked confused, but thought nothing of it. “You can unload the hay in the back. I need to go prepare Angel’s food.” With that Fluttershy turned away from them and headed back inside.

Applejack turned back to him, nodding. Drake sighed, grabbing the end of the wagon and lifting it. They headed around back, stopping near the pens of the animals. Applejack grabbed some hay from the back and started to unload it, but Twilight stopped her. “I’ve got it,” she stated simply. Her horn began to glow, and she picked up the hay with ease, setting it down on the ground.

Drake stared at her in disbelief. “Why did I have to hold up the wagon if you could have just levitated it without a problem?” he questioned.

“I’m not the one who broke it. You kind of owed them for that.”

“Yeah,” he said, turning back to Applejack. He pulled out his wallet and began to hand her 50 dollars. “Would this be enough to cover the damages?” he asked.

“What in the hay is that?” Applejack asked, inspecting it closer.

“It’s... money,” Drake responded.

“”Looks like a bunch of worthless paper to me.”

“Well,” Drake stated, “its money where I come from.”

He tucked the money into his wallet, putting it back in his pocket. Applejack gave him a glare, turning to Twilight. “We got to get back to the farm now. Those apple trees won’t buck themselves. Thank you for the help.” She turned back to him. “You too, Mr. Drake,” she said respectively, but in a monotone fashion.

“But Applejack,” Twilight said. “How will you get the wagon back to the Sweet Apple Acres with the busted wheel?” They stared at each other for a few moments, and then both turned to look at Drake. He rolled his eyes, grabbing his end of it.

“Hey Twilight,” Drake said once they were back at the Library. “Can I take a look at that journal?”

“Sure,” Twilight replied, handing him the journal she had been looking at. He opened it up, flipping through the pages. He searched through it several times, but nothing stood out to him. No clues or hints. Nothing.

“That’s weird,” Drake stated aloud. He looked back up at the library, and noticed something he had not before. He looked back at the journal. “Twilight, come here for a second.” He watched as Twilight stood from her spot to look at the page. “Do these symbols seem to match up with the ones on the spaces between the bookshelves?” He questioned.

“Yeah...” she murmured, glancing back and forth between the symbols.

“Each one seems to be connected with a certain painting.  Twilight, when you moved in, did you find any paintings lying around?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “They were scattered all over the place. I didn’t care much for them, so I put them down in the basement. They should still be there, unless Spike might have done something with them.” She looked over at her assistant, who shrugged and continued with his game.

Drake turned to look at which door might lead him there. “Do you mind if get them?” As he turned back towards her, he noticed the paintings levitating gently into the room. How did I notice her horn glowing? He thought to himself. She set them gently by his feet, and Drake kneeled down to look at them.

“Alright,” he said to Twilight. “Just match the paintings to their corresponding symbols. Maybe we can get somewhere with this.”

Twilight nodded, grabbing a painting and looking to the journal for its match. She hung it on the nail above on its column, covering the symbol. Drake grabbed one, looking down at the book before standing and walking over to a diamond, hanging the painting. They continued on like this for a while. After some time, all the paintings had been hung. They stepped back and waited. Nothing happened.

“Now what?” Twilight questioned.

Drake looked back down to the journal. “We must have made a mistake,” he answered. They went to each one, lifting the painting to double check. “Found it,” Drake said. He took it off the nail, bringing it to where another one was hanging. “This belongs here.” He took the original down and placed the new one, hooking the other to where the first had been hanging. Once again, they stepped back.

Drake narrowed his eyes. ‘Something’s wrong...”

There was a knock on the door. Twilight turned and opened it. Standing before them was Rarity. “Hello, Twilight,” she said. “I finished his clothes early, and today’s a slow day, so I decided to take a break and close shop while I delivered them to you.” She handed the clothes to Drake.

Drake took them from her. “Thanks,” he told her, setting them down on a nearby table. He turned back to her, and found her staring at the painting with a strange look on her face.

“Twilight,” she said to her. “I like what you’re trying to do with the place, but if you’re going to hang these up, please try to get them straight.” With the glow of her horn, she straightened out the painting she had been looking at.

They heard a loud sound behind them, and when they turned they saw the desk in the center of the room begin to move. They heard it begin to slide, although it stopped shortly. Drake moved over to it and gave it a shove. It moved a little more. He pushed at it more. It slid over to the side, revealing a ladder beneath it. He turned back. “Thanks Rarity,” he called to her before leaping over the edge and climbing down it.

“It was no problem,” she said back, but as he continued climbing, he heard her address Twilight. “What’s going on?”

Drake heard no more of his conversation, and leapt down as he reached the bottom. He looked back up. “I don’t know how you’re going to get down here. I’m not sure you can climb the ladder.” He saw a flash of light from above, which immediately came from behind him a second later. Twilight stood behind him, her horn glowing for a source of light. “You can teleport,” he said, although at this point, he was not surprised.

“We need to go this way,” he said, pointing towards the darkness before them. Twilight nodded at him, and they set off.

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever. They had been walking for a good fifteen before they arrived at a large cave. There were several small puddles around it, and water dripping from the ceiling. As Twilight looked around, he noticed the webs on the walls, and shuddered at the thought. Twilight noticed the movement. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“I hate spiders,” he replied. He could see the questioning look in her eyes. “I’ll explain later,” he told her.

At the end of the room, were two statues of knights. In between them, was a coffin. Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. “It’s Starswirl’s coffin,” she exclaimed. “He was buried in Ponyville. Why would he choose to be buried here? Why under the library?”

“After all that walking, I doubt we’re under the library anymore,” he told her, walking up towards it. She followed him, and stopped a few feet back.

“Why would he want to be buried in Ponyville?” Twilight mumbled to herself. “Why connect it to the library? And why would he keep it so well hidden. Something’s not right here. It was said that he was buried in Canterlot. Was this all a lie?”

Drake felt around the edges, lifting the top of it off. Twilight gasped. “What are you doing? Don’t defile Starswirl’s coffin like that! Do you know how much trouble we can get into if Princess Celestia was to find out?”

He looked down at it. “But you can’t defile an empty coffin.”

“What?” Twilight asked in disbelief. He moved out of the way as she stepped forward to investigate. “I don’t believe it. It’s empty. It’s empty. Someone must have been here before us. They must have moved the body. See, there are markings at the bottom.”

Drake looked confused, and moved forward to look at it again. Etched in the bottom was Enochian script. Drake felt around in his pockets, but remembered that his cipher disk was gone. “I know what this is,” he told her, “but I don’t have my cipher disk with me.”

Twilight rummaged through the saddle bag she was still carrying, pulling it out. “You mean this thing that I found inside the book?” she asked.

“Yes,” Drake answered, taking it from her.” He pulled the ring above his head, removing it from his neck. He placed it into the cipher disk, turning it to decode the wording. After several seconds, he finally got the first word. “Foggy,” he said aloud. Several more turns and h had the second word. “Bottom.” A few more and he had the whole message. “Bog. Foggy Bottom Bog?” he asked confused. “I don’t understand what his means. He looked back up to Twilight for clarification.

She looked up at him, and he could detect a slight uneasiness from her. “I know where that is,” she replied.