Out of all the things I'd expected to see in these massive ruins, a massive galleon that apparently had fallen in through the roof and landed against the side of the wall was not one of them. In fact, it was the farthest thing from what I expected. So far, in fact, that I didn't move for a full minute, taking in the massive, and somehow nearly perfectly intact, naval vessel.

The ship couldn't have been here more than ten or twenty years, although I couldn't be too sure. The sails were rolled up but I saw their color as being a deep crimson. The wood was painted a similar color, and on the outside, I could see the faint outline of a name: Howling Raider. Right above the crow's nest I saw a black flag hanging. Reaching up, I spread it so I could see what it had on it. I raised an eyebrow when I saw a white parrot skull and crossbones. "Pirate ship," I stated.

"Pirates?" Spike said worriedly.

"I doubt there are any around anymore," I said. "This ship looks old. But be on your guard just in case, okay? We'll make this place our camp for the night when we're done. I'm sure there's plenty to burn on there. Let's just remember where we need to be when we come back."

"Alright," Spike agreed as we began heading down the hallway.

As we passed the Howling Raider, I took the time to examine it more closely. Ut had all the markings of a naval vessel. The underbelly was curved in just the right way, there were cannons sticking out of the port and starboard sides of the ship.

Or is it a naval vessel? Instantly, I remembered in the movie the pirate ship that could fly through the clouds, although they used something like dirigibles to keep the vessel afloat. I didn't see anything like that here. Despite that, it made sense that magical flying ships could exist in Equestria. It also could explain why there was not only a hole in the ceiling but why it was so far from the Celestial Sea. It wasn't like a tsunami had brought it here.

"That ship probably could fly at one point," I said, mostly to myself.

"Really?" Spike looked at the ship with renewed interest. "Think it still can?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Guess it depends on how long it's been down here. Not like you and I could fly it out ourselves. It's a full-on galleon. We'd need a crew."

Spike nodded, a look of slight disappointment on his face. "It'd be fun to play pirates back home," he said.

"You know, when we get back, I'll ask Twilight if you can watch Pirates of the Caribbean," I said with a small smile. "I'm sure if you can handle something like Skyrim without nightmares, I'm sure you can handle that movie series. But for now, onward."

Leaving the possibly flying galleon behind, we made our way deeper into the ruins. As we passed by the destroyed ceiling, the light began dimming so I had to recast my Candlelight spell. Despite being potentially older than Pony civilization itself, the ruins seemed to have held up remarkably well. The arches which held up the interior looked like they'd been carved from one stone. I couldn't see any evidence of masonry of the normal kind, and the unusual magic I felt permeating the ruins was of a type I hadn't quite felt before. The floors, for the most part, were clear of any major debris, the only exception being the crashed pirate vessel that we'd left behind.

We walked by more murals painted or carved onto the walls, although these seemed more mundane than anything else. Some depicted small treaties being made between Dragons, more knighting scenes, and other stuff like that. If I had the time, I would have loved to go exploring more, but since I was on the clock, I needed to continue searching for the Sunsword.

Still, a part of my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned to Spike. "You've hung out with Twi all your life. Did she ever mention how old this planet is?"

Spike, who'd been looking more carefully at the walls than I'd been, started and looked at me. "Sorry?"

"How old is Equestria? The planet, not the kingdom. Twilight had to have mentioned it at some point, right?"

Spike furled his eyebrows, concentrating. "I…I thought she did, and it was some big number," he said, "but I can't remember what."

"Eh, no worries," I said. "It's just…Dragons strike me as being a very ancient race." I gestured to the walls. "I mean, look at how old this place is. It's probably older than Celestia and Luna."

Spike's eyes went wide. "You think so…?" he asked in a voice filled with awe.

"When this is all over, maybe the Dragons will let some archaeologist explore and catalogue this place," I said. "I'm no archaeologist myself, but I think having some qualified experts here could shed some light on ancient Dragon culture." I stopped and chuckled a bit. "Ah, I'm rambling again."

"Dragons are old…" Spike was muttering to himself, clearly overwhelmed with this new information.

I smiled. "Yeah, you come from an ancient race, Spike."

It might have been my imagination, but Spike seemed to stand taller, prouder than before. He had a determined look on his face now, but suddenly it vanished and he looked at the ground, a look of worry on his face. "I hope I can live up to their…their um…what's the word?" He looked up at me questioningly.

"Their expectations," I guessed.

He nodded. "Yeah. I hope I can be a worthy Dragon. Even if all the ones I've seen are just bullies."

