Chapter 1: 1st layer and 2nd layer
Three figures were standing in the desert. A sandstorm was coming about to hit them, if they wouldn't find someplace safe and fast.
"You think this is it?!" a yellow earth pony asked.
"Well, it is pretty unusual to find a latch in middle of a desert!" a pale blue unicorn said. The storm was raging and they couldn't hear each other very well.
"What are we waiting for, let's get inside! The sandstorm is coming!" a griffon shouted.
The unicorn lifted the latch with his magic and a small passageway opened. They all jumped down, and the griffon who jumped last, closed the passageway, right before a sandstorm swiped over it. Now they were trapped, as they couldn't get out.
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This all started in Manehattan, when those three were nothing but little fillies. The yellow earthpony named Tinsley and her good friend Rug, who happened to be the pale blue unicorn, found a small map lying on the street. The map covered a small desert in middle of nowhere and in middle of the map, there was a X. Obviously, they thought that it was a treasure map and they got exited.
They quickly ran to the alleyway where the griffon, Sidney, lived. All of them got really exited from this map, and they all made a promise. When they would be adults, all of them would go and search whatever that is, together. They wrote behind the map this promise, so that they would never forget it.
Many, many years later, when all of them had forgotten about the map and were adults and had jobs and life to attend, Tinsley was cleaning her attic. And after a while, she found the map. After thinking about it for a while, she finally remembered what it was. She dashed back downstairs and wrote two letters. One for Sidney and one for Rug. Their responds were positive, both for their own reasons.
They all met in Appleloosa, as it was the closest town to the place where map showed them to go. They bought some supplies and equipment, and off they went, even though the towns folk tried to warn them about the sandstorm. They thought that they could find it, and get out, before the sandstorm.
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"Great, now we're stuck!" Rug shouted. He was lighting the place where they were with his horn. It was a small corridor, that lead into more darkness. The corridor's floor, walls and ceiling was made out from metal, and their hooves rang when they walked.
"Calm down, think about the positive side. At least we found this place on the map," Tinsley tried to cheer him up.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be any treasures here," Sidney said.
"Who cares about treasure?! Think about this place! Nopony has touched this place for ages!" Tinsley shouted. She found the place fascinating.
"And how do you know that?" Sidney asked.
"Cobweb. Look forward into the corridor." And indeed, the corridor was blocked by a wall of web. "If somepony would have walked through here, there wouldn't be that much cobweb blocking the way," Tinsley told to Sidney.
"Shall we continue?" Rug asked.
They cut their way through the cobweb and ventured forward. A few cobwebs later, a huge door blocked their path. The door was made out from steel
.
"Well, this looks quite odd to be a normal door. What do you think it is?" Rug asked.
"Who cares, let's just open this up," Sidney stated her opinion. Tinsley had never seen Sidney so impatient, like she needed something from there. The three tried to open it with magic, their hooves, anything they could, but the door didn't move an inch. Pretty soon, the three had tired themselves.
"Maybe it opens form somewhere else?" Rug suggested.
All of them looked for a switch or something that could open the door. They looked at the floor, the ceiling and the walls. But nothing came up. Just when they were about to quit and head back after the storm would go away, Rug found something behind a huge pile of web. It was a box made out of metal and it was attached to the wall.
"What is this?" he asked.
"I have no idea. Never seen a one." Tinsley reached it with her hoof and touched it's surface. Suddenly, lamps in the ceiling all lighted up, and the hole corridor was full of light. The box itself opens up, and a screen inside lights up.
"What is that? Could it be the opening mechanism?" Rug asked yet again.
"Well, I think it some sort of a device that opens that door when we touch it with our hoof."
Tinsley slowly pressed her hoof against the screen. A small green light swiped the screen few times, and then a computer female voice said: "Access denied." The voice startled them all a little bit.
"What was that?! Where it came from?!" Sidney shouted.
"Calm down! Calm down. I think it was automated message," Tinsley said. "And it doesn't seem to accept our hoof... Look at the figure on the screen. It looks like..."
"Hey, umm… Sidney? Could you try to open this?" Rug asked.
"Why?"
"Well, it would seem that the type of hoof, is almost the same looking as your hand."
"Fine." Sidney walked to the box and placed her hand on it. The green light swiped the screen few times again. Everybody was holding their breath, as this was their only chance to get inside.
"Access granted."
"Oh dear Celestia!" "Yes!" "Woohoo!" The three shouted. The door opened and they stepped inside.
They were in some kind of a room, and luckily the lamps were on in this room too. The room had few tables and chairs, and on top of the tables there were weird machines. All of them were broken except one. The machine had a small board with buttons on it, and each of the buttons were named after one letter. Then there was a big monitor like device, that was black. Sidney was the first one to look at the machine that wasn't broken.
"Hey guys, do you know what these are?" she asked.
"Well… No," Rug answered.
"What is this place? Who lived here?" Tinsley was in her thought's and didn't care about the machines.
"Hey look Rug. This button has power labelled on it!" Sidney said.
"Well, then press it! It might open this machine up!"
