Garble's fists hammered at the forcefield again. The glowing cracks spread. Why is it that they always crack? Shining Armor found himself wondering madly. They're not even solid! He dismissed the thought as irrelevant, only to have it replaced by another: Why aren't the others attacking the shield as well?

The answer occurred to him in the next moment, as he regarded the expressions on the other dragons' faces. Because he's the leader. He's got to show them how tough he is, by taking the shield down alone.

Chunks of the shield began to disappear in showers of sparks. Looks like he just might do it, too. Shining tapped his walkie-talkie for general broadcast. "Earth pony and unicorns, split to the left and right, then focus your fire on the dragons to the left and right of the big red. Pegasi, lightning on the airborne ones. All groups hold your fire till my signal."

"What about the leader?" came the reply.

"I've got that one covered," Shining said. The tip of his horn began to glow.

With a thunderous boom, the shield broke. Jagged golden lines raced across the dome from the shatter point, growing wider and wider, merging, till the last shard of the dome vanished. Garble surged forward down the broad avenue, gloating, his toadies falling in behind. He laughed as the ponies underfoot scattered to the left and right.

Then all Tartarus broke loose.

As soon as they stepped into the kill zone, lances of fire and ice and other forces you'd have to sit down with a unicorn textbook to describe rose from the rooftops on either side of the wide boulevard and smashed into Rockjaw and Grundle, staggering them. Scrag and Flange swooped in, only to have the tiny scattered clouds they were winging through spring to unholy life, lashing both of them with dozens of bolts of lightning. They spasmed and crashed to the ground, taking out several buildings with them as they plowed into the pavement.

High above, Roller Reel whooped and switched to wide-angle lens to take in all the mayhem.

Garble yelped in surprise at the sudden onslaught and hesitated. That was all the opening Shining Armor needed. His horn blazed to life and, leaping over the defensive line, he charged.

Alone.

For years there wouldn't be a soldier who didn't speak of that moment in awe. Thanks to Roller Reel's footage there wouldn't be a one called a liar, either: the prince of the Crystal Empire, charging a dragon single hoofed. As he ran, magic leapt from his horn, forming ahead of him in the shape of a giant, shimmering ram's head.

As planned, Garble was too distracted by the chaos exploding all around to notice what was bearing down on him till it was too late. The force field battering ram struck him square in the gut, winding him and knocking him backwards on his tail. The red-scaled giant fell backwards into the white dragon behind him, and they both fell to earth with a thunderous crash.

There was a moment of silence, then a roar of triumph rose up from the defending forces. Catapaults, unseen behind buildings blocks away, began raining giant crystal spears and lumps of quartz on the prone dragons. The pegasi redoubled their efforts with their clouds, pouring down lightning and hailstones. And Shining Armor hammered his fallen target with blasts of pure force, pummeling Garble and Blizz anywhere he could get a shot as he galloped back and forth across the road.

This was the point they might have won. If the pegasi division had been at full strength, if there had been just one more division of unicorns, if the earth ponies, crystal and otherwise, had just a few more trebuchets up and operating, Garble and his gang of inexperienced slacker dragons would have been routed. But there simply wasn't enough incoming fire to keep them down; only enough to keep them enraged.

The tide shifted back when Garble managed to lift up his head and roll over onto his stomach. He lifted himself up on all fours, sighted down the street, and inhaled.

Shining Armor saw the signs barely in time. he switched from blasting to casting a massive shield between the inhaling dragon and his men, just as Garble unleashed a torrent of flame. Unicorn fire crews ran for their lives as the gout of flame splashed off the shield and washed over the buildings on either side. Crystal walls cracked and melted in the heat; buildings crumbled into glowing rubble.

"Burn 'em!!" Garble roared. His crew followed his example, spraying fire in every direction. Clouds vaporised, pegasi diving to save their comrades or simply fleeing with burning manes and feathers. Artillery that had crept too close-- and too close was anywhere within a city block-- ignited.

Grundle and Rockjaw, infuriated, turned to a more tactile approach. After a cursory blast of flame they spun about, lashing the buildings with their tails. Dozens of closely-packed buildings fell, and several more beyond them, toppling like dominoes.

