There was a concept that I'd read about many times before and after coming to Equestria, that being the existence of dragon hoards. In myths back on Earth, dragons were said to have voracious appetites for treasure, so in many myths about said creatures, they would be holed up in caves, surrounded by piles of gold, silver, jewels, powerful weapons and all manner of valuable ornaments worth their weight in gold if not more.
As the stereotypes of dragons moved into the modern era, however, many authors began playing with a dragon's inherent greed, extending it to other things, such as a greed for a harem of women, which also played with the dragon stereotype of kidnapping a princess. Lust and greed are nearly identical states of being, after all.
The origin about the myth about dragon hoards is somewhat convoluted, at least from what I'd read. One possible explanation had to do with dinosaur fossils. Apparently, when digging around for gold, miners would find dinosaur bones in the same areas, leading to the myth that dragons were synonymous with gold. Another explanation, one which was supported by many linguistic experts was from Proto-Indo-European mythology. Many various monsters, although specifically large serpents and dragons, would steal things of value at the time and keep them for themselves, such as cattle and women. They apparently desired their treasures to come from those of wealth and status at the time. As the centuries passed, this changed so that instead of property, they would instead hoard gold and treasure.
With the advent of a chivalrous age during the ages of knights, this stereotype slowly gave way to the idea that dragons would kidnap princesses instead. It wasn't exactly chivalrous of a knight to slay a dragon just for their gold and treasure, but for the favor or hand of a noblewoman or princess? There could be no greater honor than that. However, as time continued to pass, the idea of a dragon hoard began to make a resurgence, more specifically in fiction writing. With stories like The Hobbit, all manner of fantasy dragons began exhibiting these behaviors again.
No one knew just why dragons would hoard treasure, since there was absolutely no way they'd be able to spend it at all, especially if they were on a world like Earth where humans were the only sapient species to dominate the planet. There were various theories, such as that dragons liked wealth just as much as humans did, or that they would eat gold, or that they kept precious mementos from exploits. Whatever the case, the idea of a dragon hoard was not a novel concept.
The concept even made its way into My Little Pony, where it was first seen in the Dragonshy episode. The episode which led to my own current financial stability as the wealthiest Equestrian in the modern era. I'd even done some preliminary calculations and came to the conclusion that I might even be able to buy all the private or business property in almost all of Equestria, but since it was just a guesstimate, I didn't take too much stock in that. I knew I had to get someone to actually take stock of all the bits I now owned, but with all that had been happening to me, I hadn't quite had the time.
All of this was why I wasn't at all surprised by the vast amount of large coins, statues made of gold, gem encrusted swords, Dragon shaped armor, ancient fabrics that would make Rarity faint, a vast collection of books and scrolls on bookshelves that lined the walls and stretched up to the ceiling, enough gems to make Spike full, and even a massive golden tree to one side. Hanging from the ceiling I saw seven large bright white glowing orbs hanging from the ceiling which illuminated everything. Each was connected to the other by a massive gold chain, a similar chain of which hung from the center of the ceiling, making it one of the largest chandeliers I'd ever seen. One piece of treasure thing that stood out from the rest was a massive statue of a Phoenix directly in front of me, its wings spread wide, eyes made of orange gems staring down at me and beak open in a large smile.
No, what I was surprised at was the size of the room. It was much larger than the room I had been in before, almost impossibly large. It looked like it was the size of an Olympic stadium, filled to the brim with all manner of treasures. I raised an eyebrow. "Bigger on the inside…the Doctor would be proud," I murmured as I grabbed onto the metal pole and stood shakily. I was still feeling weak from my magic being drained, but I felt it slowly recovering.
Despite the vast quantities of wealth I saw around me, it looked like it had been very well organized, with large paths leading between piles and sacks of gold. I stepped onto the floor, testing it for structural integrity, and when it didn't give way, I put my other food on it. I looked at the paths that stretched out from where I was. There were four, each heading out in a perfect X pattern. The room itself was perfectly square, so each pathway seemed to lead towards one corner. At the end of the square, however, the roof moved upward in a pyramid-like formation until it reached the apex where the metal pole that stuck out from the floor reached. I took out my camera and began snapping as many pictures as I could, mostly because I knew Twilight would want to see it later. "She's gonna have a nerdgasm," I chuckled as I put my phone back in my backpack.