"You already are a very worthy Dragon, Spike." I ruffled his spines. "You know, you remind me of a character from one of my favorite television shows: Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was an alien living in a human society, and he became one of the most honorable of his kind in the galaxy. If I'm right, you're a lot more like the ancient Dragons than modern day ones. Those Dragons built this place to last, and they obviously had higher standards than Dragons today. It's okay to be proud of your race, Spike. Even if you were raised by Ponies."

The young drake looked up at me hopefully. "You think so?"

"I know so."

With that, Spike stood taller and prouder again, a small smile plastered on his face. "I'll make my ancestors proud."

You already have, Dragon-boy, I thought to myself with pride. And you made me proud, despite the punishment awaiting you at home.

We continued making our way down the hallway for a good ten or so minutes, not seeing any kind of doorways or entrances to other rooms. All we saw were more murals and a few banners hanging against the walls. I only saw two that had fallen from their spots. Most had depictions of what I could only assume were famous dragons whose likenesses had been sewn into the banners themselves. The more I saw, the more I was impressed by how long this place had held up for, especially if it was millenia old.

Finally, we reached the end of the hallway, but to the right of us, a massive ramp rose up to another level of the castle. Here, I dimmed the lights since there were what had apparently used to be stained glass windows lining the left side of the ramped hallway, along with massive chandeliers above and ancient torch sconces on the right. I reached up, grabbed two of the torches, lit up my wing and tried to light one. To my surprise, it came to life immediately and shone a fire brighter than I could have expected. I turned to Spike. "Here, take one too. This way I won't need to waste magic."

He took the torch and blew on it. His green flames caught the torch and it too lit up with the same type of light as mine. "Whoa…" he said in awe.

"No kidding," I said. "Come on, let's see what's upstairs, huh?"

Unlike the hallway we'd been exploring, the walls to our right didn't have any sort of murals or depictions on them. Instead, they were all blank, save for scorch marks directly in front of the broken stained glass windows. When I looked closer at the windows themselves, I saw that the glass might have been broken, but a solid mesh of spiked metal holding the windows in place was still there, presumably to keep any invaders out. The more I saw, the more I wondered what could have happened here. If invaders had indeed caused this massive castle to be abandoned, why had it been so easy for a galleon to have fallen into the palace? Could this place have been abandoned due to the war between the Dragon and Fae? If so, why hadn't anyone come back and attempted to break whatever spell had been placed to keep Dragons out? And if a battle had taken place, had they evacuated quickly or slowly? Would we see bodies somewhere?

I was so wrapped up in my speculations that I didn't even realize we'd reached the top of the walkway. Another hallway stretched down to our right, only this one had crimson red carpets lining the floors. I frowned. This is a good way to muffle sounds, so why did they put them in? I wondered.

"Dragons had carpets?" Spike said in complete confusion.

"You think you're surprised? I've seen the show and how Dragons live nowadays. This kind of comfort doesn't seem like the type of thing a modern Dragon would even consider," I said as we walked down the hallway.

"How do Dragons live?" Spike asked.

"From what little I've seen," I began, "modern Dragons have some kind of society, but they're wild. Sure, they listen to their Dragon Lord, but that's about the only form of rule they have. They just do whatever they want, whenever they want. There aren't any nobles, no form of trade with other nations, the total opposite of Ponies. They don't do tea, they don't have pillows…it's sort of like they're living in a post apocalypse world. Kinda sad when you think they used to live like this."

Spike nodded. "I wouldn't wanna give up pillows or tea."

"I'm with ya there, Dragon-boy. Especially those beds that Luna gave me for my main house."

Spike grinned. "They are comfy."

"Comfy doesn't even begin to describe-Hello, what's this?" I stopped in front of a massive metal doorway which appeared on our left. It looked like it was in the exact middle of this hallways length. It was simple and to the point, a pair of arched double doors made of what looked like solid gold. On the left I saw a massive yellow gem with smaller ones spreading out from the edges like some miniature representations of solar flares. On the right, a light blue circular gem was embedded in the door, carved in just the right way to represent the patterns of craters I'd come to associate with this world's moon. "I'll betcha dimes to dollars this leads to that throne room I saw."

"Throne room?"

"Yeah…I have a feeling that, whoever ruled here long ago could do what Celestia and Luna now do," I said, pointing to the gems which represented the sun and moon.

Spike looked up in awe once more. "My kind…used to move the sun and moon?"

"Seems that way," I said as I raised my hands. The doors began glowing, and I pushed on the edges. To my relief, the sun stone and moon stone both began to glow brightly. I felt magic flowing out of me into them, so I focused more on those gemstones instead. Soon, the light illuminated the entire hall.