Shining enlarged his wall, trying to shield as many of his fleeing soldiers as he could. "Retreat!" he shouted over the Walkie Talkie. "Fall back to secondary positions!" Every soldier immediately pulled up stakes and began moving back, falling back along the thoroughfares and the catwalks overhead. Shining galloped after them, carefully following the path through the side streets and alleys that he'd laid out as safe, holding his dwindling shield up as long as he could. "Unicorn Alpha, have your crews been busy?"

"Affirmative, Commander Shining," came the reply. "the S&S(1)crews got out all their toys to play today. Just watch your retreat path, over."

"Good work," Shining said. "Let's see if we can't make these buckers' stroll through town a little more entertaining."

High above, two pegasi hovered, a canvas basket dangling by ropes below them. All that could be seen of its passenger was a film camera, angled up over the rail and pointing down. Slowly Roller Reel's head reappeared. He wet his hoof, put out the smoldering tips of his mane and regarded the devastation below. The six dragons had gotten to their feet and were standing in the middle of a couple city block's worth of smashed buildings and smoking ruin. Many of the buildings had toppled domino-style, taking out entire streets of houses and businesses in a sunburst pattern, some almost clear to the palace. "Holy Maker," Roller breathed, sweeping the camera across the mess.

"You okay down there?" Eagle Eye shouted.

"Yeah, just a little crispy round the corners," Roller shouted back. He looked over his basket; the outside was blackened with soot. The pegasi had pulled up in the nick of time.

"Sorry about that-- didn't expect the flames to reach that high!"

"Yeah, well we might have to drop down that low again," Roller said. "Is that cool?"

"What??" North Wind said in disbelief. "You got so close you were nearly crispy cooked and you want to get down that low again??"

"It's the only way to get close enough to the action!" Roller said.

The two pegasi airlifting him shared a glance; it was clear they weren't sure whether to be impressed with the colt's sheer guts or stunned by his craziness.

"Hold up," Roller said. He switched over to his telescopic lens. "Bring us back in-- they're up to something--"

Garble dropped to one knee and opened his gunny sack. "All right, let 'em out," he said, spilling his diamond dogs on the pock-marked street. The other dragons followed suit, dumping the luckless dogs in a heap. "All right, you losers," Garble said to them, his face so close the dogs could smell the napalm on his breath. "Spread out and start scrounging for loot. Bring everything you find back here," he pointed at the ground imperiously. "And stay out from under our feet, got it?"

"But what we carry--" the black diamond dog started to say.

"I DON'T CARE HOW YOU HAUL IT BACK!" Garble roared, parting the dog's headfur with his breath. "Just do it!... and if you try to run off on us..." He doubled up one fist till his knuckles cracked. The sound was like boulders breaking in half.

"You got it, boss," the black dog gulped. The diamond dogs scattered, disappearing among the ruins.

Garble stood up and looked towards the castle. The ponies had thrown up another forcefield... a much smaller one, one that covered less than half the diameter of the one before. Only the palace itself and the few city blocks around it were covered.

"Come on, fellas," Garble sneered. "It's time to go to the castle and see the Queen."

The ponies trapped in the tomb hadn't gone more than a few steps before the glow crystals in the ceiling began to flicker back to life. Sighs of relief went up as they slowly brightened, banishing the sepulchral darkness. Everypony looked around themselves as the chamber illuminated. Scholars being scholars, some of them even began examining the engravings and the crypts lining the walls and taking notes.

Applejack sidled over to Twilight, who was still fiddling with the eye stone. "Ain't this somethin' to look at," she said to the unicorn. "Don't get me wrong but I cain't help feelin' a little bit of family pride here... all o' this, and every bit of it earth pony work, if'n the legends are correct."

"It should be easy to tell," one pony professor said. "Look for chisel marks. If it has them, it's not unicorn work-- unicorns generally don't use chisels."

"I don't know, professor," one mare said. "I've seen some earth pony stonework that you'd swear was formed with a Stone Melting spell..."

