In The Doghouse

“What do you mean extinct?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Diamond Dogs haven’t ever encountered live ponies before. Ruins, sure. We’ve found plenty of those. Skeletons, of course. But never have we once encountered a real, live pony. We just assumed that you were extinct,” Nokto explained, scratching his chin.

Twilight furrowed her brow, lost in thought. She knew that she was far away Equestria, maybe even on the other side of the planet. She held out hopes that she could’ve been somewhere south of the border, past the deserts and stretches of lava that made up the primary habitats of dragons. Beyond those were millions of square miles of rainforest. It was incredibly dangerous to go into the area, as it was considered to be a continent sized version of the Everfree Forest. Sentient creatures did live there, like the various cat tribes, and a species of sentient snakes, the thought of which made the studious pony shudder. Ponies had sent expeditions into the jungle before, but few had returned, and those that had generally ended up raving mad, ranting of cat gods and monsters living in pyramids and temples, some of the stories which influenced the best-selling Daring Do series. What was most confusing, though, was the apparent presence of ruins and pony structures that had existed in this area. There were ponies that lived in the griffon kingdoms and surrounding nations, but only a few, no more than half a million. Ponies hadn’t ever spread that far before the time of the three tribes, so it made no sense for there to exist an ancient pony civilization outside Equestria.

“Nokto, just how old are these ruins that you’ve found?” the mare asked.

“There have been some discrepancies and debates between scholars, but the general consensus is that they’re between eight and five thousand years old. Everything we’ve found has been remarkably well preserved under either ice or levels of sediments.”

If it was possible for Twilight to frown harder she would have. Nokto had mentioned ruins under ice, which meant that the area was unlikely to have a tropical climate, as it was thought to be south of the jungle. All evidence pointed to her being on another hemisphere which, despite her reservations, excited the unicorn. Once she got back to Equestria, she could help open communication between her home and the nation she was in. Scholars would flock to see the ruins, which could rewrite all of equine history as they knew it. And she, Twilight Sparkle, would be at the forefront. Institutions would be named after her, books would be written, detailing her experiences and findings. Princess Celestia would be proud of her!

Twilight’s frown of concentration had reversed itself, a giddy, almost ornery grin overtaking her face. Eyes sparkled and glittered like twinkling stars. A heart beat faster than normal. Images of her, giving talks to the Equestrian Equineological Society. Stuffy old professors in their bland, beige suits and dresses, looking down on her behind pompous, tiny glasses balanced on their noses would finally give her respect. A revolution was coming to the academic world.

Nokto, watching the mare slip into a second stupor, was a tad concerned. Unlike the face of absolute insanity that Twilight had wielded earlier, this one wasn’t as frightening, but nonetheless it was unnerving. Her eyes were glassed over and appeared to have fireworks bursting inside the orbs, and the dog didn’t think that was normal. A line of drool ran from the left side of her mouth and hung, dangling about a foot above the floor. To be honest his newfound ward acted like Tor after he’d snorted powdered Poison Joke. That dog sure loved his drugs.

Reaching forward with an outstretched paw Nokto placed his middle finger behind his thumb and tensed it. With a blur the finger connected to Twilight’s nose with an audible twang, not unlike a banjo string being rudely plucked. With a cry of surprise the endangered creature flung herself backwards, rolling on her back and sticking all four limbs straight up in the air. She quickly recovered and sat back up, rubbing her snout with a hoof, irate at her companion.

“What in the name of Celestia did you do that for? That hurt!”

A brief flash of curiosity crossed Nokto’s mind at the unfamiliar name, but he dismissed it. “You were in a trance, kind of like the one earlier, only you were less homicidal looking. Is it common for you to do that?”

“Not really, but today has been anything but common,” she said. “Anyway, can you tell me what it is that you’ve discovered from the pony ruins? I want to see if there’s any connection between what I know and what you know.”

“Well, we know that there were three types of ponies. The normals, which had no wings or horns-“

“Earth ponies,” Twilight interrupted. “We call them earth ponies.”

“Right. Earth ponies. Then there were the winged-“

“Pegasi. Singular is pegasus.”

“Pegasi,” Nokto said, the word unfamiliar and rolling off his tongue with a bit of difficulty.

“And finally, the unicorns, a combination of the Old Doggish words for one and horn. Now we know that each type of pony had their own nations.”

Wait,” Twilight said, interrupting the Shepard. “You said that each type of pony had their own nations. Did any of them live or coexist together?”

“Not that we know of. There was a lot of enmity between the three groups, and it wasn’t uncommon for conflict to break out.”

Nokto watched the mare’s reaction to what he had just said. It was a look that he had seen on dogs before, one that indicated something was wrong. Her jaw was clenched, almost imperceptibly, facial muscles stressed. Like the face her shoulders were scrunched, a common sign of discomfort. Tests were a common cause, in Nokto’s experience, of that same look, a tell-tale sign of anxiety over a grade. It was a weekly thing to see, and the dog regularly wore it himself. Still, it was a mystery as to why Twilight exhibited the same signs of nervousness. Was something he said wrong? Maybe the championed scholars of the Empire weren’t as well versed in archaeology as they liked to think.

“Originally they all lived far north of here, in a place that scholars have named Dream Valley. Earth ponies settled directly in the valley, which was incredibly fertile and grew abundant crops. Primarily they were farmers and hunters. Their settlements were divided up into several villages, and, based off the ruins we found, their center of government was a giant, wooden meeting house. We theorize that they had a democratic society, but scholars aren’t completely sure.