Suddenly, the torch sconces on the wall sprang to life, as did the chandeliers on the ceiling. I quickly pulled my magic back, but the crystals embedded in said chandeliers continued lighting up, moving down the hallway away from the doorway, which now began to slide open, moving inward just like the massive gates we'd passed through outside.

As we walked through the door, the familiar glowing throne at the very back of the room flared up. Illuminating the room in a warm orange glow. On the walls, I saw some kind of trough that lit up with fire, further illuminating the room. However, as we walked in further, the fire trough on the left side of the room remained the same while the one on the right began morphing into a silvery lunar blue. Strangely enough, the throne seemed to do the same, the right side becoming a silvery glow as the left became a sunny warm yellow.

Then Spike screamed in fear.

I looked down, only to see him looking back the way we came. He'd latched onto my pants, looking terrified. Following his gaze, my heart stopped as I saw something that made my heart leap out of my chest.

Skeletons. A good number of skeletons lay on the floor around the still open throne room doors. Only they weren't Dragon skeletons. I couldn't figure out what kind they were from the distance we were at, so I slowly made my way up, hand reflectively going to my sword. To his credit, Spike did the same, still hiding slightly behind my legs as I approached one of the skulls. Kneeling down, I carefully touched it, then lifted it up in my hands.

The skull was avian, judging from the curved beak I saw and the eye sockets located more in the side of the head instead of at the front. Once more, I thought back to the My Little Pony movie and the anthropomorphic parrot pirates. A part of me feared that these were the remains of said pirates, but I shook that thought away, since when I looked around, I didn't see any sort of clothes or hats.

Only one sword still in its scabbard.

Unsure why, I walked over to the set of bones the sword rested against. This set was the only one intact, leaning against the right wall. There was a large pile of dust sitting around a pile of gold coins, which I ignored in favor of the common looking sword. I reached down and picked it up, drawing it curiously. It wasn't anything special, a long saber with a long hilt guard. No decorations, no gems encrusted on the hilt, nothing. There was nothing special about it.

Which made it all the more confusing when I began undoing my belt and strapping it to my side. There was something about it that made me not want to leave it alone. I couldn't feel any magic coming from it, but my magical senses weren't as attuned as Twilight's, or any normal Unicorn for that matter. To me, it was just a plain old sword.

I resolved then, right there, that I would take back this sword and lay it on the ship itself, to honor this poor creature's demise. The sword would be returned to its proper home on the ship, even if I couldn't bring the bones back.

"I think we found the pirates," I said as I looked down at Spike. The poor guy was trembling and had a shell-shocked expression on his face. Immediately, I felt guilty for getting caught up in the discovery of the bones. I picked him up and held him tightly in my grasp. "Spike…I'm sorry…you shouldn't have had to see that. Come on, let's go back to the campsite for the night. It's been a long day for both of us, and we both need a rest."

"…No…" was all that he said before he wrestled a bit, moving away from my grasp and staring at me with what looked like brand new resolve. "We came here to find this Sunsword. I knew I might see stuff like this, and I came anyway."

I felt pride swelling up within me. Familial pride. Maybe we had a more father/son relationship instead of a brotherly one. It certainly felt like it. Or both. "You know, for a moment, just for a moment, I forgot just how brave and bold you are. And how smart you are." I gently put him down and looked at my phone. "It's just past sunset now. We should search this room. If anything, I'd expect a throne room to be the best place for something as important as the Sunsword to be located in. Now come on, let's see what this throne room has to offer, huh?"

He nodded. "So…where do we start looking?" he asked.

I looked around, then pointed to the far right corner of the room, right in the lunar portion. I pointed in that direction, and Spike quickly rushed towards it. I fell into step beside him. "We'll start there and go clockwise around the room. You look low, and I'll fly up and look high. Keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual. Cracks that could be artificial, for one."

"Aye aye," he said, saluting as we finally made our way to the corner.

The throne room itself was massive, much like the rest of the castle. Aside from the fire troughs in the walls and the glowing throne, the room looked somewhat empty. We walked around the room counterclockwise. Unlike most throne rooms I'd seen in images, and admittedly anime, this room had no windows. It made sense considering that this was where the king or kings would rule from.

As I flew up to the corner of the throne room, a part of me, probably my Pegasus senses, noticed the large mosaic on the floor. It was a simple white marble spiral inlaid in black marble. As I looked for anything that might help us, my Pegasus instincts also saw the same mural of history from the Dragon's perspective. When I took a closer look, I also saw something that looked like writing. My mind immediately translated them into Ancient Draconic. The language itself had a fluidity that could almost resemble flames. In the back of my mind, a cursory history began to form.

