NiktoBarada

Tongue Twister took a few steps back, given that a DRAGON and a KIRIN NECROMANCER were powering up to do some potentially grievous harm to the automaton, and didn't want to be caught in the backblast. The bear golem took a step back to disengage from Jasper's sword - then breathed out a massive gout of superheated steam ! At Jasper the dragon. A creature that can eat diamonds and swim in lava .... "Hmm - looks like that thing has extremely primitive reactions." TT noted to Cloudy, "Didn't even try to identify what it's fighting. Probably limited to either brute force or that steam blast. We doubt the steam could hurt a dragon like your friend Jasper; not sure what it would do to a kirin. But we do know what it could do to ponies !"

"And then they'll come and take everything that can be reused, saving STAR's finances quite a LOT of bits on items they won't have to buy." TT stated, "Then sell off or recycle everything else. Honestly, stripping this place down and selling off every single bolt is probably the best thing that could be done with an abandoned lair like this ! It's not like any previous owners could ever be tracked down, given the degree of secrecy they used, and the time. Many ponies and creatures will make quite a bit of money from this - there's no reason YOU three can't be among them." Then she sighed heavily. "But those guardgoyles require proper handling. We've worked in a museum for years, so doing anything BUT taking appropriate actions are things we cannot do." As she turned for the door, there is a sound like a steam engine powering up from somewhere down the hall. Going out into the hall, Iggy's skeletal servant stepped through the door of the room the group was going to investigate - when what looks the jaws of a mechanical bear slam down on the skeleton and grind it into dust with its serrated metal teeth ! This thing is a mechanical marvel. Its pistons and rods move flawlessly. Its many gears spin silently and easily. You can catch the glints of the gemstones it uses in its joints (because they are perfectly smooth, for efficient and fast action !) It would be easier to admire the genius and pure engineering skill needed to make it if it wasn't programmed to attack anyone who ISN'T a member of L.O.V.E. ! The mechanical beast turns it head and looks to the STAR agents. There is a series of ticks as its mechanical mind decides who to go after first. TT quirked an eyebrow at it before sighing. "When poking around in ancient tombs or old lairs, it's ALWAYS something ! If it isn't a giant snake, or a frog/crocodile monster, or big spiders, it has got to be something ! But a steam-powered golem ? We knew golems can be made from many things, but we have to wonder WHY someone would make this ?"

"We don't get much practice on modern door locks." TT replied with a shrug. TT mused for a bit. "Well, it certainly looks like they were trying to figure out how the guardgoyle enchantment works, judging by the different samples here. And we suppose that 'thing' in the corner was the practice dummy. Why carve a new golem each time when you can just reuse something ? Your friend might get to see all this - the best thing would be for STAR to impound all this stuff and then demolish this old lair. We're honestly surprised the ceiling hasn't collapsed yet, going by all the water damage over about fifty years." "What the heck are they talking about ?" TT wondered to herself, "One looks like a blocky pegasus, one something like a griffin, and the Saddle Arabian one looks like a lion with wings ... Oh, RIGHT ! In Mom's 'family', 'albatross' was a term for stolen goods - because they're such a burden until you can fence them !" "It looks like we got three 'International Incident' level thefts here." TT stated, "Best to call in someone to secure this place before the golems can be returned to their countries of origin. Especially that Saddle Arabian one !" she continued walking closer to it for a better look, "Constructs of this quality and preservation are extremely rare. There are only two others of this age known, and they were eroded so badly it was difficult to even tell what they were. The black market value for something like this is probably one or two million bits, so we're pretty sure the Saddle Arabians would like it back. But everything else here that is not a golem is technically salvage. Though getting that alchemic forge out to sell it would be quite the challenge ! We suspect there may be something else here, since all those rods, cylinders and pistons do not belong to any construct in this room."

TT mulled that over for a bit. "All very important factors that can be hard to quantify. Plus you have luck - one group could do better than expected just because they got lucky. We've seen the math used to make predictions about long term group stability. It is not pretty ! It is beyond the use of numbers and letters; the equations look more like abstract doodles than math. Well, at least to those that don't understand math that advanced." Jasper nodded "good to know" he said simply when TT explained the pocket dimensions did not overlap the vast majority of the time. "Well, Dad would probably be glad to explain that spell to you Iggy," TT stated, "Ya got a LOT of bits ? Dad may be a unicorn, but he could put some greedier griffins to shame !" Cloudy shook his head "sadly it was her fiancé's parents who were slandering her, making sure her 'evil image' was kept in the public zeitgeist" he explained "even though last I heard the ponies responsible were... well they're not around anymore, there's been so much damage I question if her reputation will ever recover" TT shook her head sadly. "That's rough. Having her own in-laws doing that ! We've faced grief from both the unicorn and pegasus sides of our family, but NOTHING of that magnitude ! We honestly hope that things become better for her. No one deserves that sort of treatment." Once the left door was jostled, a pit sort of opened up in front of the door, the hinges so rusted the pit doors only dropped an inch before grinding noisily to a halt. The trap in front of the center door didn't move at all, being completely rusted shut ! TT took a close, careful look at the bottoms of the three doors. Only the center one had waterstains at the bottom. "It looks like the left and right doors are fakes." she stated, "Any picking of the locks would set off the traps. Fortunate the trap in front of the real door no longer works. This - is rather competently devised security. We may know a few ways around it." TT continued as she rummaged through her bags to retrieve a small L-shaped piece of thin metal and another bent into a tight U-turn loop attached to a rubber handle. She slipped the devices into the lock and carefully 'twanged' on the U-loop with her hoof (normally a pegasus would use their wings for this, but TT isn't, and seems a bit clumsy). The vibrations of the U-loop pushed all the lock's pins up at the same time, and with tension supplied it was easy enough to turn the cylinder. "Since this place should be condemned and demolished, it would have been easier to simply destroy the lock or the door. But best to do it safe anyway." TT stated as she put her tools away and pushed the door open (being sure to be standing to the side of the door - just in case there was another functional trap). The room inside was lit by still functioning emergency light crystals. There were large chalkboards on the left and right walls, beside massive benches. The chalkboards were covered in glyphs and notes, and mostly overgrown with mildew. On the benches were what looked like statues - to the left were two pairs of guardgoyles : one pair were the blockier Tenochtitlan guardgoyles. One intact, the other dismantled. The other pair were sleeker Maredripoorian guardgoyles - one intact, the other dismantled. On the right side bench near the entrance was a single statue - an intact Saddle Arabian guardgoyle. Tongue Twister was grinning like an idiot, since it was the earliest known version of the enchantment, and finding one in such great condition was extremely rare. The other half of the bench was covered by gears, rods, cylinders and pistons of various metals, and a few bowls of gems of various types, polished into perfect spheres of various sizes. On the back wall was an alchemic forge, the magic fire still going after all this time. There were crucibles with the residue of different metals in them. In the right back corner was something that looked like post modern impressionistic statue of a pony. It's body and head were just two large metal ovals the shape of grapes the color of tarnished steel. The neck was a piece of thick wire. The legs were slightly curved long cones. The tail was a single piece of thick wire bent and curved into a three dimensional scribble taking up the volume an actual tail would. There were two oval dents where the eyes should be. No ears, mouth, or mane. The body looked like somepony had carved glyphs into it then filed them off several times. It was standing in what looked like a containment circle mostly obscured by a fine layer of silt. "Looks like they were busy doing something about a half a century ago ...." TT noted.

