Celestia bowed her head to enter the cave, glancing upwards at the roof until it rose again a few moments later, where she stood tall once again. She looked behind her to make sure the others were faring alright, which was answered as they too deserted the raging snowstorm in favor of the interior of the cave. Celestia removed her hood, the others in the group following suit, all of them looking at the walls that held strange markings, intrigued by them, even though they had all seen them before.

The walls were grey and unmoving, as one would expect from stone, but etched into them were long lines that criss-crossed along in strange patterns. All the lines had been filled in with some kind of blue luminescent paint, giving the cave atmospheric lighting. Celestia recognized them from her memories of an old clan of ponies, long before the tribes had united, their numbers had diminished as they passed away and joined other tribes until there was none of them left. No doubt that they’d come here before fading away. This was the kind of paint that they’d used for shrines and other buildings of great importance.

The discovery of a site like this, somehow untouched by the elements, was a magnificent find all by itself. But the ponies had spoken of something else in the chamber, even further down, at the core of it. Something alive. When they decided that she’d needed to hear of it they all left together, no one wanting to stay behind alone with the thing that none of them could adequately describe. The accounts ranged from minotaur to bipedal pony to varying explanations and comparisons with Discord, and that was why Celestia was here. She wanted to know if there was trouble entombed in the stone here, if there was something of dark power waiting to emerge.

The exploration team led the way, progressing through room after room of paint lines and rock. They came across their own small encampment, the one they’d set up when they needed to rest for the night, and the ponies took a moment to gather water and a granola bar or two. They’d only needed to get to open air to send the message after all, after that they simply had to wait for a response. When Celestia asked about the supplies, wondering how long a walk it would be and if she should do the same, they assured it wasn’t necessary. They didn’t need it, they explained, they had just wanted to be prepared for the worst.

Celestia was happy to hear of their preparedness and was more than willing to accommodate it. She waited for the ponies to get the supplies together, not more than a few minutes at most, and they continued. This time they came to another stop only moments after having begun, moving to the edge of the encampment. One of the walls stood resolutely under the gaze of the explores, and Celestia dared a glance among them to make sure they were okay. “This is an illusion.” Explained the lead of the group. “Pike found it when he stopped to rest. Lucky he did, we never would have found it elseways. It can’t be detected with spells, an oddity that we still can’t explain.”

To prove his point, the leader raised his leg and pushed against the stone, only for his leg to disappear through it instead. He nodded to Celestia and proceeded through, the rest of his group only a few steps behind. Celestia held her ground for a moment, checking the claim of the lead, and found it was true. Even to her strongest spell it was as if the wall was merely stone. Not even that it wasn’t there, it seemed to be stone. She moved through the stone and past it, following the group once again through a very similar setting as the rest of the cave.

It seemed, at least, that the clan had found this secret as well. Or they’d been the ones to set it up. Celestia wasn’t sure anymore, because even though she’d left the wall far behind physically, it still stayed with her mind. There had been several amazing feats of magic of course. But an illusion so strong that it didn’t give off any magical aura? In fact, only gave off an aura of stone itself? The level of deception was astonishing and Celestia found herself more intrigued to see what creature or being demanded such intricate protection.

The group grew quiet and Celestia realized that she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The air seemed to grow tense and thick as they progressed. But whether it did or if it was a trick of the mind Celestia couldn’t say. The lines on the walls stopped suddenly, leading down into a room. The walls were even colder there, and they were a clean grey as opposed to the rough colors of the cave.

A dim flickering light shown from the roof, the source unknown. And in the middle rested a small pod shape. Similar to the cocoons of the changelings. There was one side that was clear while all the others were opaque and as Celestia moved closer and closer with the group she began to see a form with increasing clarity inside of the strange device.

It was curled up in a fetal position, legs to it’s chest. But that was where Celestia lost the ability to describe it herself. If pressed, she would say all the researchers had been correct in their descriptions. It was bipedal and yet it seemed so out of order. It’s legs, for one, were entirely different from it’s arms. The colors were different and the bottom half didn’t look organic at all, it was far too square. There looked to a schism of some kind, across what Celestia could only assume was a stomach. And it separated the thing into two dichotomies that may have made sense as two separate pieces, but seemed mismatched as a whole.

She moved around the pod and looked at the back, where a pattern of lines marked the skin. These were also blue, but unlike the marks in the cave walls, they were straight and jagged. As if a line had started and then decided to go a different direction instantly and randomly. Regardless of the chaos that the lines made on the skin of the creature, Celestia was able to trace them all back to one point, a small nodule in between the shoulder blades.