The moment I spoke, the golden Phoenix statue began to shimmer with an inner light. And the head moved, facing me. "Welcome, welcome, to Hestia's Treasury!" Another deity name? What the hell is going on here? The statue had a fairly gender-neutral voice and spoke in Old Draconic in a very peppy tone. I couldn't rightly tell what sex the bird was, so I decided not to until later. Its wings clapped as it continued, "This is quite a surprise! I was expecting a Phoenix or a Dragon, not some unusual ape-creature with wings! How curious!" The Phoenix statue sounded more amused than anything.
A magical golem A.I. guardian, I'm guessing? Things just took a turn for the weird. I raised my hand and waved. "Hello, there."
"And you speak Draconic? Fascinating!" The Phoenix stood on its massive talons and stretched its wings. I saw a couple of gold feathers fall to the ground, impacting with a large crash. The Phoenix ignored it as the wings went back into their neutral position. Hestia looked back down at me. "Well, what can I, Hestia, do for you?" it asked. "You wish to partake in some of my treasure? If so, the one rule I have is that after you take one piece of the treasure, you must leave the way you came." Hestia pointed towards the hole in the floor. Turning back, I saw that whatever mechanism pulled the floor of the previous room up had begun falling into reverse. I looked down and saw the same cylindrical room from before.
I turned back. "I don't need anything in this room. Not unless the Sunsword is in here."
Hestia's attitude completely changed. The Phoenix's smile evaporated and the statue stared at me with a more serious and cool countenance. "The Sunsword is not to be given out lightly, creature," it said stonily. "Besides, if you wish to proceed to finding the sword, you must first find the way out of here. And, as with the place before, you cannot use magic or wings to reach the next level."
"Hmm, alright, fair enough," I said as I looked around. "So…do you give me a hint, or am I just supposed to hunt around this place for a door or set of keys or something?"
Once more, the Phoenix's expression changed, becoming one of amusement. "Among my vast collection of wealth, there is one treasure set apart. Find this treasure, and we'll talk. Just beware, if you touch one piece of the treasure, you will forfeit."
"Just like the Cave of Wonders," I said aloud as I looked around the room, then back at Hestia. "And if I touch something by accident, does that count?"
"I will keep an eye on you. If there is any accidental or purposeful touching, I will know it," it replied plainly. "I will keep my eyes on you."
"No pressure, then," I muttered as I pulled out a bit from my backpack that had managed to slip in. I chose one of the paths that split right on either side of the Phoenix, and flipped the coin. Heads for left, tails for right. It landed on tails, so I headed right.
To my surprise, the pathway began to split about twenty or so steps from where I had been standing. One led to the very corner of the room while the other turned left, heading towards the end of the room between the left and right corners. I kept my bit in my hands, electing to let chance decide the directions I would go. After flipping the coin once again, I went left.
As I continued going along, I kept a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary. As I continued making my way down the many winding pathways between the treasures, I saw bags of gold coins with a Dragon head facing forward on one side and a blazing sword on the other side, gems of every shape and size, jewelry, more and more elaborate swords of different shapes, and sculptures made out of gold or gemstones, most being in the shape of Dragons and Phoenixes, the former almost always wearing some sort of armor or clothing. I wondered if, in the distant past, they wore clothes in much the same manner as humans did, but it made little sense to me since they had scales and could literally bathe in lava.
I shook such thoughts out of my head. I can talk with Twilight about all this when I get back. Maybe it'll be something we can talk about when I take her on a date, I thought with a small smile before refocusing on the task at hand.
As I continued going onwards, I began seeing some sort of pattern in the way the pathways were spread out. They all seemed to be in a rhomboid shape with a path through the center, spreading the treasure out in a triangular shape between each pile of varying treasure. As I continued walking through, nothing of note seemed to stand out from the various treasures. I kept on looking, until about an hour or so later, I was back at the center of the room. Something was missing.
I saved the pathways along the walls for last, which was where I saw that there were doors on each wall. Each of said doors were made of simple looking wood, each with a yellow and red rhomboid color scheme for each one. None of them had any keyholes I could look through, and I couldn't see through the bottom since there was something covering the other side of the gap.
When I finally returned to the center of the room, Hestia looked at me with a wry grin and asked, "So, have you found what you are meant to find?"
I shook my head. "No, but I'm not about to give up," I said.
"That's the Dragon spirit!" Hestia laughed, throwing its head back.
