Redemption

The buzz of digging machinery filled the air, thousands of pounds of dirt being shifted in minutes. The excavation site was thick with the scent of weeks-old must, and air purification spells filled the air alongside the dust that needed purification. Ponies milled about, polishing an artifact here, unearthing a piece of scrap metal there.

Twilight Sparkle was fascinated by the most recent developments. The dig team had just broken into a new, unexplored area of the archaeological site, and actual, working, lights had been discovered. The ancient, unbelievably old artifacts had never been found in such condition before, only broken parts and theoretical assemblies. Never before had such a perfect example of old-biped tech been found before. She was nearly giddy with excitement.

Her path took her down a series of winding paths, more convoluted than diamond dog tunnels. The flattened earth had taken her for nearly half a mile before it leveled out, and as she passed dozens of ponies moving in and out, she followed it into a new chamber. The chamber opened up, the ceiling nearly five times as high as the tunnel she had traveled through. Her gaze did not wander, though. It fell quickly upon the opposite entrance, where a large metal door lay, upright, surrounded by a group of ponies. Noting the lack of normal human decorum, she quickly closed the distance between herself and the portal in the effort to reach it as soon as possible.

Upon arrival, she was met by a mint-green unicorn, Lyra Heartstrings, if she remembered correctly, and a group of other 'anthropologists'. Ruins of the old-biped civilizations had been found around Equestria, and due to the apparent technological superiority of the creatures, ponies had devoted their time to studying the creatures, as much could be learned from them.

The matter at hoof, or hand as the old-bipeds would have said, was the newly unearthed area. Working oB creations had been found and unearthed, their inner mechanisms to be studied. In this new area, there was one last thing that nopony understood. There was a door. Not just any door, but a huge, high density, oB alloy door with no means of opening, other than a red button on the side laid on top of a metal plate with holes punched in it.

Why was she here? Well, she was here on behalf of Princess Celestia, as the Princess had a world summit meeting with the ambassadors of multiple neighboring countries, and as a result, could not attend.

The group of ponies gathered around Ms. Heartstrings as she detailed the procedures surrounding the opening of the door. Obviously, the red button would do so, and the ponies needed to be prepared for whatever they found. The mechanisms were still working, so, potentially, there could be a living creature, or well-preserved ruins. The possibility of the former was very low, as multiple spells had been used to try and detect any sort of life inside the room, and nothing had been detected. But of course, the oB technology may have avoided detection.

The button was to be pressed, and the ponies were to wait around in a semi-circle, not only taking notes of observations, but also recording the event from multiple angles. This was the greatest breakthrough in oB history since the first discovery of their kind.

The ponies began to move to their positions, Twilight standing slightly off-center in relation to the door, watching intently with a pair of notepads and pencils (another oB technology, sticks of graphite embedded inside wood. Ingenious!), ready to annotate and record any and all observations she had.

Lyra moved forwards, towards the button, and the recordings began. She spoke aloud, giving the date and background for the event. Then, she raised her hoof, and pushed on the red button.

A mechanical and monotonous voice spoke from the door. "Welcome to the [redacted]. [redacted] is currently under lock-down procedures. It has been [-2375742] years since this lock-down was initiated. Please, clearly state the passcode for entry and removal of lock-down procedures." Some parts of the voice seemed to contrast with the fluent speech, and some parts had been replaced with a single tone.

The ponies at the door, the anthropologists, looked at each other strangely. What passcode? This meant that access was potentially denied for all of eternity.

Twilight sighed. This door was going to take a while to open. She spoke up.

"Maybe we could just use magic to open it. That should work, right? I mean, it can't be that hard of a door to open, right?"

The other scientists looked at her for a moment, pondering her suggestion. Lyra spoke up. "I guess we could. It can't hurt to try."

"Access Denied." Nopony paid heed to the voice, ignoring it and preparing for the next attempt at opening the door.

The ponies gathered around the door once more, this time a little farther away. Twilight, as the most powerful unicorn in the vicinity, had been given the opportunity to try and pull the doors apart.

Lyra spoke again, detailing the method to be used to the cameras, and Twilight prepared herself. As Lyra finished, Twilight's horn lit up with a lavender aura, and her brow furrowed. Moments later, the doors began to glow, the same aura appearing around them. Twilight grunted with exertion, and the door shifted slightly apart. A puff of dust was propelled out of the room, but nothing else happened. Twilight strained harder, and sweat began to form at the edge of her mane. The doors, however, ceased their movement, and remained still. She put even more energy into it, but it was to no avail. The doors refused to budge any farther. She cut the flow of energy to the door, and stood, panting, as nothing more happened.

The room was silent.