Days later, in the Antiquities department "Wow. There's a LOT of stuff to go through back here !" TT noted to herself as she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes, "Maybe there isn't even a slim hope, and this was all but a fool's errand...." "Uncover any ancient and forgotten secrets yet TT ?" Past Echoes - a pale grey unicorn stallion and director of the Antiquities Division (and Tongue Twister's old boss) asked. TT sighed. "No. Not even sure there is anything TO find. The odds of anything from that far back actually surviving this long intact AND being found is infintesimal !" "Well, stranger things have happened." Past replied, "Starswirl's journal surfaced in a 'blind buy' from an antiquities store. So, there's always a chance. A really, really, REALLY slim one, but always a chance." "Like finding something that completely overturns all history as you know it !!" Cracked Pot, a dark blue unicorn stallion exclaimed as he slapped a hoof on the bench and placed a statue of a blindfolded Saddle Arabian holding a scroll on it. Both Tongue Twister and Past Echoes rolled their eyes. "And just what is it THIS time ?" Pale Echoes asked with a sigh, feeling a headache coming on. Cracked Pot may be one of Equestria's best restoration specialists, but his notions were, well, off. 'Rarely right but always certain' as they say. "Why, irrefutable proof that the ancients of Saddle Arabia came from Somnambula !" Cracked exclaimed, "See ? How does your so-called 'conventional archaeology' explain THIS ?!" he continued with a grin, indicating the statue he'd brought in. TT tilted her head and looked at it. "You DO know that Somnambula is a mare, right ?" Cracked Pot's grin evaporated instantly. "W-well, the ancients sometimes got the gender of important ponies wrong ! They've even got the species wrong at times !" "And just why do you think this statue has anything to do with the kingdom of Somnabula ?" TT simply had to ask, pretty sure of the answer. "The blindfold !" Cracked stated, "He's wearing a blindfold ! HOW can you overlook something that unique and diagnostic ?" "Because it is neither unique nor diagnostic." the elderly pegasus mare Faded Vestige (curator of the Division of Visual Arts) opined, "That is a standard representation of the Lord of Secrets and Mysteries. The blindfold is a very common motif to represent unknown, 'unseen' knowledge from many ancient cultures. This statue may not be from Somnambula, but it is exquisite ! The pigments are still intact, and there is very little wear ! Is this one of your restoration works CP ?" "No. I found it like this." "Is there any documentation that goes along with it ?" Past Echoes asked hopefully. Cracked Pot's shoulders slumped as he sighed heavily. "No. The ponies I bought it from at a yard sale said it was something their grandfather or someone bought somewhere." All museum nerds within earshot grumbled. "There's something off about this statue ..." TT mused as she looked at it closely. "Say, does this guy's neck seem just a little too long ?" she stated - just before pushing down on the statue's head. There was a click. She then turned the statue's head backward and, with a loud 'CLICK', the front of the statue opened. Faded Vestige shrieked, then fainted. Cracked Pot had paled and had a look of absolute terror as he pointed a hoof at TT and yelled "THAT STATUE WAS OVER A THOUSAND YEARS OLD ! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE !?!?" TT rolled her eyes at him. "We worked here for YEARS, CP ! Almost as long as you have ! We know how to properly handle artifacts - we're not Daring Do for crying out loud ! And we did not break it. This statue had a hidden compartment." Looking inside there were four very dry, very tightly wound scrolls. "Whoa. Ancient papyrus. Almost never see that ! Any way to open them up to read them without them crumbling to dust ?" TT asked Cracked Pot. "I know a few processes and tricks ... " Cracked Pot replied, grinning ear to ear (for he did LOVE a challenge).

"True." TT replied, "But 'good' organizations can at least work with other organizations, while 'evil' organizations are out for themselves. Generally end up with a few, very large 'good' orgs that stay operational for a long time, versus many small 'evil' orgs that tend to form and disappear very quickly. Like the 'Legion Of Virtuous Equestrians.', whose base we are in." TT continued, scowling at the cracked and water-damaged ceilings and walls, as the animated skeleton ambled off, "This lair looks about fifty or so years old, yet no one's ever heard of it, and we doubt it ever had more than two or three members." "That's a very useful spell !" TT remarked, "You could have a whole warehouse full of useful stuff that you DON'T have to carry around everywhere. From what dad said, pocket dimensions don't overlap - stuff in one 'pocket' cannot be accessed by anyone else. But he does have trouble with 'unusual' items dropping in and appearing in his shop every now and again." TT stated with a shrug, "We think it's a side effect of the 'Bigger On the Inside' enchantment." TT thought about that for a bit. "That's rough ! She's trying to do good, but keeps getting evil recruits. Word should get around about your friend's organization and its true alignment - eventually." From further around the circular hallway was the sound of rending metal, then a splash. Going to the sound reveals three doors on the outside wall, with a faint square of silt in front of two of them - the third has an open pit in front of it, with damaged pit doors, a pit knee deep in water with an unfortunate animated skeleton at the bottom of it. "Hmm. Water damage." TT stated, "Water gets into and ruins everything - including the traps. Those pits were only supposed to open if somepony tried to pick the locks. So what now ?" she asks, "There is a single door back there, and three right here. Pretty sure that one door back there wasn't trapped."

TT quirked an eyebrow at them and replied "Ohhhhhhhhhkay ...." As they entered Iggy looked around and nodded at TT's evaluation as that dark green energy began swirling around her eyes and horn "I think it might be a good idea to send some skeletons in first, that way they wont drip slime and cause further damage while being expendable in case of traps" "I'll go radio the regional commander about this" said Cloudy as he headed back above ground and, based on the heated murmurings that could still be heard down the ramp, was getting into an interesting argument about the 'regional' commander for the group being in Las Pegasus, so why were they out here?! Jasper just muttered something to himself about 'anytime you have 'legion' in your name your nor really fooling anyone that your oen of the bad guys --- atleast EVIL wasn't as delusional with their name...' "That's sort of the way it works." TT stated with a shrug, "It's pure marketing. If you're a secret evil organization that has no intention of ever going public, you can call yourselves anything you want. Being a secret organization, it's not like anypony would ever hear of you, so you could be completely open about your intentions. The more troublesome groups are the ones that THINK they're the good guys." she continued, "They want to be known so they can recruit members and gain political or social power. Which may require quite a bit of 'shading the truth' as it were. Creating that sword was quite an interesting ability, Jasper was it ?" she asked, "Did you summon it from somewhere else, or form it out of dragonbreath ? Either way it is an impressive ability !"

TT smiled and nodded to the griff and the dragon before chuckling to herself slightly. "We work for S.T.A.R." TT replied, "Well, at least we think we still do. We were amongst the first agents employed when S.T.A.R. was formed. If it is still run the way we remember, rank is determined by military experience, combat prowess, and usefulness of skills or mark Talents. We may have seniority, but we suspect that you three outrank us." She shrugged and continued "Depending on what is in here, reporting this to the higher ups would be a good idea regardless." "Oh, most certainly !" TT stated as she descended the ramp to the sliding door at the bottom before holding up a hoof and proclaiming "Now remember : this used to be the lair of a villainous organization. There may be some security measures still active if that spirit was any indication of the sort of ponies that used this place. But after a few decades without maintenance, those measures may - or may not - still work. Plus the normal risks of entering a dilapidated underground construction ..." She pushed the door aside, and stood back as some of the base's air wafted out. A stench that could put curls in a dragon's spines. From what could be seen in the dim sickly yellow light of the emergency illumination crystals, the door opened into a circular corridor that curved behind the troop in both directions. The walls had a good growth of mold, but the words "Legion of Virtuous Equestrians R & D" was painted on the wall ahead of them. TT scraped her hoof along the floor as she examined the cracks and protruding roots on the ceiling. "The floor is covered in moist silt. This place has flooded and dried out, probably several times." She poked the nearest wall. It flaked from her touch. "Yeah, this place is a complete wreck !" To the left, there was a closed door. To the right, was the shattered remains of a door, and a bent doorframe. There was a closed door on the wall beyond.

"Well, THIS is a fine kettle of fish !" TT groused to herself as she took stock of the situation, "Go out looking for abandoned bases, and get accosted by a revenant ! Obviously a member of an old-school villainous organization. Tend to be paranoid and violent, since they presume everypony they meet is as unscrupulous and violent as they are. And if I were going to case out a joint I was going to rob, claiming to be looking for something reasonable would be great cover for getting in !" ? Who is Iggy calling to ?" TT noted, then took a closer look. "That's not an earring - it's some sort of communication device ! And that blast must be a flare to alert nearby agents to where they need to be. And getting civilians out of danger first means they are reasonably competent ..." And, sure enough, they arrived : a white hippogriff and a blue teen dragon. Iggy gave a very convincing threat as wisps of smoke started to curl from her fur. "Oh, right - kirins can SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE when they turn into Niriks !" TT recalled, "But material attacks have no effect on spirits ! She or the dragon could go hot enough to melt sand into glass, and that ghost wouldn't be harmed in the least ! But magic - and spells specifically designed to work on spirits - most certainly will." The stones and twigs making up the ghost's body started to fall as he shuddered, then began cackling. "Mindslave ? That is my FAVORITE spell !" he stated as he tried to focus, "I use it to shred the mind of anypony that dares to tell me 'NO' ! Wasn't ... expecting to be hit with it myself though. Time to end this - OMNIPOTENCE : DENIED !" he stated as his aura pulsed and there was a burst of darkness and colors faded from the world for just a moment. His counterspell was a mana scrambler - instead of overpowering Iggy directly, he just randomized the flow for a moment. Just like shifting a train engine into neutral, no matter how much fuel or power the engine has, it will go nowhere. The Mindslave spell failed. The magic holding his form together failed. The spirit summoning spell failed, returning him to wherever he was before. As the rocks and twigs that were his body dropped into an inert pile, there was a 'CLICK' from the tree as a small secret door opened. "Hmm. Eliminating himself before he could be controlled or captured. A very old-school villain thing to do." TT stated as she opened the now exposed door. There was an upraised plunger in the space inside. She pushed it, and the ground to the right of the tree dropped very noisily into a ramp. "We assume that S.T.A.R. stands for "Severe Threat Action Response force ?" she stated with an inquiring look to Iggy and the others.