Sidney pressed the power button and just like magic, the monitor went on. Different kinds of screens started rolling in the monitor, one saying "Windows" and the other "welcome." Then, the monitor showed a grassy hill.
"Woah!" Rug shouted in excitement. Finally Tinsley came to them, to look at the weird machine.
"What are you doing?"
"Look at the monitor! It's displaying a green hill!" Rug said. He had never seen anything like this, and of course, he was really exited.
"Look, there's some weird icons in the right side of the screen." Sidney pointed out.
"Can we touch them?" Rug tried to touch one with his hoof, but nothing happened.
"Wait, this here might be a typing board so you could type," Tinsley pointed at the board, "so maybe there is someway to click those with one of the things around this machine!"
"How about this thing here?" Sidney asked. She was holding a small oval in her hand. The oval was connected into a machine next to the monitor. It also had to two buttons on it, that could be pushed.
"Try it!" Rug shouted. Sidney placed the oval on the table and moved it a little bit. A small arrow in the screen moved a little bit.
"Place that little arrow on top of that icon!"
Sidney moved the arrow on top of a icon that looked like a paper. "What now?" she asked.
"Well, how about you would press one of those buttons?" Rug suggested. It didn't seem that he had any idea what it would do, but he surely was exited.
Sidney pressed the left button on the oval and a wall of text opened up to their eyes. Later that day, they all hoped that they would have turned away when they couldn't get the door open.
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Dr. Rick Mathews
U.M.N Campsite
Day 3 Month 1 Year 1
Finally we had constructed this small camp under here. Right now we have five rooms and hundred people here. They're all scientist, soldiers, doctors and constructors. We all have to sleep outside, because there isn't a place inside the bunker. I'm pretty sure we can build this small bunker into a base! The portal is still open and we keep getting more materials for building this bunker. The U.M.N really wants to see if this place has anything valuable.
We haven't really ventured away from the camp, but we can see a mountains in the distance. Everything else is just desert. We'll send someone eventually recon this planet better.
I have to stop writing now as one of the constructors hurt himself and I need to go and patch him up.
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"A portal? Have you guys ever heard about a portal in here?" Tinsley asked, and all she got as an answer was shook heads.
"What came through the portal? And are they still alive?" Sidney asked questions that everypony had in their minds but nopony said aloud.
They all looked behind them where was another corridor. The lights were on, but not a single soul was in the corridor.
"Should we venture forward?" Tinsley asked. "I don't want any of us to get hurt."
"I say, we should go forward." Sidney voted.
"Well, I don't know. What about something lives here?" Rug stated.
"Come on Rug! Think about this! We might have found a civilization that existed before us!" Tinsley shouted.
"Or at the same time." Sidney pointed out.
"I don't think so. If they would have lived at the same time we lived here in Equestria we would have heard about them."
"Unless there was a major disaster."
"Look, let's just venture forward." Rug finally decided. He didn't want to hear those two arguing and that was the best way to stop them.
"Hey, there are four doors in here!" Sidney shouted from the corridor. She had already ran to the corridor, and was opening the doors.
"Wait us!" Tinsley shouted.
Behind the door that Sidney had already opened was a huge pile of boxes. Sidney looked inside one of those boxes were rations. None of them were hungry a the time, but they still took some with them.
When Rug and Sidney were scavenging one of the rooms, they heard Tinsley scream. When they ran in the room where she was, they saw something horrible. A dead body. It wasn't a pony nor anything they had seen.
The body was rotten, and from few spots you could even see some bones. Its eyes were closed, and it was sitting in a chair, sleeping the dream that never ends.
"What the hell is that?!" Sidney shouted.
Tinsley walked to the body and examined it a little bit. Then, she said her thoughts.
"Do you remember the weird book about creatures called humans? That he had met one weird looking creature that said that he was a human?" She asked.
"Oh, you mean the book that the author was labelled insane?" Rug answered with a question.
"Maybe the author was not as crazy as everypony thought…"
"So, what you're saying is that these things that lived here, were... humans?" Sidney asked.
"That's exactly what I mean!" Tinsley shouted. "Think about this! We have found a civilization that existed in unknown time! We are the first ones to find these humans in real world!"
"Will we be making bits because of that?" Sidney asked.
"Maybe, but who cares about bits! This founding will make us famous!"
"What about the body?" Rug asked sadly. When he saw a dead creature or an animal, it always made him sad.
"What about it?" Sidney hissed. She was starting to get creeped by the place and it made her uncomfortable.
"What are we going to do to it? We can't just leave it here."
"Why not?" Tinsley asked as she had no idea what Rug had in mind.
"What would you feel if you would be left here to rot? I think we should bury it."
"And where exactly? In the boxes?" Sidney asked sarcastically.
"I think that's a great place to bury it."
Before they could answer to his statement, Rug quietly went to the body and lifted it with his magic. He walked in to the room, where the boxes were. Tinsley and Sidney walked right behind him. Rug lifted few of the boxes in the air and placed the body under them. When he left the room he closed the door behind him. He looked at his friends with sadness in his face. Sindey looked like t was waste of time and Tinsley looked like that she understanded.
