Chapter 42 – History of the Egas
"Maybe we can weld the ships together like we did last time?" Breeze asked.
"No extra plates. Plus, Rarity would kill us if we somehow scratch this paint." Rainbow Dash said.
The six of them began thinking hard, no one coming up with any kind of idea. Syls leaning back into her chair, Tris with her head in her hands as she leaned forward. Honor sat with his arms folded across his chest and his eyes closed as if meditating while Chivalry looked around her environment to see if the answer presented itself. Rainbow Dash sat perfectly still, her mind moving swiftly as she tried to think of a way out and Breeze just hung there, his body limp and forelegs nearly touching their hooves to the ground as he groaned loudly from the almost immediate boredom. Syls groaned as well, and looked forward, a frown on her face as she just let her eyes narrow in thought, and let her eyes open wide in surprise "Is that a…" she began, catching everyone's attention, "…Gate?" The others looked to where the nose of her ship was pointed, and they all saw it, there was a gate, smaller than the rest, but a gate none the less, and it seemed to shift sizes and color faintly, almost as if it weren't actually part of the world that they lived in. "That is a gate!" the Dryskian said, and quickly gripped the controls of her ship, Rainbow Dash being the only one of the three pilots to move before she did, as the three teams raced after it.
The three were surprised when the gate itself moved away from them. "Are Gate's supposed to do that?" Rainbow asked.
"Never seen one move in my life." Syls said and gripped her controls tighter.
"This feels unnatural." Honor said in response and was surprised when the gate simply stopped, grew to the appropriate size, and allowed all three of them to pass in the order of Rainbow Dash, Honor, and then Syls. They stopped again, glancing around and viewing a large open area just like the last place they were in, "Is that it?" Rainbow asked.
"Incredible." she heard Honor say, and turned to see what he was looking at. The pegasus and Syls both looked up, again spying a giant mural but this time the colors bent and moved as if they were light passing through water. Instantly Breeze turned to the moving pictures and pressed a button on his console. The light danced in such a way that it depicted a scene, the dark serpent would rise up from behind the rocks, fly through the sky and breathe dark fire to the ground, then, a white long serpentine dragon with a ring around its head and tail would come down from the sky, rain lighting and fire on the serpent, and knock it back down through the ground. Each time the serpent came back up the fight between them was different, from lighting and fire to stone then spears of light. Each of these would cause the serpent to fall back into the ground until one time when the serpent was struck with a particularly large spear of light, then the dragon wrapped itself around the serpent and brought it back up to the sky with it.
"Wow." Rainbow said, and the silence was all that followed.
"Another." Chivalry called out when the lights didn't come back, "To the right."
The three pilots turned, again seeing a gate that seemed like it couldn't keep its form or color, and they turned, racing towards it. And again, this gate ran from them. "What the hay is going on?" Rainbow asked as she trailed behind Syls, "First a mural in a pit, then a gate that moves on its own, then a light show with a story to tell, now another gate?" The path it took wasn't straight at all, it zigged and zagged before arching in a wide turn, and then coming to a dead stop and changing into a proper gate. Syls and Rainbow Dash made it through nearly together, Honor only trailing behind a little.
Again, the three of them stopped, no gate in sight, "What will we witness now?" Chivalry asked.
Back at the garage; Writch, Tusks, and Pilit rapidly typed every command they could think of to get Rainbow Dash back onto the coms. "I don't get it; the floor didn't even look that far down before everything went blank." Pilit said in curiosity.
"You think it's some kind of interference?" Writch asked.
"I've already checked for {snort} all kinds of dampers and the like." Tusks said, "It's not like {snort} anything natural could do this."
Suddenly the group heard the loud sound of the garage door and something striking it with some force. Three times the sound echoed throughout the room, each member of the team glancing at each other to see if they had invited any guests. Then everyone turned to Pinkie Pie, "Whaaaaat?" the pink mare asked in genuine confusion. The knocking began again, three strikes against the metal of the closed door. Pinkie, with caution, lifted from her seat, and made her way to the door at the side, the door itself vanishing as she approached it so she could look outside to see what was making that noise.
There stood a pair of Treeopons, a male with smaller tusks and a female with what could only be described as a beautiful face and a folder in her hands. The male turned to see Pinkie standing there and waved as he realized they had been discovered. "Hey there!" he said, getting the female to turn to the mare.
"Um…hi?" Pinkie said and waved back.
"Is this the garage of Rainbow Dash?" the female asked.
"Yes?" Pinkie said and pointed her hoof to the rainbow hair.
"My name is Uza." the female said, "And this is my fiancé is Prin."
"We helped Rainbow Dash get out of the {snort} chasm during the second race." Prin said to the mare.
"Oh, whew!" Pinkie said as she whipped her forehead, "I thought you might be a crazy fan who wanted a lock of her hair or a feather from her wing or something."
Prin and Uza both looked at each other, and turned back to smile at Pinkie a bit nervously, "No! I don't know what I'd do with those things."
"Never mind." Pinkie said as she waved it off, "Come on in."
"Hello!" Uza said as she entered the garage, "I didn't expect there to be such a small team." In response, Prin simply poked his elbow gently into her side and shot her a look of disapproval, "I mean, it's great to meet you all."
"We may be small but we're the {snort} best in our field." Tusks said with pride, "What brings you to our {snort} garage?"
"My name is Prin and this is {snort} my Uza." Prin announced.
"Oh." Tusks said as he realized just who they were, "Come to strike a deal?" Writch and Pilit immediately glared at the male.
"Oh no." Uza began as she explained, "Nothing like that. You see Rainbow Dash asked me to send you guys some pictures but never told me how to get them to you. No LyneLink or T-Mail address…nothing."
"What kind of pictures?" Twilight asked as she came up to the Treeopon.
"It's been a while since I've actually printed pictures out, so I hope the quality is good." Uza said, and handed the folder to Twilight. She was shocked when the alicorn grabbed the folder with her magic, a tug and a faint glow told the Treeopon to let go, and both were shocked to see it float there before moving towards the purple mare.
"Yeah." Writch said as she neared Uza, "I never really got used to it either."
"What are these?" Twilight asked, and Pilit found herself drawn to the open folder in front of her friend, "Murals?" the alicorn asked, "Of what?"
"I don't really know?" Pilit said.
Writch decided she was going to have a look, and her face dropped in shock and horror, "Oh my Egas." she said, "I remember my Grandpa telling me about this before he died, a story about an evil and the Egas."
"Wait, the Egas was an actual thing?" Twiggs asked.
"Is Egas like our Princess?" Applejack asked.
"If your Princess is like an ancient GOD then yes." Writch said, "The Egas freed this world from an ancient evil long ago, even before these worlds were inhabited. In fact, the reason life even exists on this planet is because of the Egas. It battled the ancient evil and banished it from the galaxy, letting its light shine as the sun and life return. All of the Terranuil System is alive because of it."
"How come nopony else even mentions this Egas, you'd think Spike and I would have run into its story in the museum or something!" Twilight asked.
"It's not like the story is real?" Writch said, "But it's crazy that these murals depict that story exactly. How old is grandpa's story?"
"Where did you find these murals?" Pilit asked.
"In the cave near where we crashed when Boar shot us into the chasm. It looked like an ancient temple that had gotten buried or something." Uza explained.
"Then Treeopon's have been worshiping the Egas for centuries." Twilight said and smile the same smile Pilit had, each stretching from ear to ear, "Fascinating!"