TT raised an eyebrow at Iggy's speech. It was very professional - clear and to the point without being overbearing or pushy. Pretty much exactly the way it SHOULD be done ! Technically, TT wasn't on a mission (she was doing this of her own accord), but that was neither here nor there. The spectre squinted at Iggy's medallion (well, as best he could when his skull was made from a dry block of shaped roots). "S.T.A.R. ? NEVER HEARD OF IT !" the ghost sneered as the yellow glows of his eyes briefly flared, "Sounds like one of those annoyingly naive, 'heroic' organizations that are always getting in the way of what needs to be done !" TT cocked her head to the side. "And what, precisely, 'needs to be done' ?" "Putting non-ponies back in their proper place, of course !" the wraith replied. "I got a bad feeling about this ..." she thought to herself, but simply had to ask "And their 'proper place' is ?" The ghost/timberpony smirked creepily and replied "The grave." TT smacked her hoof on her face. "Figures this is a 'good news/bad news situation." she said to Iggy, "Your spirit summoning spell was perfect ! Unfortunately, the spirit you summoned was, well, THIS guy !" she finished, waving a hoof at the ghost. "Hmph ! As I said before : L.O.V.E. does not tolerate trespassers or looters !" the ghost stated as he tapped into the dragon line node under the tree. "HEY !!" TT exclaimed as roots shot up and wrapped around her barrel, binding her wings under the heavy cloak she was wearing. The bindings weren't tight enough to hurt her as of yet, but binding a pegasus' wings was an EXTREMELY rude thing to do !

Iggy tapped the tree a bit, then stated "I'm gonna see if the owner or anycreature related to him or her is nearby, they can probably tell us" she said as her horn took on a sickly green glow, the magic feeling... just wrong... not severely wrong; not eldritch, but whatever the kirin was doing, she was channeling a lot of dark magics for her spell. "By Nyarlathotep's one thousand and first name !" TT gaped as she watched Iggy's power sink into the ground and make it glow for a moment, "Is EVERY creature I run across an adept at dark magic ?!" A few moments after Iggy cast her spell, a faintly glowing green mist rose from the ground, condensing into the barely visible shape of a REALLY old unicorn stallion. Who then glowered at Iggy and TT for a bit, before energizing his horn and pulling every nearby loose rock and twig to him to form a material body. "WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS WANT ?" the matter-clad ghost bellowed, "The forces of L.O.V.E. do not tolerate trespassers or looters !"

"yeah, you'd think there would be maps all over the place but for some reason this area has never been mapped out" explained iggy "I don't know if it was just an oversight or if something was being hidden, but I'm gonna find out" she explained with a bit too much enthusiasm "while I hope to find an ancient lab of Starswirl the Bearded, used for focusing energy and infusing the most dangerous of magics... I realize I'll probably at most find a clearing where the magic is so chaotic that nothing grows there" she sighed, clearly wanting to find something important atleast ONCE "Uncovering one of Starswirl's old labs WOULD be quite the find !" TT replied, "I know a few museums that would pay almost anything to have anything like that on display ! Magic flows through this world; figuring out how to collect it and shape it to do what you want is a major feat for anypony. Early on, he most likely had many failures - explosive and otherwise - when the rules of magic weren't quite what he thought they were. So it would make sense that he'd have somewhere to test his ideas that wouldn't endanger others. But we suspect such a lab would be closer to his original home of Canterlot. Assuming, of course, it wasn't blown up, liquefied, vaporized, or displaced to another dimension. Or left a clearing where magic is so chaotic that nothing can grow there. From what dad told us, some of Starswirl's spells were REALLY high energy !" "it wouldn't surprise me at all if her trick had unintended side-effects --- these things always do... though I do wonder if all the dragon lines in equestrian have shifted or perhaps combined because of it... I mean she was channeling all that power into one place, it wouldn't be too surprising if a new intersection formed!" she was getting even more excited now, momentarily forgetting her missing friends and the fact that TT had mentioned the possibility of a secret lair around here.... "Those - are very good points." TT noted, "With that much power focused into one place, we would not be surprised if whole new Dragon Lines formed if the old ones didn't quite snap back into place. But we wonder just how far that draining reached. She was trying to eliminate Equestrian magic - but there are other kingdoms far away from Equestria. They may not have noticed if the effect weakened over great distances. Was the kirin's magic affected too ?" she asked. "We do have to wonder how many times an ancient villain or unspeakable evil was imprisoned with unicorn magic, with the idea that the prison would hold as long as unicorn magic did. They would've thought it would hold forever. But for almost three days, unicorn magic did not exist. So the idea that something MIGHT have gotten loose is worth investigating. We almost feel sorry for them though - given how much more powerful the forces of harmony have gotten, those old unspeakable evils may not stand much of a chance !" TT paced around a bit. "This location would be ideal for a secret lair. It is close enough to town to get there quickly, yet far enough away for privacy. We've been checking for hidden switches, but all of the visible rocks are just rocks. This tree is more than large enough to hold a staircase" she continued, gesturing at a rather wide tree, "It is a bit out of place - this species of tree is usually found in wetlands and bayous. Mage Meadowbrook's home is a tree something like this one. But I haven't been able to find any secret levers !"

TT noted that Iggy was very enthusiastic about what she was doing. Then she remembered that, until recently, the kirin were under the effects of the Stream of Silence, and had their emotions dulled and bottled up for most of their lives. So a little emotional recoil was to be expected. "Mapping out local nodes of Ley Lines ? That is a rather ambitious project." TT stated, "Creatures of all types have been doing that for centuries, so it's not that rare an art. So you think there's an intersection of Dragon Lines around here ?" she asked, adjusting her glasses slightly, "That would be another factor making this a good place to build a secret lair, if you're doing magical experiments. Hmm - we wonder if Cozy Glow's almost eliminating all magic in Equestria for a few days did something to the Dragon Lines. May have to check on that ...."

Tongue Twister was focusing on her breathing, calming the torrent of emotions and thoughts in her head. "Well, there is a chance there MIGHT be a secret lair here." she mused to herself, "But there is also a chance there is nothing here. Of the two dozen locales I've checked, only about half had the remains of something. I suppose that is a good thing - fewer threats to emerge from hidden bases, and so a good chance there won't be any drama for a little while at least." Then somepony bumped into her. "Watch it Clou- Oh, hello, so terribly sorry, I didn't see you there" the pony said. Then TT noticed something - the yellow coated pony had scales. A single horn, and a fiery orange lion-like mane with electric blue streaks. It took TT a moment to realize that the mare wasn't a pony. Or a Qilin from Long Guo, but a kirin. "Didnt expect anycreature to be out this way" the mare laughed a little awkwardly, glancing around and adding "er... You wouldn't happen to have seen a dragon and a hippogriff come this way, did you? I seem to have lost track of them" she then paused "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself again!" she said with a bit of a smile and a playful soft flap to her forehead "Azure Ignine, but everyone calls me 'Iggy' for short" she offered a hoof to shake. "We are Tongue Twister. TT for short." TT replied as she got up and shook the offered hoof. "We haven't seen any creature out here. But we've only been here less than half an hour." She noticed the stuff Iggy had been carrying. "What are you looking for so far from the Peaks of Peril ?" she inquired.

Tongue Twister checked her compass again before looking around the forest. According to her mother's optimization calculations, this site would be a nearly perfect place to build an underground lair. Of the two dozen locales she'd already checked, only two actually had a lair. All were decades old, abandoned long ago, decrepid and all but collapsed from the ravages of time. One was just a hidey-hole somepony constructed to keep a stash of questionably legal liquors and probably stolen items until the heat died down. Unused for years. TT paced around a bit, looking for something ordinary that was trying a bit TOO hard to be ordinary. She noted a very old tree, wider than her wingspan. Its roots would make excellent free roofing for an underground complex of quite respectable size, but she didn't see any secret levers, nor did any of the nearby rocks she tapped do anything. But she had a sneaking suspicion that there was a hidden entrance here somewhere; she just needed to open her mind a bit. Broaden it to see other possibilities. So she reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a padded mat and set it out. Then got comfortable on it and tried to meditate (once she was sure what was left of her wings were tucked under the heavy dark blue cloak she was wearing). It was a nice, sunny day. Even if this 'mission' failed, it was still nice to be outside.