"Can we continue now?" Sidney was waiting impatiently.
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The passageway took our heroes, only deeper and deeper into the ground. They had been walking for sometime, when they finally got to the next sector. This layer of the structure was vastly advanced than the first one. This layer had multiple corridors and a lots of rooms. The lights were on everywhere, but nothing living could be heard inside.
"So, what now?" Sidney asked.
"I don't know about you, but I'm tired. How about we find a place where can get some sleep?" Rug suggested. He hadn't got any sleep for 17 hours and it was starting to slow him down.
"I agree. Let's just find a place where we could set our camp." Tinsley voted for making a base camp, as it seemed that they would have to be in there for a long time.
They searched few rooms, until they found a room full of beds. It seemed that the "humans" had used this room as a bedroom for many people. The room had bunk beds everywhere except in the corner, where was a table. And on top of that table was another one of those weird machines.
"You think this room will do?" Tinsley asked.
"Well, this is probably the best place we will find," Rug pointed out.
"Hey, there's one of those weird machines there." Sidney pointed at the machine in corner of the room.
"You go check that out, maybe we could get some more information about what happened in this place. Rug and me will start making us a camp here." Tinsley and Rug started to make beds for them, while Sidney went to the machine and opened it up.
After few minutes, Tinsley and Rug had finally set up three beds for them. Rug looked at Sidney who was doing something at the machine. Sidney cursed at the screen.
"What are you doing?" Rug started to walk towards her slowly. Soon he was right next to Sidney. The screen had a map of the structure. There were five layers in the structure and they were in the second one.
"There are no bucking treasures here!" Sidney shouted.
"Huh?" Tinsley was just starting to take out some of the food, when Sidney's shouting got her attention what the two were doing and she went to have a look.
"I thought there would be some bucking treasures here!" Sidney continued to curse.
"Why would you think something like that?" Tinsley asked.
"Well the map showed a huge X, and doesn't that mean a treasure?!" Sidney was now really annoyed as she had thought about finding something valuable.
"We don't care about any treasures! This is a significant finding!" Tinsley started to shout at Sidney.
"But scientific findings don't pay my bills!"
"I thought that you would be in this because we are friends!" Tinsley and Sidney both looked at each other for a moment, but then Sidney's patience grew out.
"You know what, fuck this! I'm going home!" Sidney walked out from the door and left two ponies in the room.
"Buck!" Tinsley shouted and hit her hoof in the wall. The wall was metal too, and the punch hurt Tinsley's hoof.
"Are you okay?" Rug asked from Tinsley.
Tinsley had to let out some pressure and she thought that the best way to do it would be throwing something at the floor. She picked up a box from the desk and threw it on the floor. When the box hit the floor, it made a souns that could be heard everywhere in the second layer. Suddenly, the box started replaying someponies voice.
"Dr Rick Matthews, recording number two. Day 5, Month 5, Year 1. We have finally built new layer for our bunker. Now we have about a thousand people in here, and we are going to start building a new layer pretty soon so that everybody can sleep inside. Most of us already do.
The portal back to Earth is still open, but we have successfully built a radio, that can contact Earth even without any cables going through the portal. What I think is that this is a planet in a solar system, not way too far away from Earth.
We haven't still investigated this planet very well, but tomorrow we are going to send a recon party, to look if there's anything intelligent on this planet. I really hope not, so that we won't have to wage any wars… *deep silence* End of the record."
"Wha-… What was that?" Rug asked.
"I think that this little box here replayed what somepony who lived here said," Tinsley figured out.
"What is earth? The voice said it many times like it was someplace."
"Maybe it's the place where these humans came, at least that is all I can think of."
All of the sudden, the weird machine on the table made a small noise. It sounded like a triangle would be hit. Rug and Tinsley both got startled by the noise, and Tinsley even jumped a little bit.
They both had forgotten about Sidney, when they went to the weird machine, they saw a small window. Inside this window was one word. The word was "Hello?"
Both ponies didn't know what was happening. First the thought that is was something Sidney had opened up while she was on the machine, but when there came more text, they knew somepony was trying to talk with them.
"Is anypony still there?" Was the new message.
"Do something!" Tinsley said to Rug.
"Like what?" Rug asked.
"Answer something!"
"But how?!"
Tinsley pointed at the board that had buttons with letters on it. "Use that with your magic!"
Rug looked at the board, and started to press the buttons with his magic. Soon he had typed the word "hello" in the window.
"Do you think that whoever is typing to us is seeing this?" Rug asked.
"Well, the word hasn't appeared up here," Tinsley pointed at the words on the top, "when it is down here." Tinsley pointed at the bottom of the window.
A new piece of text appeared in the window, "Press Enter."
"What's Enter?" Tinsley asked instead.
"I think it's this button." Rug pressed a button on the board that had "Enter" labelled on it.
The word "hello" appeared in the window.
"Now that I know somepony is here, may I ask who am I talking to?" Came a new message.
Rug typed an answer. "I want to know first," he demanded.
"When the answer came, both of them were shocked.
"I am the last remaining human…"