Hair decorated the top of the head, but there was very little elsewhere. Some on the arms and a few nigh invisible strands on the neck seemed to be all there was on the creature. A fact that proved it was not from here, at least not originally. It would be far too cold without any sort of body hair. The skin, at least on the upper half, was peach colored, slightly pink with a dab of orange. But the bottom half looked like the walls. A clean grey.

The being inside the pod shuddered suddenly, causing even the stoic Celestia to take a step back in precaution. The others of the group had flinched away as well, some more quietly than others. They all looked to Celestia and she in turn looked at the creature. It seemed peaceful enough. It was thin and not all too muscular. It seemed rather weak really, as it lay there in the pod. But she knew that looks were very rarely everything. It could still hold the potential to wreak havoc on her little ponies just as easily as it could be a kind soul to them. Celestia determined she needed to know which it was.

She stepped forward to look at the creature from the front again, a lineless ageless face mirroring her own was there, its eyes closed, its features without expression, so alone for some untold time. She wondered about what stories it might have, about what life it might have lived. She was pretending that she didn’t need to do what she was preparing to proceed with. Even if it was a requirement she despised doing it without permission, to dig into someone’s minds and see their secrets.

She wondered if the creature would allow her to, if it was awake and conscious. If it would share the stories through words instead of intimate thoughts. But as she weaved the spell in her horn, she put away the pretending, she needed to give her escorts a briefing on how this would happen. She just wished, one last time, that it wasn’t necessary.

“I’m going to link minds with it.” She said stoically. And while the escorts might’ve wanted to refuse it, to beg her against it. The calm in her voice caused them to simply look at her with questioning eyes. “I need to figure out if it’s malevolent or not.” Celestia explained looking at the group. “But I need your help to make sure nothing goes wrong. I would like to slightly link with one of your minds as well, just enough to share thoughts. It will give me the ability to pull myself out if need be. I need an anchor so I can stop myself from drifting too far in unknown seas.” She explained with finality, ending with a short sweet version to describe her plan aptly.

“I’ll volunteer.” Said one of them almost immediately after Celestia had finished. The stallion glanced at his friends for a moment before stepping forwards. “Everyone else has work they need to do back at the camp, but I can spare a moment.”

“Oh like we’re gonna leave ya here Pike. That wouldn’t be very nice of us now would it?” The leader responded with a grin. “‘Specially since you’re helping out Princess Celestia if the world’s in trouble, the least we can do is hang around and make sure it goes alright.” The others gave their agreement and Celestia turned to look at Pike.

“Whenever you’re ready Mr. Pike.” She said, attempting to give the most neutral tone she could so that he wouldn’t feel forced to continue if he didn’t want to.

He looked to her, than back to the leader. He took a deep breath, looked to Celestia and nodded.

Without any more of a ceremony, Celestia carefully attached the line of magic in her horn to both minds she was trying to connect to. But while it barely so much as hung on a strand of Pike’s hair. The strand of magic to the unknown creature dived through the skull and towards the brain. She stopped it at the edge, wanting to avoid anything too in depth if she could manage. And, with a nod of her own to the group, she closed her eyes.

She opened them again elsewhere, in a fuzz of grey and white, moving like static against the walls. There was no floor here and there was no sky. There was barely any memory at all. Almost everything was blank. Only that strange crackling fuzz that made up the setting seemed present, and it confirmed to Celestia that she would need to go deeper in to find this creature, the mind had withdrawn from the world and was hiding deep inside the brain now.

She moved the strand down slowly until an image began to make itself appear against the walls, there were moving shapes but it was still far too hard to see anything. She moved closer again and she began to see colors. A little bit more gave her sound, and a small skip more removed all the blur. She stopped there, watching the scene unfold before her, happy she hadn’t need to go any farther in.

There was, moving around in front of her, another one of the strange creatures. Celestia tried her best to tell if this creature was split so strangely as well, but gave up as it seemed to be wearing far too much clothing for her to get a definitive answer. Strange, given the lack of clothing of the one in the pod. She heard voices, and it sounded familiar, but just off kilter. The language wasn’t quite Equestrian, nor was it anything she’d heard before but there was a twinge to it that was recognizable.