Apparently, according to this mural of Dragon lore or myth, the first Dragons came to life thanks to their first creator, a Dragon deity named Ignu. The first two Dragons to be born from Ignu's fire breath alone were given the power of controlling the sun and moon. Ignu, not wanting the first Dragons to be lonely, created other Dragons from the mouths of the surrounding volcanos. They were blessed with the ability to create fire because of their volcanic heritage, but the first two Dragons were still much more powerful and could control the movements of the heavens.

Ignu, wanting to protect his new children from harm, created a safe haven for the Dragons, a virtual paradise full of gems to eat, game to hunt, and gold and all sorts of minerals necessary to build a civilization.

Since the Dragons were long lived but still mortal, Ignu knew that, one day, the two he'd created to control the sun and moon would eventually pass on, leaving no one to maintain the movement of the heavens. So, he gave one command to the first two Dragons: have children of your own, and when you pass on, make sure you give your gift and knowledge to the child born with the same gifts. For Ignu promised that, out of all their children, only one of each would be able to cast the same level of magic as them.

With that, the Dragons built up a civilization. From the depictions, I saw a vast city with the very same castle we stood in at the direct center. I saw the very same image from before of the female Dragon which had set me off towards the heart of the Dragon Lands to begun uncovering the plot. If what I was seeing was true, then Dragon civilization, at least before their apparent fall, was more than ten thousand years old, since ten generations of the dual rulers of the land had come and gone.

I eventually came to the end of the mural which ended right above the throne. There, hanging from a massive and somehow untouched banner hanging directly above and behind the throne, unseen since the throne reached to the ceiling itself. That was where I stopped. The mural itself was incomplete, but I was more interested with the content of the banner itself.

Sewn onto it, I saw two powerful looking Dragons standing in armor. One was a light crimson with massive horns and a spiked tail. The other was a silvery gray dragon with downward horns, again similar to Ember's. Above their heads, I read the words Sol Invictus and Luna Invicta. In their claws, I saw them both holding what looked like two halves of a massive broadsword that had been split down the middle. The two stood on opposite sides of a sewn on depiction of the castle as seen from the front.

Looking down, I saw Spike looking up at the banner, a confused look on his face since he was too close to the wall to see anything. I reached down, encased him in a magic bubble, floated him to where I was and turned him to face the banner itself. "Whoa…" he said.

"No shit," I muttered before covering my mouth. "Sorry."

He waved his claw. "Eh, I've heard worse from the Canterlot nobles. I'm not as innocent as Twilight thinks I am, remember? But is that really the Sunsword?" He pointed at the large sword in the hands of Sol Invictus. The handle looked remarkably similar to the Dragon sword I'd picked up, with dragon wings for crossguards, a spiked tail for a handle, and a broad blade with spikes near the bottom. The sword was depicted as being aglow and had flames bursting off of its surface,

The other sword held by Luna Invicta was practically identical to the other half of the Sunsword. I wasn't surprised that it was labeled Moonsword. Like its brother, it too was aglow, but with a silvery lunar glow. "Huh…wonder why he didn't ask for the Moonsword too," I thought.

"They look like they're meant to be joined together," Spike said.

I frowned. "Hmm…I mean, it makes sense, but now we need to find out where it is."

Spike pointed at the depiction of the castle. "Maybe where they're standing?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they're standing on opposite sides of the castle, right? And I saw some towers where they're standing."

I raised an eyebrow. "It…couldn't be that easy, could it?" I said aloud.

"No easier than 'speak friend and enter'," Spike pointed out.

I smirked and flew around the throne, heading towards the middle of the spiral mural with Spike close behind. We both landed and I let him out of the magic. "Well, I guess it's a place to start, at least. Hang on, lemme try something." I closed my eyes, trying to remember the details of the castle that I'd taken in when we were outside. The image of the castle appeared in my mind's eye and I focused on the edges of the castle itself. It was a bit hard to distinguish between the many different towers, but eventually I spotted one in my Pegasus driven memories that looked out of place. One on the western side, or my left, stood slightly apart from the rest and looked slightly more recent than the others. It also had a more simplistic look. It could very well be the perfect place to hide a weapon with a name like Sunsword.

However, when I looked towards the eastern side of the palace, the corresponding tower I saw was half gone, apparently having been torn apart by some kind of attack. Either that, or it had fallen to the ravages of time itself.