“Next are the unicorns. They all lived in a castle, built on top of a mountain overlooking the valley. Unicorns were artisans and mages. Primarily they spent their time practicing magic and researching. A portion of them served as royal guards to their monarch, traditionally a female. Unicorns, while they distained the other tribes, regularly used their magic, which they focused by channeling power into their horns, to help the earth ponies and the pegasi, as you call them, when it was needed.

“Now the pegasi were an interesting bunch. Their ambient magic was powerful, and it worked similarly to the magic of a Diamond Dog. We dogs can tunnel though ground easily and can sniff out gemstones with ease, and a few of us are born with the ability to shape the earth at will. The pegasi were like that, only with weather. From what we can tell they had expert control over the weather, and could walk on clouds, even going so far as to build an entire city in the sky. We never found the city; some scholars think that it drifted away or dissipated without any caretakers, whilst others believe it never existed in the first place. All we know about it is from what we found in the pictographs that pegasi used to write. The pegasi kept the climate and weather in Dream Valley controlled, making it ideal for crops. They were a very militaristic society, and we think they primarily protected the valley from outside dangers.

“All types of ponies served a purpose. Earth ponies grew food for themselves and the rest, pegasi manipulated clouds and protected the valley, and the unicorns used their magic for many purposes.”

“Did your scholars ever find anything about the sun and moon from the unicorn ruins?” Twilight asked, her voice strangely void of emotion.

“They did, actually. In the unicorns’ castle there was a throne room that had an image of a sun and moon, below which were some unicorns with their horns glowing. We think that they either worshipped them or held the celestial bodies in reverence, possibly as a way to keep time. Though as I said before, there’s a lot that we don’t know about them. Without knowledge of their language, we can’t be sure about anything.”

Twilight sat on her haunches, eyes shifting between Nokto and the floor. She looked confused, but there was a heavy dose of melancholy painted across her face. Her demeanor was that of a scolded pup or a dog that had lost something important.

“Can you tell me what happened to the ponies? You said that all you’ve found was ruins, so were they wiped out by a disease?” Twilight’s voice was quiet.

“It wasn’t due to a disease, but a change in climate. For some reason the ecosystem they lived in suddenly changed. A massive blizzard covered Dream Valley, and crops started dying. No matter what they tried it was impossible to stop, and after a few years and massive deaths due to starvation, the tribes fled south. What was most interesting was that the blizzard seemed to follow them. Wherever they went, no matter how far or fast they ran, it followed. Many more died on the journey. At one point they must have had a truce of some sort, because they banded together and hid in a cavern beneath a mountain, which was later named to Mount Blackrock. They barricaded themselves in, setting up hastily made stone walls and burying long, wooden spikes pointing outwards, almost like they were afraid of something. Unfortunately,” here Nokto took a breath, “they all froze. Temperatures plummeted rapidly, so rapidly that some were flash frozen. It happened so fast they never had time to starve. Diamond Dogs stumbled upon the mountain around, oh I don’t know, a thousand or so years ago.

“After that scholars flocked to the place and began researching pony culture. Its popularity waned about two hundred years ago, and now there are just a few serious academics left.”

Nokto stopped his impromptu lecture, analyzing the mare’s reaction. Her face went from sad to fear, then quickly contorted into rage.

“You’re lying!” she shouted, her voice cracking. She stood up and marched over to Nokto, her hooves making heavy thumping noises on the polished hardwood. The dog gasped and grabbed his staff at the sight of her mane thrashing around and turning red, a perfect match to a raging flame. His nose twitched at the potent smell of ozone and burnt metal that rapidly filled the air. Her horn lit with a purple aura, the power collecting into a charged ball of energy at the very tip. Nokto pointed the staff at her, legs spread wide in a combat stance.

“Tell me the truth! You’re working with the changelings, aren’t you? You’re trying to keep me from my friends!”

A few blasts of magic shot out towards Nokto, deflected by a hastily made shield spell. They careened off in different directions, impacting walls and tearing at them like a sword through a goose feather pillow. Pieces of debris were sent flying, wooden shrapnel burning with magical fire narrowly missing the dog. He countered, a speedy burst of telekinetic force bashing the homicidal pony on the face. A spray of blood from a freshly broken nose sent droplets of red to settle on the floor. Twilight vanished in a flash of blinding white, reappearing behind Nokto. She turned and lifted her back hooves off the floor. With one strong, powerful strike her hooves slammed into his back. He grunted and stumbled forward, letting go of the staff.

Twilight snatched it up with a flick of her horn. She leveled it before her vision and smirked. It began to bend, the wood groaning and straining under her power. Nokto had recovered and turned, his eyes wide at the unicorn’s actions.

“Don’t! If you break the staff we could both die!” he pleaded.

“Why should I believe you? You’ve been lying to me this whole time!” Her voice sounded different, almost distorted, like there were two separate people talking at once. More magic wrapped around the staff and it bent further. Runes flashed warnings and cracks made their appeared in the middle, light peeking out from them. Nokto ran at her, paw outstretched, trying to grab the staff. With a loud, deafening snap, all hell broke loose.

Magic that had been carefully crafted and sealed into the staff over years was released all at once. A shockwave of arcane energy erupted, knocking both dog and pony backwards. The entire house cracked and splintered and blew apart, chunks of debris flying outward. A beam of light, brighter than the sun, rose upwards into the sky like a lonely sentinel. All eyes in Senpaga turned to the phenomenon, coming from the very outskirts of the city. Nokto rolled on the ground, white hot pain lancing through every part of his body. His vision darkened, like a tunnel under the ground, and the last thing he saw was a face reminiscent of a bug, staring curiously down at him.