It was just a quick trip from home to the Canterlot Museums, Division of Antiquities. From her days (seemingly long ago) of working at the Manehattan Museum of Natural History, she knew that different fields of study often had entire divisions of a museum dedicated just to them - after all, the tools and expertise needed for cleaning fossilized bones was quite a bit different than translating ancient texts. Since the Canterlot Museum was the oldest museum in Equestria, even its divisions had divisions ! The Division of Antiquities, for instance, had a branch for each of most ancient civilizations. A branch for linguistics, and even a branch for military history, amongst other specialties. Most of the research materials therein were not available to the public. Most were too fragile, too valuable, or just not that interesting to anyone NOT in that specialty. But since Tongue Twister used to work for a museum, she knew a few ponies in the right places. "Mom and dad were right." TT mused to herself once she talked her way into the less public areas of the museum where the VERY specialized and delicate items are kept and restored, "Keeping an eye on your neighbors was a good idea back then. Especially if one of your neighbors was a conqueror, or was doing strange or unusual things to his own subjects ! So it would stand to reason that at least one of the countries near Saddle Arabia back then would have taken note of whatever Theth-Ka's grandpa was doing ! Whatever it was, it earned him Erasure from the Book of Eternity ! THAT is a punishment no one even thought was ever actually used because it was so horrible ! Well, at least to the ancient Saddle Arabians. The neighboring countries, with different beliefs in the afterlife, would have had a different view and may have actually written down what happened. Now, if only I can track something about it down !" she groused to herself as she picked up a dusty copy of a neo-Akkadian text. Hopefully some scrap of an overlooked or forgotten ancient text mentioned Theth-Ka so she could track back to his grandfather, and get a clue as to whatever the hay Shuren is up to ! But then she reasoned that there simply could not have been that many ponies doing something horrible enough to require Erasure; so it stood to reason that ANY pony mentioned was most likely Theth-Ka's grandfather. But there were a LOT of text fragments back here ! It could take years of searching to find anything at all - assuming 1) anypony actually recorded the events, and 2) the record survived intact until now. "A slim hope is better than no hope at all ..." she mused as she got back to work (on a task no one gave to her.)

Shady Shipping Shop, Canterlot, half hour before closing for the evening : "I'm telling you this is the lowest price possible !" Shady Dealer argued with an earth pony stallion, "There are no railway tracks to where you want your supplies to go ! You can get close, but that last quarter mile is going to require overland hauling. I know a few ponies that would be more than happy to take the order, but they don't work cheap." "You SURE there's no cheaper route ?" the customer stated, "I heard you were good with calculations and combinations and such !" "I can only work with what is actually available." Shady replied, "So, unless somepony's built a spur off the main line right there that I haven't heard about yet, the route I've shown you is the least expensive route ! Well, within one point one five percent." The bell announcing customers rang, and Tongue Twister shuffled in. "Hi mom." Shady was taken aback. "TT ? I thought you were on vacation in Saddle Arabia !" "We were. It ended early. The guest room still available ?" "Oh of course honey ! You have any bags that need brought in ?" "No. Not any more." "Oh, okay ?" Shady replied as TT wandered off to the stairs in back. Shady turned to her customer and said "Can we pick this discussion up later ? Something that needs my full attention has come up !" The customer glanced back where TT had gone, then back to Shady. "Yeah. No problem. Good luck !" "Thanks." Shady replied before turning the sign in the window to 'Closed' then heading over to Caveat's shop to get her husband's help. Tongue Twister was on her belly on the spare bed, with her wings sort of drooping over the edges like they were made of melting wax. Shady grimaced and stepped behind Caveat for a moment, before getting hold of her emotions - she was never a fan of gross stuff. "What happened down there ?" Caveat asked. "Hou Shuren was there, for some unknowable reason." TT groused without looking up as she reformed her alchemic mercury wings back into wing shapes, "The SMART things to do would've been to either retreat all the way back home, or PRETEND she wasn't there. But us ? We had to try to figure out what she was up to - EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO CHANCE IN TARTARUS THAT ANYTHING ANYPONY DID WOULD EVER MATTER ! There was no conceivable way anypony could've figured out where she was going, or what she was doing down there ! Other than looking up the names of long dead pharaohs apparently ! But like the stubborn yet incompetent goof that we are, we had to try ! Even though there was absolutely no chance of success ! We managed to get a letter to the organization we may or may not work for, so at least somepony competent may - or may not - know that a potential threat to Equestria is up to something ! And then a pair of pretentious twits stole all our stuff and hit us with a memory erasure spell and left us in the desert to find our way back to town !" she finished with a sigh. "What is it with SMILE and those darn memory spells ?!" Shady growled, shaking her hoof, "Screwing with pony's memories can't be good for anyone ! It's pretty much an admission you're incompetent - you lack the skill to be covert, so you just brute force 'you not remember nothing !!'." "They weren't SMILE agents mom." "How do you know ? I thought they erased your memories." "They did. The memory vault dad got for us worked ! Besides, SMILE uses the 'reflection deflection' spell pretty much exclusively; the walking dung factories that zapped us used a crude memory erasure spell to pull the memories right out of our skull." Shady blinked. "Ohhhhkay. Did you manage to find any clues about what that walking pox Shuren was up to down there ?" "No." TT replied, "She was looking for some old pharaohs for some reason. The only name I could find was a 'Theth Ka'. Who had a grandfather that did something so horrible his name was erased ! So there's no way to find it !" Caveat thought for a moment. "Maybe some of the neighboring kingdoms might have records ?" he offered, "I mean, if you're doing something so horrible that the populace rises up and erases all records of you, other kingdoms would be smart to take notice ! In case Theth Ka's grandfather decided to take his malevolence on the road and go after them too." "That makes sense." Shady noted, "If you did something so horrible that Celestia commanded all records of your existence be erased, no one in Equestria could find out anything about you. But she has no actual authority to tell the yaks in Yakyakistan, or the dragons or the seaponies or anyone else to do the same. Foreign records might be incomplete, but they might exist. And the greater the threat, the more likely someone somewhere took note of it." "You both sound like you WANT us to continue that fool's errand !" TT exclaimed. "Well, that's up to you honey !" Shady stated, "You've never backed down from a challenge before ..." TT fixed a glare on her mom. "It is only a challenge IF IT ACTUALLY CAN BE DONE ! Digging through a granite mountain with just a wooden spoon is NOT a challenge ! It is an exercise in stupidity ! Trying to figure out what a milleniums' old evile sorceress is up to is NOT a challenge ! It is an exercise in utter futility ! No point in even trying !" TT took a few deep breaths before continuing "Currently, we are like a puppy chasing after a train. We couldn't slow it down even if we caught it, and if it ran us over it wouldn't even slow down the slightest bit !" Shady shuddered a bit, looking a bit green for a moment. "Thanks for that gruesome image honey !" "Sorry about that mom." TT replied, "But sadly, it is as accurate as it is gross !" "Are you seriously going to give up and do nothing ?" Caveat asked, "Somepony once stated that 'all that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good ponies to do nothing'. That - is not your style ! How do you think Somnambula felt when she faced down the sphinx ? Somepony had to step forward and do something, despite the risk." TT grinned weakly. "But we are not one of Harmony's Chosen. We are not the hero scripted to win against all odds. We are just one of the thousands who were defeated and crushed so everypony can see how powerful the villain is, and how special The Heroes are for managing to defeat them." "How can you possibly know whether you're one of Harmony's Chosen or not ?" Shady asked, "Only history can show something like that. Eventually." Tongue Twister grumbled. She wanted to refute her mom, but nothing came to mind. TT sighed heavily. "Today's been a rough week. We're going to bed. Maybe things will look better when we wake up tomorrow. Can we talk more then ?" "Of course honey !" Shady Dealer answered, giving TT a quick hug before leaving the room with Caveat. TT got ready for bed, but was too worked up to sleep just yet. So she sat on the floor and tried to meditate; it's always helped before. *** Next Morning *** "This is some great coffee, dad !" TT exclaimed as she finished a cup, "WHERE did you get it ?" "Your mom got it." Caveat replied, "She set up a shipping route for some of the bigger coffee houses. Took a can of this in lieu of payment." TT looked at her dad funny. "Really ? That doesn't sound like mom." "You seen the prices some of those houses charge ?" Caveat replied after taking a big sip, "And ponies can me a grifter !" The door opened and Shady Dealer walked in, balancing a large package on her back. "TT honey ? Did you order something and have it delivered here ?" she asked. Tongue Twister looked confused. "No ! We were on vacation in Saddle Arabia, before coming here to divine what else to do with our life. Why ?" "This was delivered to my shop. It has your name on it, but the return address is conveniently smudged beyond recognition." Shady stated as she carefully put the package on the table. All ponies in the room slowly backed away from the package. Caveat concentrated for a moment to activate his magic. A carrot orange aura surrounded the box. "Hmm. It's safe - nothing dangerous in it." he stated, "There are a few faint traces of magic, but they seem familiar." Figuring there was nothing to worry about, TT pulled apart the wrappings and opened the box. "It's all the stuff those twits stole from us in Saddle Arabia !" she exclaimed as she started unpacking the box. "Well, most of it. Our journal !" she stated as she fanned the pages. They were all there, but some passages were circled in red ink, and somepony had written a few notes in the margins. "The Florilegium Mischiefii ! But some of the bookmarks are in different places. And there are a few we didn't place." TT sighed after she rummaged around a bit. "Looks like the notes we made about Hou Shuren are missing though." TT's wings slithered into the box to retrieve the last items : the Winged Slippers of Air Walking, the Wandering Eye gem, the Circlet of Mnemnosine and the Squealer's Stone. "Well, those are the familiar magics I picked up." Caveat stated. "But why would anypony send your stuff back ?" Shady asked. TT smiled. "The ones that stole them from us wouldn't ! They thought as a 'mere civilian', we don't deserve to have such things. We suspect a different 'secret organization' saw what was going on and 'acquired' our stuff from them, and decided to return it to us." Shady Dealer thought for a bit. "That means there are at least two hostile secret organizations, and and least two, well, potentially benevolent secret organizations that know about you." "Good ! They can play their secret Spy Games all they want !" TT exclaimed, "The more players, the better the odds Shuren encounters some relevant resistance from somepony. Unless, of course, they're too busy trying to upstage each other to actually deal with the threat before it's too late. But their skullduggery and subterfuge dilutes our involvement. If the interactions go on long enough, they might forget where they got the information from in the first place !" TT reached for her saddlebags and started loading them up again. "It was really great to talk with you two !" she said to her parents, "You were right dad - when there's a threat, everypony should do whatever they can. And whether some pony's efforts are big or small ? We have to let things pan out as they will before we know." "Well, you're in better spirits than you were last night !" Shady stated as she gave TT a hug, "Took some time to get that old Pegasus pride and determination back under control, eh ?" "Yeah." TT replied, "But now, we have some letters to write and have delivered." "You DO know that some unknown spy organizations are watching you, and might try to intercept your letters, right ?" Shady asked. "Know it ? We are COUNTING on it !" She wrote five copies of the same letter to STAR : For one copy, the return address was one of STAR's front organizations in Las Pegasus. Someone there will know where to direct it. The 'deliver to' address was one TT knew didn't exist - the post office would try to deliver the letter, be unable to, then send it 'back' to the return address. It was risky to send via regular mail, but it would easily get lost in the thousands of other letters - making it very difficult to intercept. She gave one copy to her mom to send via a different route later, and TT went to the newest ice cream shop/STAR front to deliver her copies. She was, of course, intercepted by some mares from some 'secret' organization, who used some memory-altering spells to recover a copy of her letter from her. (Fortunately, alchemic mercury makes a great mirror; TT has covered her eyes at the last moment with it ! It required being blind for a moment, but the memory altering spell was blocked - and the agents were none the wiser and thus fell for TT's acting addled. And thus she was able to actually deliver a copy of the letter exactly as she planned. The 'secret' organization got a copy of the letter - pretty much as TT planned.) The fifth copy was hidden in a secret pocket of Caveat's invoice book back in his shop. As a backup. Just in case. "Now we wait and see if any of my efforts bear any fruit ..." she mused to herself as she walked back to her mom's shop, having formulated A Plan for the rest of her life. Well, something to keep her busy for a month or two at least ....