"Still, it's easy enough to determine," he countered. "The sub-surface layers with such will show no granular compaction and there will be microscopic.... hmm..." the white-goateed pony narrowed his eyes as he examined a bas-relief carving, his horn glowing.

"What is it, Professor Keen Bean?"

"Well, this... it's very odd. It's got neither the interior fractioning of chisel work, nor the granular compaction of stone melting spellwork. Or it does but the pattern is almost... plant like. As if the crystal had, well, GROWN here in this shape."

"Like rock farming?"

"Only rudimentarily," he insisted. "Even without magic any pony can duplicate crystal growth with a bit of super-saturated liquid and a bit of string. What rock farmers do is more or less the same-- starting with a seed crystal and using earth magic to make minerals in the soil crystallize with it. No, this is... far more complex than anything I've seen on any rock farm."

"Dun dun dunnnn," Pinkie said behind him. He yelped and spun about, glowering at the pink pony. His assistant just giggled.

"Not that I'm complaining," Dash said to nopony in particular. "But isn't this place awful big just for burying one or two ponies?"

"Not really, Dash," Twilight said. "The Crystal Empire existed for hundreds of years before it fell under King Sombra. There would be hundreds of ponies buried down here. Maybe even thousands."

"Yyeeurgh," Dash commented. "Just so long as that list doesn't include us."

"Indeed," Keen Bean murmured. "As we proceed inward we should probably come to a main burial chamber where the majority of the bodies were placed. It will be rather sizeable and... oh, my...."

The group came to a halt. They had reached the end of the tunnel... but not of the tomb. The tunnel opened up on an enormous circular chamber, hundreds of feet across, large as an amphitheater. The walls were lined with hundreds of crypts, set in recessed holes in the walls in a spiral that slowly circled and ascended to the domed ceiling . A brook ran from a carved crevice on one side of the chamber and looped around it in an intricate, three leaf clover pattern, between rows of raised walkways, before disappearing down a hidden drain in the center of the floor.

The pathways were grooved as well, filled with earth and covered with blooming plants and grass. At the lobe of each spiral grew a single tree, the water passing beneath its arched roots. And at the center of the maze stood...

"Wowie Zowie," Pinkie Pie whispered. "It's so.. pretty...."

Standing at the center, dominating the whole chamber, was an enormous monument. The center was a single pillar of quartz crystal that glowed with daylight. On each side, facing outward, stood six pony statues of white crystal: two unicorns, two pegasi, two earth ponies, each in a different pose. The whole was on a raised podium of polished marble.

"How... why haven't the plants overrun the place?" One pony marveled. "Or the water eroded everything away?"

"Magic," Twilight Sparkle said, her horn glowing anew. "Spells to keep the plants pruned, the stones protected from the water..."

"But the trees! They should have grown through the ceiling in a thousand years... the roots--"

"Shoot, that ain't nothin,' " Applejack said. "It's an old earth pony trick. You cut the roots a certain way, an' a tree won't never grow no bigger'n you want. Got me a cousin, Bonsai Banzai, over in Neighpon. Grows itty bitty trees, no bigger'n this." She held a hoof about a foot or so off the ground. "Cute li'l things. Makes for some teeeeeeny li'l apples though..."

"Earth pony magic, all of it," somepony said. Nopony, not even Dubious, spoke up to disagree.

Carefully the ponies navigated the pathways and shallow canals to the center of the chamber. Some chose to walk the wide earthen paths; others skipped over the runnels of water and made their way straight in. Soon they were all gathered around the base. "Well, this is it," Twilight said. "This is the Tomb of the Founders. And this," she pointed to the monument sitting in the middle of the underground garden, "must be Level Head's crypt."

"Okay," Applejack said. "So where's this hidden library or archive or whatever, then?"

Everypony paused at this disappointing revelation.

"It must be the crypt of all  of 'em." Rainbow Dash said, circling the monument in midair.  "See? Six statues." She was of course correct.

"It must be statues of both the three leaders AND the three founders," Twilight said.

"But which is which, I wonder," Dubious murmured. Indeed, the statues were, after all the ornate crystal carvings thus far, surprisingly simplistic... giving just the most basic likeness of a pony. Beyond the most basic indications of gender and race, there was no telling the six apart.