Celestia realized she was getting a partial translation from the connection between brains, and she delved just a little more to get the full version. As familiar noises came to her ears she was once again enraptured in the strange story playing out before her. She recognized now that she was viewing a memory from the eyes of the being itself, and that this creature before her was a good friend. No… more than that…

The other being was laughing, and then she… no. The being was laughing too. They were both laughing. The other one moved over to a table and put a disc on. She recognized the gramophone, she was surprised they had something so similar to the one that inhabited many an Equestrian home, she didn’t know why, it vaguely made sense but she couldn’t put it together. It occurred to her that the answer might be further down in the brain, that it might be a slight leak like the translation. But she didn’t allow herself to invade any further. She was here to judge the character of the creature, not to steal it’s secrets.

. The tune was bouncy, it was a very nice song. Celestia thought she’d heard it before, but she wasn’t absolutely positive if it was from her own memory or not. Both the beings danced together to the song, they kept laughing. Celestia felt like laughing. Everyone was so happy here.

Then, without warning, the image changed. She was staring at the face of the creature that was in the pod. But it wasn’t in the pod. It was in a mirror, and she was looking out of her eyes and seeing it there instead. “What are you doing in my head?” Came an echoing voice, and Celestia was put off as the mouth of the creature in the mirror didn’t move when it spoke. “Why are you here?”

“I needed to see if you were benevolent.” Celestia answered truthfully. “I needed to make sure you presented no trouble for my ponies.”

“Who are you to judge that?” Came the voice again. Celestia paused in thought. She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure how to answer. She wanted to reassure the creature she meant no harm but when she made to speak the mirror was gone, the face was gone. Celestia was back on her own hooves and the pod was open. The memory dive had ended, and Celestia hadn’t been the one to call it off.

The creature stared back at her and all around the ponies who had led her this far moved behind her for protection. The creature gazed back and didn’t speak. It took Celestia a moment to realize it was still waiting for an answer. So she gave it one. “I’m no one to decide.” She said carefully but resolutely. “If you wish to show us instead, I would be happy to help you do so.”

It looked back at her, eyes still and empty. Then stood from the strange place where it had slept for so long. It lifted itself off and let itself drop to the floor. The strange feet made a sound like swords colliding as it hit the ground but duller and more full. It moved to the wall and ran a hand along it. Lights emerging from the dull grey like fireflies on a summer night. A small compartment opened and the creature took the shirt that hung inside.

It fell loosely over it’s form, as it had been for someone wider than it. And then moved towards them. It stood still, looking over all of them, from Celestia to the ponies who still stood behind her in fear. Then it looked back to Celestia, and waited. She nodded in return, some strange understanding about the look it gave, and she faced the fearful. “We’re going back to the camp I think, do you have a spare bed?”

“Of course your highness, we always have a spare pack set aside in case one of our discoveries draws you from Canterlot.” Responded Pike, the first to recover of the entire group.

“It’s not for me, Mr. Pike.” She said with a smile and began to head back towards the cave tunnel. The other ponies all glanced towards the strange biped, then amongst each other before they followed after Celestia.

Despite being behind everyone at the start, causing many ponies to look back at him every few steps or so, the biped soon overtook the group, moving through them and to the front, where Celestia let him lead. She let him keep the distance he’d gained but made sure not to lose sight of him around any corners. They came to the fake door a short time after it had taken the lead and instead of stepping through it as the ponies had on the way down, he stopped in front of it. The ponies looked at him, wondering if he didn’t know about it, but after a moment the being ran his hand along a side of the wall. There was a flicker, and then the wall disappeared completely from view, as if it had never been there in the first place.

The ponies looked at the emptiness in awe, but the biped simply moved through it without any fuss. It approached the camp and sat down on the cold floor. Celestia would have expected it to move quickly to a different place, the cold stone against it’s still bear legs would surely not be a very comfortable spot. Instead it just sat, unperturbed, on the ice cold rock. The ponies looked amongst each other uneasily before the leader of the group approached Celestia, his face saying far more about his emotions than his words were about to.

“Are you sure this is safe Princess?” He said, his tone full of so many worrying things that he didn’t want to linger on.

“Sir, the reason I won’t be needing a bed tonight is because I won’t be sleeping.” She said simply as she looked to him. He took the hint and an expression of relief spread across the faces of the researchers like wildfire. While Celestia was happy to have eased their fears it also filled her with worry. If these researchers, who specialized in the unknown, were too scared to give him a chance to prove himself, what were the odds that the ponies in Canterlot would? Or anywhere for that matter?

Author's Notes:

Right so I LIKE this story. Unfortunately that means that you all are going to HATE it but whatever. It's worth a shot.