Slowly, I brought myself back to the real world, opening my eyes. Spike was looking up at me curiously. "What were you doing?" he asked as I cleared my head by shaking it.

I reached down, grabbed my canteen and took a drink before pulling it off and handing it to Spike, who took a larger swig as I said, "I was looking through my memories for those towers you mentioned. And I think I found out where we can try and search. But for now, it's getting late. We should head back to our new camp. You're tired, I'm tired, and it's probably already getting dark outside. It'd be better to do this during the daytime."

Spike yawned in response. "Yeah…I am pretty tired," he admitted.

"Come on, let's head back," I said, heading back towards the door. I then used magic to lift him up, cradled my wings and let him lay in them. "Take a load off," I said. "I'll set up camp and get something for us to eat when we get there."

Spike smiled tiredly. "Thanks." And with that, he curled up and closed his eyes.

The walk down the hall was a pretty silent one. I had a lot on my mind. Not only did I have a few things to tell Twilight the next time I saw her, but we had a possible lead on the Sunsword. And we'd discovered some sort of twin blade. The time we'd spent in this castle had been brief when compared to my flight here, but even then I was already wiped out. And judging from how sluggish Spike's steps were beside me, it couldn't have been easy for him to bundle up in a sack. He was a bold one, that brave kid.

It hadn't taken me long to set up a small campsite once I got back. I chose a spot near the fallen ship that kept us hidden from view from anyone who might look in from the hole in the ceiling.

Spike had actually fallen asleep during our walk back down, so I'd rolled out my small sleeping bag, setting him in it and tucking him in as I chewed on a piece of jerky. The sun had already set, and through the small hole in the ceiling I could see stars shining in all their brilliance.

I took a small swig of my canteen once more, then dug around in my backpack for one of my plastic water bottles. I set it next to Spike, who was now snoring loudly and curling up in my sleeping bag.

I found a spot to lean on against the galleon, yawned, and closed my eyes…

I woke when I heard the sound of something clattering a short distance away from camp. I was immediately awake, standing up and grabbing the nearest sword to me, which so happened to be the sword belonging to the skeleton I'd retrieved earlier.

Nearby, I saw Spike's shadow sit up. "Wh-What was that?" he asked with a quivering voice. "Please tell me that was you."

"Shhh," I whispered as I got to my feet. "Keep quiet." I moved forward and lit up a small portion of my finger. Spike had a terrified look on his face as I put a comforting hand on his back. I put a hand over his mouth and listened for a bit. After an agonizing half minute, something above made a scraping noise. "It'th coming from the thip," I whispered as I pointed up to the crashed galleon, making sure not to use any S sounds since those tended to carry the most. "Thtay here and thtay hidden."

Spike stiffened, then looked around. Seeing the sword I'd gotten for him lying next to the sleeping bag, he grabbed it and held it close to his chest. "Okay," he whispered.

I quietly spread my wings and leaped into the air, moving up to get a better view of the galleon itself. Surprisingly, there wasn't any light anymore. I grabbed one of the archeways and hung from it, keeping watch on both Spike and the ship itself. After a full minute, I heard another noise from the ship, and someone cursing. The voice was faint and sounded female.

As quietly as I could, I swung myself a few times, then glided down to the ship. As I did so, I heard more sounds of rustling from below deck, as if whoever was down there was searching for something. Before I landed, I surrounded myself with my magic, making myself hover for a little while before I quietly landed. Drawing my sword, I placed myself against the side of the door, quietly waiting for whoever was down there to come back up.

Minutes passed, and all I could hear was more shuffling, a few clattering noises as something fell, and a muttering woman's voice. Finally, I heard the intruder say, "Not here. Damn it!" I heard her footsteps as she made her way up the stairs. Only they weren't the type of footsteps I expected to hear all the way out here. They were the hoofsteps of a Pony.

I saw a light emerge from the doorway, the color of fire. Finally, an average sized Pony stepped out. She was holding a torch in her wings which illuminated the deck around her as she stepped onto the main deck. Her pith helmet and dark green shirt immediately identified her, as did the compass cutie mark on her flank. She looked around the ship once again, then froze. I held my breath for a few seconds before she suddenly whirled, finally facing me. When she saw who and what I was, her eyes widened. "You…?" she said in utter shock.

I glared at her, exhaling as I held out the sword towards her in a threatening manner. "I hope you're out here for a good reason, Ms. Yearling, because you could very well have jeopardized the very mission I came out here to fulfill. So tell me, Daring Do, what the fuck are you doing all the way out here in the Dragon Lands?"