"We certainly have time to figure that out, at least," Memento noted. "Fresh air, plenty of clean water-- and I do believe those are fruit trees, actually...."

"Hey, look, my hoof fits!" Pinkie said suddenly, giggle-snorting. Everypony looked. It seemed the podium had the imprint of a golden horseshoe below each statue; Pinkie had, naturally, hopped up and plunked her hoof into the groove the moment she saw it. There was a clunking, sliding noise.

"Oh horseapples," Rainbow Dash said, clutching her pith helmet in her hooves. "It's a trap. I knew there'd be a trap, there's always a trap."

"Pinkie, don't move," Twilight said anxiously.

"What?" Pinkie pulled her hoof away. There was another sound-- instead of a clunking, sliding noise, this was a sliding, clunking noise. Everyone froze, grimacing.

Nothing happened. Then, after a long, breathless wait, more nothing happened. "What, a dud?" Dash said, confused.

Twilight walked around the base of the monument, pondering. "No...." she said. "I think.... I think it's a combination lock."

"What? Whaddya mean?" Dash said.

"Think about it. 'One Alone Was Not Enough.' That sounds like a reference to the Hearthwarming tale. No one pony was enough to ignite the Crystal Heart. It took the three Founders together to light it. It fits, it matches. Look---" she pointed around them. "three spirals. Three trees. Three statues standing and three statues kneeling. We have to figure out which three statues were the Founders, and press the horseshoes to unlock the crypt."

"I think you've got it," Professor Memento said in admiration.

"But what if we pick the wrong three? What if we set off a death trap?" Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight stamped her hoof. "THERE ARE NO DEATH TRAPS!" She shouted.

"Ironically we are in agreement," Professor Dubious said. "Really, Miss Dash, THINK. This was a mausoleum that was in constant use. Putting booby traps in a temple or mausoleum would just endanger the ponies using it. It would be like-- like laying booby traps around your kitchen!"

"I've had to do that from time to time," Dash pointed out, scowling.

"I-- buh-- wha?" Dubious blinked.

"You've never tried to keep a batch of fresh muffins away from Derpy."

Dubious blinked, then wisely let it slide. He turned back to Twilight. "That still begs the question--- which three are the Founders?"

"Smart Cookie, Private Pansy, Clover the Clever," Twilight muttered. "Wait. We know from the journals that Commander Hurricane was a stallion, and that Pansy was a mare-- so the female pegasus must be Pansy!" She pressed the corresponding hoofprint. There was a click and a rumble. "Good. One down, three to go..."

"Unfortunately the unicorns and earth ponies are the same gender," Dubious muttered. "There must be some other distinguishing mark. Their stance? Their pose?" He circled the statues in the opposite direction of Twilight.

"I remember reading somewhere that the statues in the great gryphon war memorial were posed in a specific way," Twilight said. "Standing on all fours meant they survived the battle; one hoof raised meant they were wounded---"

"--And both forehooves raised meant they died in battle. I know the legend, yes," Professor Dubious said. "It's not true, and yes, I searched the records to confirm; the placement of the hooves is completely random. But that does give us a starting point. How is Pansy's statue different from Hurricane's?"

"Ooh I know," Pinkie said, pointing. "She doesn't have a--"

"PINkie---"

"Well look, it's right--" an orange hoof corked Pinkie's mouth.

"We all know, sugarcube," Applejack said patiently. "It really ain't relevant right now."

Twilight looked the statue of Private Pansy over. "....She has a hoof pointing down at the hoofprint," she exclaimed. "Commander Hurricane doesn't." A quick examination revealed the same was true of one of the earth pony statues, and one of the unicorns as well. Eagerly Twilight pressed the appropriate marks. "Hah!"

There was a great deal of thumping, sliding and clunking from within the statue. Then, once again, a tremendous amount of nothing. "I don't get it," Twilight grumped. "Another false combination?"

