"Could have really used a warmth spell or something," Sunset grumbled.

"We should have asked the princess," Twydra said.

"We can always ask princess-you," Maëva pointed out.

They were forming the end of the line going to the first archaeological site. About twenty ponies were walking in front of them, which got Maëva wondering how actually "major" this discovery was, to bring so few people. Then again, the city she had seen was a lot smaller than the cities she knew of. And it was a place of power. Maybe the population was a lot thinner here. They were looking like a civilization at the beginning of an industrial era, not counting magic. So, maybe a population boom would happen soon?

Maëva didn't know much about history. But Éva did. Maybe she would have had an explanation, if she was there... But she had never planned to come.

"You alright...?" Twydra suddenly asked.

Maëva shook her head.

"Yeah, sorry. I was just..."

"Thinking about home...?"

Despite the lack of uniqueness in between their faces – outside of Twydra's glasses – emotions were easy to convey on a hydra head. So the sympathetic smile Twydra sent to Maëva was somewhat more comforting than one could expect. The middle head took in a deep breath and looked at their destination, getting closer and closer.

"Friends, mostly," Maëva answered. "Well, just one. I hope I'll see her again, one day."

"I hope you get to see her too," Twydra said in a kind voice. "From what you've said, portals to and from your world are plenty, so maybe we'll find another one in the ruins."

Maëva didn't reply. Hope was still such a foreign concept for her. She had said that word out of habit. Everyone used it in a half-cynical way, back home. So she was stunned to realize that, for once, she had used it honestly. She truly hoped to see Éva again. There was actually a place in her heart that was holding onto that wish. And it felt weird.

"Looks like we're there," Sunset said.

Maëva looked up, seeing the line of ponies reaching a somewhat rudimentary camp consisting of a fire and a single tent. But she recognized the landscape, and the bricks laying around. That weird rectangular rock, it was the house she had appeared in, the day before.

Twilight was there, talking with a guard. But once she saw Maëva looking her way, she stopped her discussion, thanking the guard, before flying to the hydra.

"Do you recognize this place?" the princess asked, talking to the middle head.

Maëva nodded, answering:

"It's where I appeared. There was a mirror in this house. I passed through the roof with my head."

"That confirms what I heard," Twilight said. "I'm afraid the portal here was broken. The researchers will try to find others here, but I think we should go to the other site in the meantime."

"Why's that?" Sunset asked.

"Because the first team told me they couldn't open it," the princess explained, looking at her. "Magic is involved."

Twilight led them further north, about two hundred meters from the first site, to the foot of a small cliff. The Crystal Empire being the mountainous land it was, those kinds of bumps in the ground were commonplace. But this one was special, for its side was engraved with old scriptures. Symbols and glyph Maëva couldn't decipher. And it looked like Sunset and Twydra couldn't either, nor the guards. But Twilight read:

"For those that have stumbled upon the worlds, the path will open. For the unaware, keep that door closed. And for seekers of a solution, remain cautious."

"How can you even read that?" Sunset wondered. "I thought proto-ponish hadn't been translated properly."

"Progress was made," Twilight explained, feeling quite proud of herself for not needing a book on this one. "This is still very much an approximation."

"So, this place was sealed off a long time ago?" Twydra summed up.

"It appears so," Twilight confirmed. "I hope we can learn by whom. In the meantime, we can all enter."

Before Maëva could ask "how so?", Twilight landed right in front of the cliff, putting her hoof right in the middle of the wall, on a weird symbol. The engraving glowed a dim blue, before a semi-circle revealed itself in the rock, glowing as well, forming a three meters high arch.

The rock began to fade, letting all four of them see the long corridor behind. Its walls were finely sculpted and less worn out by the throes of time.

"What did you do?" Maëva asked Twilight, curious.

"Those who have stumbled upon the worlds," Sunset quoted. "It means it opens to the people who traveled with the portals. This is a good sign, the same civilization built this and the mirror."

Maëva thought a bit and guessed:

"But we are seekers of a solution too, aren't we?"

"And that's why I'm leading the way," Twilight explained, stepping forward. "I know how to be cautious, trust me. Now, follow."

"We'll have to lean," Twydra noted, lowering her head.

Maëva mimicked her and began following Twilight while still thinking out loud:

"But are we the unawares? Or is that just for people that haven't gone through a portal before? I mean, it would be weird for the door to open and yet be advised to keep it closed, but still..."

"I think your second solution is the correct one," Sunset said, looking around, admiring the simple but quality work done on the walls.

Twilight's horn glowed a beautiful purple, lighting the way.

"At least it's warmer here," Twydra noticed with relief.

But that only made Twilight frowned as she realized:

"Which is weird... This place has been lost under permafrost for a while, it should be cold here, maybe even more than outside."

"Magic?" Sunset suggested.

"Maybe..."

The hallway led them to a large circular room. What surprised the four of them most was the presence of almost untouched furniture everywhere. Few tables, a chair, two drawers and lots of shelves with large rectangular objects laid on them. Maëva first thought they were books, but quickly realized they were just big sculpted pieces of rock.

"I thought this would be a temple," Twilight said, looking around them. "But it mostly looks like... A house."

"Or a research lab," Twydra pointed out.

"But... Those are ruins from a time before Equestria even existed..." Sunset muttered. "It sounds wrong for it to be a research lab."

"We don't know much about the culture before the princesses," Twilight told, flying off to inspect the shelves closer. "We have the story of the tribes, but was there anything before that? Were they as primitive as we think they were? Or merely the remains of a collapsed society?"