The voice spoke again. "Door calibration error. Select option. [1], contact maintenance. [2], follow step-by-step instructions to recalibrate doors. [3], warning, emergency only. Activate door charges and forcibly disengage doors."

The room was silent again.

Lyra spoke up, trepidation in her voice. "Three..."

The door spoke again. "Command accepted. Please move back. Disengaging doors in 5...4...3...2...1..." The last word was muffled by a series of muted thumps and dust flying out of the sides of the doors. Ponies stepped back as the voice spoke again. "Door disengaged. Please clear space for removal." The ponies watched as the doors tilted outwards, and as their center of gravity passed from underneath them, they toppled like dominoes.

A cloud of dust billowed out from behind the doors, and was quickly cleared by the lavender unicorn. As it cleared, the grandeur of the room that lay behind the doors became apparent to all. Not a single eye passed over it.

They had all fallen on the elliptical object lying just inside the entrance.

Lyra was the first to break out of her stupor. With a few quick and quiet steps, she approached the egg shape, and her horn lit up. What seemed to be some sort of identifying spell passed over it, and she backed away.

"It's made of metal, but it's hollow on the inside. There's something inside that..." She spoke loudly, her voice falling with each word, until it was nearly a whisper. Her eyes widened at the prospect of the preserved artifacts inside of it. "It must be some sort of storage container. And we have clearance to open it...!"

The team advanced to the 'egg', and surrounded it. On closer inspection, the cover of the thing seemed to be a shiny, silver color with a strip of white, and was cold to the touch. Next to the white strip, on the silver, there lay an abnormally flat surface.

Lyra raised a hoof, and rested it on the surface of the 'egg'. "It's cold. Colder than it should be. I wonder why?" She pondered aloud. She ran her hoof along the surface, and brushed the flat portion of the curved surface.

As she did, the flat portion began to glow, dimly. Lyra backed away for a moment, looking at it. Momentarily, it projected a flat surface with three sections. The first of the three was a bar across the top of the surface, and it read something in the oB language. There were five characters. They looked like a circle, a vertical stick with a bump to the right, a vertical stick with three perpendicular sticks to the right, a pair of vertical sticks with a diagonal stick going from top-left to bottom-right, and a curved stick that went up, around, and back under the middle of the curve, and it had a dot underneath it. The second and third panels were simply half of the leftover space. One had a stick with two protruding from the top of it at angles, and the other was the fourth symbol from the first panel.

Lyra spoke again, out loud to the cameras, obeying protocol. "Egg shaped artifact was found inside the door. It seems out-of-place, and after physical contact was made, it showed a flat panel made of light. There are three sections, indicating the long 'word' symbol now."

Ponies watched with bated breath as she tapped the long, horizontal panel with her hoof. Nothing happened.

"Now trying the right side panel, with the two vertical lines and connecting diagonal."

She tapped the right panel. The panel lit up, and then disappeared. The ponies stepped forward involuntarily, the loss of the panel unexpected. Brushing the flat surface of the pod again, Lyra made the panel reappear.

"Trying the third and last panel, with the vertical line and two angled intersecting lines." Lyra poked the last panel, and it lit up with a soft blue light.

The panel disappeared. The white began to clear away, and the substance was revealed to be somewhat translucent. Minutes passed, as ponies waited with enthusiasm, watching the material defog, hoping to catch a glimpse of the artifacts inside.

Then, after the color of the material stopped changing, a slight hum filled the air, as two black lines appeared on the border of the previously white surface. Ponies stepped back as the cover split into three parts and began to unfold, mist and cold air pouring from the gaps. The pod opened up, and Lyra poked her head over the side, giddy with excitement.

"Guys. Look. A body!" She was nearly jumping up and down. More heads appeared next to hers, and they peered at the cold body of the biped in the pod.

They backed away for a moment, allowing the camera to get a good view of the creature, and they began chatting quickly and quietly in excitement with one another, hardly believing what they had just seen. A real, fully preserved, old-biped corpse. Such a discovery had never been made before. Fossils had been found, yes, but never had a full body, with all the soft tissue intact, been discovered or recovered.

"We need to take it out of here. Get a stretcher or body-bag and a preservation spell ready." Lyra had retaken command of the throng of excited scientists. "This discovery could change the way we look at the old-bipeds forever."

She turned back to the specimen inside the pod, and looked into its cold face. Reaching a hoof towards it, she spoke lovingly, like a mother to her foal. "You are history in the making, may you rest in peace, wherever you do."

Her hoof made contact with the side of the body's face, and strangely enough, it felt somewhat warm. It must have been the air heating the skin.

At least, that's what she thought until my eyes flicked open and stared straight into hers.