"Ahem. Um." The ponies turned; one of the interns, a crystal pony mare with a green mane and soft violet coat and a bashful demeanor that reminded several present of a certain animal caretaker, stepped forward timidly. "I... um... the engraving?" she said. "Over the doorway outside? It said 'one alone was not enough.' Maybe it means one alone IS not enough. Maybe you need to press all three at the same time?"

The professors looked at each other. Twilight grinned at the mare. "Dubious, take Smart Cookie. I'll take Clover the Clever. And Miss?"

"Um, Amethyst, Ma'am," the mare said.

"Would you do the honors and take the hoofprint beside Private Pansy?"

"Oh. Oh! Of course," she said, tiptoeing nervously to stand in front of the statue.

"Okay," Twilight said. "On three. One... Two.... Three." All three ponies pressed the marks. Once again the sliding and clunking noises started. This time they didn't stop. After several breathless seconds, there was a loud rumbling from the far side of the chamber, and an enormous panel of crystal block slid aside. A lit chamber was visible just beyond it.

"Yes!" Twilight said. There was an eager, if cautious, rush toward the door.

They gathered at the new doorway. One of the more practically minded workponies jammed a pickaxe under the sliding door, jamming the mechanism open.

It was a smaller chamber, though still sizable, carved of plain stone rather than crystal, and appeared far older. Memento confirmed it. "Much older work," he said. "I suspect the larger chamber was made many years after this one... to mislead graverobbers and such. Judging by the dust, this chamber was completely forgotten shortly afterward."

"Clever," Keen Bean said. "Any intruder would assume that the antechamber was the true crypt. Any slightly more clever one would assume that Level Head was entombed underneath the statues and would waste their efforts trying to move it... or damage the door mechanism trying... without ever uncovering the real crypt. Only someone familiar with the whole legend could figure out the lock combination, and even then would only be able to unlock it with the cooperation of others."

Inside the chamber, yellow glow crystals hummed to life. The chamber was well illuminated by a bright, sky blue light in a recessed pocket directly overhead. If Twilight hadn't known better she'd have thought that the roof was open to the sky outside. There were a small number of crypts, their markings identifying them as the resting place of elders and close kin. In the center of the tomb were two large crypts, topped with elegant statues carved from ageless marble of the ponies within, reclined, as if in sleep.

Beyond them, against the far wall--

"YES!!" Twilight squealed. "This is it! They're here!" She galloped to the far wall and began looking over the stone shelves.  Books, at least a hundred of them, books and scrolls and even tablets, layered in protective spells and even some in protective crystal, perfectly preserved against the ravages of time. A quick cursory glance told her what she needed to know: they were the research papers of Level Head, Smart Cookie, and Clever Clover into Earth Pony magic. She picked one up in her magic and opened it, carefully. There was even-- she used her magic to turn through the pages carefully-- even a rudimentary primer on earth pony magic, suitable for a young foal. Still a rough draft, but-- "They're here! They're really really here!!"

In seconds she was surrounded by the more bookish-inclined researchers, all of them hurrying to retrieve and preserve the discovery of a lifetime. The clamor was astonishing. Brushes and cleaning implements and preserving spells, ponies frantically transcribing information into fresh parchment and taking notes...

"Holy loopty loops, what is this all about?"

Twilight carefully set the scroll she was examining back on the shelf and turned around. "What is what?" She didn't have to ask, really. Not once she got a second look at the larger of the two crypts.

The statue on top was of three ponies, rendered in exquisite detail. You could count every hair in their manes, every feather in the wings. An earth pony stallion, a unicorn mare, and a pegasus mare, all lying together, intertwined as if they had just fallen asleep. They were so lifelike Twilight half expected to see their chests rise and fall as they breathed.

Twilight walked around the crypt and read the inscription. It took her a moment to translate from old Equiish. "Smart Cookie, His wife Clover the Clever, and Pansy, the first of their herd. May they run free and happy in the Summerlands."

"Wife??" Applejack exclaimed in surprise.

"Herd??" Rainbow Dash added in.

Twilight's rump thumped on the floor. "Well doggone," she said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Boy, the Hearthwarming Pageant THIS year is gonna be REAL interesting," Pinkie Pie noted.

1)Sappers and Saboteurs.