Golly ! What a charming Christmas gift - a kick to the teeth ! All those multiple posts you're sneering at were my attempts to keep the thread active - three decades of RP experience have shown me that if a thread loses too much momentum, it dies. This was an interesting thread, and I did not want to see it die. So I ATTEMPTED to keep it running until someone else could add to the story (being that stories are supposed to be COLLABORATIVE efforts here). But apparently no one wants to. Not even you ! And how was my initiative and dedication rewarded ? 'Master' spits in my face and informs me that my 'bad manners' defiled the thread soooo badly that he had no choice but to kill it ! Multiple posts are 'bad manners' because they crowd out other posters. Question : HOW CAN I CROWD OUT OTHER POSTERS IF I'M THE ONLY POSTER ?! And you're an odd one to be complaining about bad manners. Is willfully ignoring someone for months without even a single word 'good manners' ? Is pressuring a fellow player to do something they've REPEATEDLY stated they are not comfortable doing 'good manners' ? I get it - you had a GREAT story lined up, but in order for it to work, it required everyone to act EXACTLY as you wanted them to. To follow the script that you wrote (and they had - and will NEVER have - any input into or any real say in). That - is a rather tall order. Not many people enjoy being slaves or railroaded. But honestly - it makes no difference now. You win ! I QUIT ! The next time I see a thread that looks like fun, I won't join. I'll just send the OP a message that they can use Tongue Twister IN ANY MANNER THEY SEE FIT if they want to. If they want her to be a gibbering, brainless fool that mutters every thought that crosses her mind out loud, they can. If they want her to be a sycophant that goes along with EVERYTHING anyone suggests without thought or question, they can. It's not like I have the competence or right to play my character my way. And I certainly don't want to ruin another thread by posting in it or anything. Any further 'discussion' on this subject would be best done by messaging - don't want to clutter up this OOC board with lots of back of forth scowling that is of no relevance to anyone else. For that would just be 'bad manners' ... ! 😆

"You know you could hire some ponies to help you with inventory." Shady Dealer stated to her husband Caveat Emptor as they walked down the aisles of his curio shop. He grunted noncomittally as he counted up how many bottles of Raynbow Dashe shampoo bottles were on the shelf. "You could make more money with less effort if this place were better organized." Shady stated, waving a wing at the shelves, "It is a mathematical fact when dealing with rational agents !" Caveat smiled at her. "I'm sure it is. But ponies are not perfectly rational agents. Ponies in here tend to wander, picking up items that strike their fancy, and drop whatever they were carrying at the moment. Figuring that the staff will put everything back. At the end of the day, I'd have to go through and put everything back ! And the bigger the store, the more effort required to get everything ordered again ! Most curio merchants and antique dealers have found that, if customers have to search for what they're looking for, it becomes an EPIC QUEST !" - he stated while posing heroically for a moment before continuing "The more effort they put into the search for something, the more likely they'll actually buy it ! And by the time they make their way to the counter, they're almost willing to pay whatever price I feel like asking !" he finished with a broad grin, "So I only have to know what I have in stock, not where it is." "Ah yes - the authentic 'curio shop experience' the hoi polloi go one about." Shady replied, "But why do a physical inventory ? You have spells to prevent or detect shoplifting, right ?" "Of course. But a constant problem for curio shops is that sometimes ponies like to either sell cursed items, or sneak them INTO the shop, so they'll be sold to unsuspecting creatures to cause grief and mayhem. That, and strange items can just appear on the shelves of their own accord sometimes. Like, what are the odds that Starswirl's Journal would end up, a thousand or so years later, in a blind buy barrel purchased by somepony that not only knew what it was, but was a friend of Princess Bookworm ? Either it's a side effect of the 'Bigger On The Inside' spell, or just so many magic items in one place warping the thaumic fields, but if I don't check once in awhile, I might miss an item. Like this thing right here !" he finished, gesturing at a carved wooden statue on the floor. Shady looked at it - it was a badly carved statue of a raccoon. Sort of. She squinted at it. Tilted her head left and right. "This is a magical item ? Looks like the perfect gift to give to someone you really don't like !" "That is one of the most dangerous of the lowest tier cursed items !" Caveat stated solemnly, "It's a statue most of the time. But once its owners are asleep, it animates and starts stealing small items at random times. Nopony has ever figured out where the items it takes go. Eventually, it starts to steal sanity. It will be in different rooms in the morning. Or it will subtly change position. Notice how it has its left paw up, and its right one down ? One night it might change to left paw down, and right one up. Any pony looking at it would know something is different, but not be sure what ! Eventually, the unlucky owner would be reduced to a gibbering, paranoid wreck. The family would have an estate sale, and that thing would be purchased by another merchant. To start the cycle ALL. OVER. AGAIN !" Shady slowly backed away from the wooden raccoon as Caveat went to retrieve something. "You might want to take a few more steps back dear !" he stated as he took the large bell jar he had balanced on his back and placed it over the ugly construct without using his magic. The statue animated for a few seconds before becoming still; in a purely instinctual move, Shady flapped her wings and flew backwards about twenty feet. And upward ten. Caveat carefully picked it up and started carrying it to the 'Special Collections' room. Shady took a few deep breaths before asking "ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GONNA KEEP THAT THING IN YOUR SHOP ?!" "What else am I to do with it ?" he asked, "Let some unsuspecting merchant sell it to somepony ? Or worse - let it fall into the hooves of somepony that does know what it does, and inflict that thing on somepony on purpose ? I might be an eccentric con artist who cares about money a bit too much, but some things - are just plain wrong !" Shady was quiet for a bit before stating "Things like THAT are another good reason to hire somepony ! At least part time ! So there is someone here to help if things turn for the worse !" "Not many ponies want to work in a curio shop." he replied, "The only ones that do are either thieves, or eccentric." "Or eccentric thieves." Shady stated before giving Caveat a quick smooch. "Just please think about it." "Okay, fine."