"Or, an isolated but very advanced population could have created the portals," Twydra suggested.

"We do have similar legends, back home," Maëva realized. "Ancient people, very advanced. Some even say their technology was gifted by the old mages."

"Maybe, maybe..." Twilight cautiously muttered, more interested by what she was looking at. "Are those...?"

She picked up one of the stones from the shelves and held it in front of her, squinting. Sunset nodded to Maëva, silently asking to move up to the alicorn, which Maëva complied with. Once close enough, the leftmost head was able to look at what the princess was observing.

"Runes?" Sunset said, surprised, seeing the small engravings on the rock. "Storage runes?"

"I think they're... text," the alicorn muttered, astonished. "Hold on."

She quickly turned on her horn and coated the stone with her magic. The runes glowed a dim gray, but it didn't last long. Yet, Twilight didn't seem that disappointed.

"It's text! Those are magic books!" the alicorn exclaimed.

"Where's the text?" Maëva curiously asked, as she was not seeing any and guessed those three symbols couldn't really be called a text.

"There's none. It's either a blank one, or it's been erased."

Twilight quickly grabbed another and repeated the process, then one further away, both with the same results as the first one.

"Either that person didn't take many notes, or they erased them all," Sunset concluded, looking at the unfruitful results.

"What about this one?" Twydra suddenly asked.

They all looked her way, following her eyes. On one of the tables, another one of those pieces of rocks was deliberately placed in plain view.

Twilight landed in front of it, taking it in her magic, throwing one more analysis. The runes glowed a bright blue, before turning red. Yet, this time, they stayed on.

"It's denying me access," the princess said. "I think it doesn't like my magic."

"Can I try to touch it?" Maëva asked.

"I was about to propose that," Twydra nodded. "For those that have stumbled upon the worlds, the path will open."

"But I went to another world too," Twilight argued.

"But you weren't from another world," her alter-ego responded. "Maëva and I are not from here."

Twilight lower lip raised a bit, in a doubtful manner. Yet, she considered the idea and handed them the rock with her magic.

"Go ahead. We're here for answers."

"Use your tail," Twydra counseled, looking at Maëva. "You don't want your head touching it if it explodes."

"It could explode?" Maëva repeated, arching an eyebrow.

"The message at the entrance said we should be cautious if we're seeking a solution," Sunset reminded. "It could be a trap."

Despite saying this, all of them wanted to try and see what would happen. This place felt so weird, mystical yet unsettling, and they were all very curious. Maëva's life spent in a world where every "tomorrow" was a "maybe" also meant her risk-avoidance wasn't as high as some others. So, without hesitating much, she reached for the rock with her tail and touched it.

Immediately, the red glow turned blue again. The rock was engulfed by the aura emanating from the runes and old ponish letters appeared in the air above it. Twilight rushed closer to read them, but fell over almost instantly when a voice came out of the rock.

"Hydra. Hydra? I see. Possibility number eight it is."

The voice was deep, probably belonging to a young stallion. Twilight got a hold of herself and came back to the rock, while the three heads were leaning on it to listen carefully.

"I don't have much time," the voice continued. "They are about to find me. I need to go. If you find this and it's not the twelfth of Siunarion yet, I'm probably in one of my hiding spots. South of the Ghastly City, below the Shadowy Hills, or on the island west of the Story Bay."

Sunset glanced at Twilight and guessed, from the look on the princess' face, that she had no idea as to what those places were. The voice continued:

"If the number I told you is greater than five, then things are getting much worse than I thought. One world is probably already gone. You need to hurry. I won't be able to intervene anymore, they hate what I found. We both need help."

The letters disappeared, the voice died down, the glow stopped. Silence fell in the room, as the four of them were puzzled by this discovery. Sunset glanced at Twilight, asking:

"There's nothing called Siunarion in Equestria, isn't it?"

"No," the princess said, thoughtful. "That sounds like the name of a month. But not one we have. That message isn't recent, it's from before Equestria. But it sounds like the person behind it somehow predicted a hydra would come."

"He didn't sound certain," Twydra pointed out. "He said if the number I gave you is greater than five, that implies he didn't know in advance."

"Or rather, that he had a bunch of possibilities but didn't know which one would come up," Sunset added.

"And he gave us the number eight," Maëva said. "That doesn't seem like a good sign, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Twilight confirmed. "But we don't know much more. He did, but we don't. And looks like he was chased for that."

Twilight flew to the shelves, picking stone-books at random, opening them without any results. She looked around for any other tangible elements.

"Everything was deleted," the princess followed. "But his chasers never came to this place, they would have erased the last book otherwise."

"Maybe they got him while he was running away?" Maëva tried. "He had other hiding spots, we just need to take a look there."

"That won't work," Sunset said with a wince, still looking at Twilight for confirmation.

"Why not?" the middle head asked.

"None of those names exist on our maps," Twilight explained. "Story Bay, Shadowy Hills, wherever they are, we don't call them like that anymore. But everything isn't lost either. The Ghastly City may not exist anymore, but we have a place called the Ghastly Gorge."

"And he talked about an island west," Twydra added. "Does Equestria have many islands to the west?"

"There's two, near Luna Bay," Twilight said, rubbing her chin. "But he's oddly unspecific if it's one of the two."

"So, next stop, Ghastly Gorge?" Maëva summed up.

Author's Note

I'm sorry the progress on this one is so slow. Can't seem to focus on one project.