🎵 Hello Hello Hello Is there anyone in there ? Just nod if you can hear me Is there Any One At Home ? (or just I just assume that Shuren effortlessly accomplished whatever it was she was trying, given the other players seem to have bailed ?)

"Thanks for seeing us on such short notice Professor Masud." TT stated to the distinguished pale grey Saddle Arabian in his rather cluttered office. "Oh, think nothing of it !" he replied, "Always glad to help a scholar from our neighbors to the north learn more about our long and illustrious history. What sort of help are you looking for ?" "We just need to know what was in a copy of 'Demographics and Civil Discourses of Pre Dynastic Saddle Arabia, volume five'. Would you have some notes available ?" Masud thought for a moment. "I have been teaching a class covering those subjects twice a year for decades, so of course I have a rather extensive collection of notes. But would it not be easier to wait for whoever borrowed the book to return it ?" "That may be a problem, sir." TT answered before glancing back to make sure the door was closed, "The book was taken out by an ancient sorceress of Long Guo looking for something hidden in your lands. We don't know what she's looking for, but it can't be good for anypony, so time is of the essence. Besides, we doubt she'll be returning the book before she's unleashed whatever it is she's planning. Or even then !" "Hmm. That - is a most interesting and troubling story. Are you perhaps speaking for some organization that handles this sort of thing ?" "Yes. We are Agent Garrulous Gadfly, of H.E.L.P.P. - the Whole Equestria League of Pony Protection." Tongue Twister began her spiel, "We try to stop big threats while they are still small enough to handle with minimal fuss." Masud looked at her for a few moments, before looking confused. "Does not 'whole' start with a 'W' in Ponish ?" "Yeah, but we're a secret organization." TT replied furtively, "We're kinda flexible with the acronyms." "... ... Ohhhhkay then. You said you needed notes from volume five ?" "Yes sir." Hours later, all that Tongue Twister could piece together is the book mentioned the Twelve Kings many times. And many, many locations long forgotten - if not mythological in the first place. She needed Masud's help to translate a few pages, for her knowledge of languages was vast, but not infinite (it had been years since she'd worked with pre dynastic hieratic, and there were hundreds of symbols. Many that looked very much alike.) She'd cobbled together a rough map of Sites To Investigate, and figured out the vectors to get to them. As the sun began to set, Masud waved goodbye to her as she started off into the Great Desert, following his directions to start. "It is fortunate Mistress Shuren warned me about that mare." Hasud thought to himself as he watched Tongue Twister head out, "Had I not known of Miss Twister's skills, I would have believed her story. And tried to tell her one she would have seen through. I do not know why Mistress Shuren wants that one alive, given it would be so easy to arrange an 'unfortunate accident', but that is not my concern anymore." He headed back to his office and began putting away all his notes. "But now, she is headed off into the middle of the Great Desert. If she is any good, she'll figure out something is wrong in a few days. Then it will take her a few days to recover before setting out again. That will give Mistress Shuren an insurmountable lead to her final goal." After nearly an hour of walking, TT was well out of view of the city. According to Masud's directions, she should turn left about eighty five degrees. She turned to her right ninety two degrees and put on her Winged Slippers (an oddball magic item she got from her dad's shop the last time she visited his shop). Once she derived the CORRECT bearings, she took off with a running start, and she was soon airborne, staying twenty feet off the ground, running on a temporary cloud that existed only long enough to support her. High enough to avoid ground-based threats, yet low enough to see ground-based landmarks. "That STAR training is really paying off !" she mused to herself cheerfully, "I can maintain this pace for hours if I have to !" "Ah. I was wondering why you lied to Masud about being unable to translate those texts." the Abomination started in, "You were giving him an opening to lie to you." "I wasn't lying." TT answered, "I AM a bit rusty at reading hieratic. But not THAT rusty ! I thought that by asking for his help, his pride at being a scholar and an instructor would make it more likely he'd agree to help ! Who would pass up a chance to do some REAL good in the world by using their skills and education ? But once he told me the wrong directions, I knew something was up. So I decided to play dumb and let him think he fooled me. You'd be surprised at what ponies let slip when they think they have an advantage over you ! Besides - I'm on a mission here. AND I'm dealing with Hou Shuren. I don't trust anyone anymore." TT managed to keep going for seven hours before she had to return to the ground and take off the shoes - being a 'defective' artifact, they had to 'rest' two hours for every hour of use. She made camp near a weather worn group of stones that used to be the door to a tomb. After a few hours sleep, she lit up a lightstick and carefully threaded her way in. The place was a mess - there were scrolls laying about everywhere, boxes had been smashed, sundry items had been scattered about, and the lid to the sarcophagus was leaned up against the far wall. Tongue Twister peered inside the sarcophagus to look at the mummy. It had been placed back in the stone coffin face down and upside down ! Some of its wrappings had been slashed and torn off in a few precise places. The unmistakable signs of a looting. "Well, looks like you're about half a century late ! Nothing of use to find here !" the Abomination taunted, "Care to waste even more time heading for another tomb that has most likely been looted as well ?" "I'm looking for information, not gold, gems, or artifacts." TT replied as she carefully took pictures of where everything was before she put the mummy back the way it belonged. "WHY are you doing that ?!" Abomination asked as she jotted down some notes. "*I* am a professional ! I'm doing this the CORRECT way !" TT replied to the entity in her head, "This is a predynastic tomb. Nearly impossible to find one in any condition; this is better than most. After all this is over, I'm going to have some ponies come here and do a PROPER excavation." After saying a few words of remembrance, she put the lid back on before reading the inscriptions. "Her name was Meresankh. She was a bureacrat in pre dynastic Saddle Arabia." she noted, "From the style of the hieroglyphics, from the Broken Kingdom period. She may have been alive during the reign of the Twelve Kings." "And all of those scrolls were her work ? Was being entombed with them a reward ? Or a punishment ?" "... I - do not know." TT answered as she picked one at random and unrolled it. "Tax forms." she noted as she took yet another one. "This one is an assay for one of the properties of Theth-Ka. An inheritance from his grandfather ... ink blotch ?" She looked at the scroll more closely. That blotch was NOT a mistake - it looked like somepony had first tried to scrape the name off, then covered it with ink. She checked a few of the other scrolls, and of those that mentioned him, they too had the name of Theth Ka's grandfather obliterated. "I've heard of this. A very rare punishment - Erasure from the Scrolls of Eternity. Every mention of the punished one's name anywhere in the kingdom will be obliterated. Any statues depicting them will be destroyed. For a culture that revered being remembered, Erasure was the harshest punishment they could inflict. But you'd have to do something truly vile and unspeakably horrible to earn such a fate ..." TT mused for a bit. "That does sound like the sort of pony that Shuren would be interested in finding ! She has a Remembrance Stone. I suspect it probably does more than record memories. So either Theth Ka's grandfather made the thing, was the first to use it, or knew more about how to use it than anypony. So she's probably down here in Saddlelon trying to find, well, whoever he was. Any information on the grandfather has most likely been destroyed." she finished with a sigh, before realizing something, "Unless it was sealed away where nopony would ever find it. Like inside a sealed tomb, full of death traps and ancient curses. After all, if nopony can get to the name, it essentially does not exist !" She looked through the scrolls. They gave very details descriptions of everything Theth Ka owned. Now if she could just figure out what the landmarks reported in the land surveys were referring to, she'd know where Theth Ka's tomb probably was ... ! *** It took a bit of effort to convert a room at the inn she was staying at into a dark room, but she was surprisingly successful. TT had taken as many pictures of the ancient tax forms as she could, figuring it would be better to work somewhere more comfortable. She'd figured out the locations of the sites she'd visited, wrote them down and sent them to the Saddle Arabian Department of Antiquities - the sites were THEIR history, so they deserved first chance at discovering what else was in them. The table was covered with maps and reams of notes as she tried to figure out where Theth Ka's tomb might be. She was squinting at an old map when she noticed the light from the lamp seemed a bit blue. She looked up at it and noticed the glow around it. "Wait a minute ! That's a unicorn's telekinetic aura !" she managed to note before everything went black ... Tongue Twister struggled to her hooves, shaking her head to clear out the cobwebs before she looked around. "What am I doing out here in the middle of the desert at night ?"[/i] she noted as she looked out upon the endless dunes, "And when did it get so late ? The sun was just setting the last time I looked !" She checked her saddlebags. They were empty. Were there supposed to be items in there or not ? She didn't know. She tried to think. She'd been doing - something somewhere. And why was everything blurry ? She reached up and felt her face - she wasn't wearing her glasses. "Not THIS crap again !" she screamed as she realized she'd been hit with a memory altering spell or two, for why else would she be out in the middle of the bucking desert at night with NO supplies of any kind and without her glasses ? A malevolent smirk crossed her muzzle as she sat down to concentrate. "Good thing I took precautions against this very sort of thing !" she mused, "Now let's see how well that Memory Vault I had dad get for me actually works !" She clutched the saddlebags to her chest, focusing her attention on the pearl hidden inside a hard to notice seam. It was one of a perfectly matched pair - its twin was in an ugly statuette currently hidden in a drawer back in her dad's curio shop . Any memories forced out or altered in her mind were copied into the Vault in their original state before the memory screw spells could change them; the Memory Vault enabled a way to reset memories to what they were before they were altered or erased. The memories flowed back and took their rightful place in the stream of consciousness : * she'd noticed the latern change color - a unicorn had grabbed it to momentarily distract her. * then a Narcolepsy spell struck. It reduced muscle tension in her body to zero. She didn't have the strength to open her eyes, or even wiggle her ears. Essentially, her body was asleep, but she was fully aware of everything going on around her ! * from what she could hear, there were two stallions ransacking the room, taking items off the table she'd been working at. Then they rummaged through her saddlebags and took everything in there ! The Circlet of Mnemnosine. The Wandering Eye Gem. The Squealer's Stone. The Winged Slippers. The Florilegium Mischiefii. Her notes and journal. Even her glasses - ALL TAKEN ! "As a mere civilian, she isn't worthy to even have items as crappy as these ! Where do you think she got the silly idea that she could be anything more than a hostage, victim or useless bystander ?" "Probably read one too many spy novels." * Teleported to the middle of the desert, where one of them blasted her with a memory erasure spell. They took the opportunity to teleport elsewhere while leaving her there, knowing it would take a minute or two for her to recover. Her jaw tightened as her blood began to boil with rage. "THOSE ARROGANT DUNG STAINS TOOK MY STUFF AND LEFT ME OUT HERE ?!" she screamed as the black on the bottom third of her legs began to writhe, then expand and envelop her in black flame. Her nightmare form is NOT an alicorn - tall like one, but has mercury tentacles instead of wings, and instead of a horn had what looked like a bone helmet covering most of her head. As the flames dissipated, six orbs formed from the smoke still swirling around her. Then opened like six, cat-like eyes, looking in six different directions at once. Sometimes blinking to teleport elsewhere at random. "ALL RIGHT UNIVERSE - IF THAT'S THE WAY THINGS HAVE TO BE ..." she sighed as she powered down immediately. The Nightmare Mode effect dissipated. Like she'd done nothing at all. "... so be it. I'm tired. I'm going home." she muttered as she turned and started walking in circles to calm down. "You're quitting ? Where's that limitless optimism you were so proud of before ?" "Dead. Optimism is no match for reality. I had no chance of stopping Shuren. Or even slowing her down. Or figuring out what she was really up to. It was stupid to think that anything I - or anypony else - did would make any difference at all. It's like the bard said : 'Life is but a walking shadow. A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, then is heard no more. IT IS A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT, FULL OF SOUND AND FURY. Signifying - nothing.' At least somepony has my notes on where Shuren was snooping around. Maybe somepony more competent, more important or more relevant than I will find them, since it's not my fight anymore. Doubt it ever truly was." She sighed as she looked out upon the expanse of sand, trying to decide which way to go. "They probably just picked a direction at random, then teleported as far as they could see, then to some location they knew." TT deduced, "That way, I'd need an hour or so to get back. Assuming I could spot town from out here. Assuming, of course, that I could see over these dunes ! If I could still fly, it would be easy enough to gain enough altitude to look around !" "Is that why they took your glasses ? To give you trouble finding your way back ?" "No. My glasses were a graduation gift from my parents. They had some minor enchantments on them. Those goofs simply took everything with a touch of magic about it." "Wait - you had nearly half a dozen minor magic items in your possession ? Have you been hiding your light under a bushel basket this whole time ?" "Yep." "WHY ?!" "Using them would draw attention and glory away from the More Important Ponies. And THAT is something that is Simply. Not. Done !" Abomination slaps own face with hoof. "WHY ?!" "I am a Nothing. I am not allowed to do anything useful or important when other far more Important Ponies are around." She smirks. "But since there's nopony else around, the restriction is moot ! First Path of the Way of the Nothing : Glorious Irrelevancy. Since nothing I do will ever matter, I can do anything I want ! First things first : getting back to town. I really need to see where I'm going, so I'd best put my glasses on !" she said before rummaging around in her mane, and retrieving her glasses. "?! Weren't those taken from you ?" "Yep. They're cursed with the Bad Penny hex - I literally can't get rid of them ! I could throw them away" - she tosses them without looking - "and they'd come back !" she said before reaching into her mane to retrieve them and put them on again. Realizing she'd still need some height to see around the dunes, she shaped her alchemical mercury wings into three pillars and stretched upward as far as she could safely - thirty feet. She stopped for a moment to concentrate, before tapping the left side of her glasses three times. The tiny runes engraved in the frames lit briefly and granted her telescopic vision. "Pretty neat, huh ? These glasses grant any vision enhancement effect I can imagine, for up to five minutes, three times a day. Oh look ! There's a town right over there !" she stated as she shifted her wings back to their normal shape, then headed towards what would be (to unenhanced vision) the barely discernible lights of town. "Hope you like prison." the Abominatin chuckled, "Shuren warned the locals about you and Sombra. Your faces are on some local wanted posters !" "So ? I am not worth the effort to arrest."

TT humming 🎵 "Shades of night are falling and I'm lonely Standing on the corner feeling blue Sweethearts out for fun Pass me one by one Guess I'll wind up like I always do With only Me and my shadow Strolling down the avenue Me and my shadow Not a soul to tell our troubles to And when it's twelve o'clock We climb the stair We never knock For nobody's there Just me and my shadow All alone and feeling blue" Nondescript hotel room, sometime later ... "Well, THIS is an annoying situation !" TT groused to herself as she rummaged through her saddlebags, "The game is severely rigged in Hou's favor. And she can't win, lest Equestria suffer. Eventually. At least STAR knows about her. By the 'rules', as the Hapless Messenger, my job - and the right to be involved - is over and done with. What did mom say at times like this ? 'If you do not like the rules, change the game !' " TT found what she was looking for : Mnemnosine's Circlet. Considered by many 'in the know, powerful magic users' to be a piece of junk, it could only look a few weeks into the past - for a total of one hour, once a month. No color. No sound. And it absolutely will NOT reveal the perpetrators of any sort of criminal activity (mainly to ensure the circlet isn't too overpowered or overtly useful). So it will not show you who broke into your room and stole your wallet just a day ago, even if the other conditions are met. As a final insult, it could only be used by somepony with unicorn blood (since unicorns could cast a spell far more useful and effective than what the circlet could provide, it made having the artifact even more pointless). Magic is many things. Such as the ultimate cheat. And riddled with loopholes for those clever and twisted enough to look for them. So Tongue Twister carefully balanced the circlet on one hoof, then gave its edge a quick push to start it spinning while singing the Neighpalese chant to activate it - being the daughter of a unicorn meant that she is technically of unicorn blood. With absolutely no idea of what disguises Hou and friend were using, there was no way to search for them specifically. So instead of looking for any secretive activity, she merely searched for any ponies quickly packing up and leaving the library a few minutes before she and Sombra got close - nothing specifically criminal about that, right ? Then wrote down what books and scrolls they'd been reading. "At least we'll have some clue what Hou was looking for." TT noted to herselves, "Now we just hope we can figure out where she's headed. And maybe get ahead of her and disrupt her plans a bit." She caught the spinning ring before it fell. It had provided some help - the LAST bit of help she could get from it for another month. "Once more unto the breach !" she mused to herself as he headed for the grand library to track down Hou and friends' reading material ... *** After hours of reading through the texts Hou and her accomplice had been reading, TT deduced that the most important pieces of the puzzle were in the book that they'd taken from the library. Now the question was : how to get that information. The library MIGHT have another copy of the tome. Not wanting a rare, one-of-a-kind book to be damaged or stolen, librarians have been known to have copies made and put on the shelves, keeping the rare originals in special rooms with very limited access. And if it was a popular tome that many ponies were looking for, having several usable, high quality copies to lend out would make everypony's life that much easier. Or, more likely, a local researcher has a personal copy of the pages relevant to their research. That way, they could mark their copies up with notes and suggestions, and no one is knocking on their door every half hour yelling "HEY ! You done with that book yet ? Other ponies are doing research too !" And THEY are not forced to go knocking on somepony's door and yelling "HEY ! You done with that book yet ? Other ponies are doing research too !" "The book was on the pre-dynastic history of the region. Specifically rulers." TT noted to herself, "So now I just need to find somepony who might have used that book enough to have notes or copies of pages made !" After a quick look at a local map, she headed out, looking for the professor's offices. For if there was anypony around here that MIGHT have what she was looking for, it was one of the instructors in the ancient history of their own lands !

Tongue Twister looked around, and decided that something should be done about those shadow panthers. She didn't know what, so she called in some help. She sat down, closed her eyes, and then tented her wings around her as she entered a meditative state. The shadows around her stirred, then flowed together into a large translucent pony beside her. It was easily twice her size, with sharp teeth and eyes that glowed green. It looked around, then hung its head and sighed heavily. "You manifested me in the material realm for this ?" she asked, gesturing vaguely at Hou's constructs, "A complete waste of effort. Yours and mine both !" "Meh. Had to see if I understood Neighpalese tulpamancy well enough to use it. Seem to." TT replied, eyes still closed to maintain her trance. The entity quirked an eyebrow at TT. "I know you're still burning off that dark magic, but why like this ?" "Just doing what dad says." The entity tilted its head and looked at Tongue Twister. "You will have to be more specific." the entity stated, "Dad - says many things." TT smiled. "If it seems like the world needs you to do something, but refuses to provide even the slightest hint of a suggestion of a clue as to what, do something stupid !" The shadow entity growled and glared at Tongue Twister as it darkened. "We didn't mean that you are stupid Zagzig." she stated, "Just the solution to this situation. So, while you're here, would you mind dealing with those shady creatures ? Please ?" Zagzig quietly mused for a few moments. "Oh, very well." Zag replied cheerily, "I could use a snack !" Zagzig extended her massive wings and gently waved them as they went vertical. Then the gaps between the feathers extended as the feathers became longer and wavy - within moments, Zagzig had eight long tentacles extending from her back where her wings once were. Some of the writhing tentacles ended in a needle-sharp point, some ended in razor-sharp blades, and some ended in what looked like claws or mouths. And they shifted between their various forms at random as they lengthened to nearly sixty feet long each. Zagzig hunkered down, bracing herself to be nearly immovable. Then looked around slyly, tail waving in wide figure eights, and grumbled "Hmm - eenie. meenie. mynie. DIE !" Her tentacles lashed out at all shadow panthers simultaneously. They were either impaled, cut in half lengthwise, or grabbed, swung overhead and smashed down upon another shadow panther. She unleashed the barrage twice more. But oddly, the only things damaged were the shadow panthers - Zagzig's tentacles passed through material objects without disturbing them in any way. For being a mental construct composed of psychic energy, she couldn't affect material objects. Creatures made of magic, on the other hoof, were quite susceptible to her attacks. Zagzig sat back on her haunches, opened her mouth and prepared to consume all the freshly liberated magical energy before Tongue Twister spoke up and said "We wouldn't do that. Those were Hou Shuren's constructs. They can't be good for you. Or anybody." "I don't even get a snack for my troubles ?" Zagzig replied. "Those 'snacks' could have been made with soul energy. Hou can do that sort of thing. Probably." "All the more reason she needs to be stopped !" Zag' replied, "The one who took the skies from us is probably nearby ! We should hunt her down before she gets away !" "What would be the point ?" Tongue Twister asked, eyes still closed in meditation, the feathers of her liquid metal wings interlaced, "This is just a repeat of White Tail Woods. She has an accomplice. Hou is causing trouble here to give him time to get away. Technically, she's already won, and there is no point in fighting a battle that has already been lost." Zag groaned. "This is all going to turn into a standard Equestrian Drama Story, isn't it ? The Big Bad Evil will accomplish their goal unimpeded and in secret. They will attack 'from nowhere', effortlessly slapping down all who oppose them with unstoppable might. Then, when all seems lost, at the very last moment, Harmony's Chosen will pull a miracle out of their backsides and save the day ! Right ?" TT sighs. "Most likely." "But didn't we join that organization to PREVENT that sort of thing ?" Zag continued, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof, "To put a stop to evil threats before they caused drama and excessive property damage ? 'To stop a big problem, stop it when it is small' ?" "Yes. But we don't have the authority or ability to actually do anything." TT replied flatly, "We're a first level scholar character squaring off against a ninety seventh level omniclass fighter/bard/rogue/mage/cleric/paladin/monk/alchemist/necromancer with attack bonuses over five times our hit points ! We'd have a better chance winning a punching contest against Cyttorak, or pinning Cthulhu in a wrestling match !" Zagzig thought for a moment before shrugging and stating "You always were an optimist. So, what now ?" "No idea. We could just pick a direction at random, and head off that way until we run across them. We'd put the odds of THAT working at about one in three hundred sixty. Oddly, the best chance we might have ! We could talk to the librarians and other patrons, but with no idea of who we're asking about, or even IF we're asking the ones who might know something, any success would be from dumb luck. I'd put the odds at about a hundred thousand to one against. Plus Hou has spies and servants everywhere. Good chance that any information we got would either be a wild goose chase, or lead to a death trap." "Well, at least a death trap or a wild goose chase would be something to do ! And doesn't she consider us some kind of experiment ?" Zag inquired, "Would Hou terminate us for being annoying, or just put us into a dangerous but barely survivable situation to see what we're capable of ?" TT shrugged and sighed, since she knew that her successes depended NOT upon how hard she worked, or how clever she was, or even the roll of a dice ! All that mattered was someone else's whim. Succeed or fail ? Live or die ? She had absolutely NO say in any matter that concerned her ! "Later then !" Zag saluted before fading out of existence. Tongue Twister struggled to her feet as her wings sort of flowed around her, tucking themselves under a cloak. "Well, THAT was intense !" she stated to anyone that could hear, "Anyone for some cider ? I'm buying !"

"Gads ! I haven't felt this frustrated since I was a filly !" TT grumbled to herself, "Is there TRULY no way to win here ?! Or even get a draw ?!" She took a deep breath as she recalled the last time she felt this way : TT snapped out of the flashback much calmer than before. "We're going to have to find some other way to figure out where Hou Shuren went." she mused to herself, "I'll have to assume she covered her tracks far too well for anypony to have any chance of discovering anything here. Q : Why is something always in the last place you look ? A : Because as soon as you find what you're searching for, you stop looking ! IF there were a way to detect the residual energy of her magic when she moved the books via standard unicorn telekinesis, all we'd have to do is look for the book with the greatest remaining energy, since that was the last thing she looked in ! But I have no idea WHERE in the library she was looking, and this place is HUGE ! And the longer it takes to look, the weaker the residual becomes. Guess wrong, and the signal is gone before we even had a chance to find it ! Not sure if there is a spell like that. Or if I would be 'allowed' to cast it even if it did exist. The only bit of good news is that there aren't that many places to go from here."

Tongue Twister watched the shadow panthers, trying to figure out WHAT they were. Psychic projections ? Manifestations of rage ? Thaumic constructs ? Certainly not illusions ! She didn't know, couldn't guess, but decided that for the moment it really didn't matter - they could be solid enough to do damage. They didn't seem to harming any pony, but that could change on a whim ! "This is comic book villainy 101 !" she noted to herself, "'If being pursued, endanger some bystanders, and escape in the chaos !' It's White Tail Woods all over again ! Except THIS time, there's a crowd. Which means the local law is going to show up soon and Start Asking Questions. At best, they'll delay us for a few hours. At worst ? Days, maybe months, depending on the legal system and how much behind-the-scenes influence Hou has here !" The only way to figure out Hou's next move would be to ask about in the libraries to see what she's been reading. Only problems are that she was in disguise, and this is a BIG library ! We'd have to search through every list of every book retrieved BY EVERY STALLION AND MARE PAIR DOING RESEARCH AT THE TIME ! And even then, there is no guarantee we'd uncover the pattern of what she and her friend were looking for; we'd be more likely to either find someone else's research/plot, or go off on a random tangent. Given her centuries of experience being covert, it would be near impossible to pick up her trail by any means. This will be quite a challenge ... "But as uncle Legbreaker says : 'if someone slams a door in your face, find a nearby window and fly in ! Or a nearby wall and smash through with brute force !' Or the Caballeron Routine. Why expend effort when you can just hold back and let that adrenaline junky Daring Do find the temple, neutralize all the traps, defeat the guardian and get the McGuffin ? Then just mug her as soon as she exits the temple !" She noticed that Sombra was battling somepony with his shadows. "Sir ! This battle is a completely pointless waste of time !" Tongue Twister shouted to him, "It might be best to get out of here and regroup before the local law arrives ! They could make things - complicated !" Especially with an Equestrian celebrity in the fracas ....