And when the statue did that, I saw something around the Phoenix's neck. A necklace with a strange green octahedron shaped gem on the end. I closed my eyes and thought back once more to all I'd seen. Strangely enough, during my search, any gems I saw lacked this octahedronal shape, and even the green color. I hadn't seen a single emerald, which somewhat made sense at the time considering the fact that Spike once told me emerald gems were one gem he didn't like the taste of due to it tasting, in his words, foul.
An idea came to mind. I looked up at Hestia and asked, "So, Hestia, are you a part of this collection too? Or are you just a spirit sculpture?" The word SPIRIT SCULPTURE was the loose translation for the Old Draconic word for golem.
Hestia chuckled. "In truth, I am a bit of both," it said. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm wondering if I can choose you."
The silence that followed was almost deafening. The Phoenix stared down at me in a mixture of surprise and awe, presumably at my audacity. After what seemed like an eternity, it leaned forward. "And why, pray tell, would you choose me?" Its tone was level, but there was a hint of suspicion in the voice.
I smiled at the statue, then said, "Because if I choose you, I'll also get the gem around your neck, correct?"
Hestia stared at me for a few seconds, before its eyes changed to green. Its beak curled upward in a wide grin as the Phoenix used its wings to remove the key from around its neck and lowering it down to me. As he did so, the chain and gem began to shrink. Eventually, the chain resembled a necklace I could wear and the gem that hung from it was about the size of a baseball. Holding out my hand, I took it and put it around my neck. The gem flashed with a brief inner light before dimming again.
Immediately after that, I heard the sudden sound of wind. Looking up, I saw the golden Phoenix began to shrink in size in front of me. Not only that, but the treasure in the room began to move around me, encased in a large orange glow. All the treasure caught up in said glow began to move directly towards the seven large orbs, vanishing into them as their surfaces rippled like a ball of water.
I held onto the pole beside me as all the treasure, books and other valuables continued to flow into the seven glowing orbs. It was a magnificent sight to behold, gold, gems, books, fabrics, intact armor and weapons of every type rushed upwards until the room was completely empty, leaving nothing behind except rhomboid patches on the floor which had once held the treasures. This only left me and the now normal sized Phoenix golem who stood in front of me.
Suddenly, the orbs above me began to shrink, but their light didn't dim at all. Instead, once they were about the size of a large marble, they began floating down towards me. I watched in stunned silence as the former chandelier, now appearing like a necklace, slipped itself around my neck. Hestia stood up straighter, spread its wings, releasing a large amount of gold wings, and then burst into flame. The flames reached up to the ceiling high above me, causing me to stumble back, causing me to almost fall down the open hole beside me in the process.
As I watched the flame turn into a flame tornado, the normal yellow of the flames began quickly changing, becoming a rainbow assortment of color. Strangely enough, the temperature in the room didn't change at all, but I still kept a respectful distance. Finally, the whirlwind of flames began to recede until the light from my new seven orbed necklace illuminated a large Phoenix lying on the ground unconscious.
Unconscious, and breathing raggedly.
Concern washed over me as I rushed forward and knelt beside the reborn bird. I reached out and touched its body. Hestia, like other Phoenixes I'd seen, was warm to the touch. The Phoenix was also breathing haggardly, so I picked it up and stroked its wings gently, hoping it would calm the presumably newly reborn Phoenix down. Thankfully, Hestia began to breathe more easily. Hestia opened its beak to say something, but began coughing in the process, spitting up small bits of what looked like molten rock.
"Shhh, don't talk," I said as I pulled out one of my remaining spare water bottles. I opened it and held it up. "Drink."
Hestia gave me a grateful look before it began flicking its tongue in the bottle, quickly drinking. We remained in that position for a while, all the while Hestia continued drinking. I was surprise at how much the Phoenix drank until stopping, almost half the bottle. When it stopped, I put the bottle down and brought out a bread roll. I broke off a piece and held it out towards the Phoenix. Just as with the water, Hestia ate almost exactly half of the piece of bread. When finished, it looked up at me, and then, to my surprise, spoke in English. "What exactly are you, new master?" Unlike before, Hestia had a clearly feminine voice.
I shook my head quickly. "My name is Jethro. Just call me that, please," I said, "and right now, I'm not even sure what to call myself. Human? Alicorn? Phoenixborn? Angel? But existential crisis aside, I take it I passed?"
Hestia simply grinned and poked the key around my neck with her left talon. "You sure did, Jethro. Although, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to live through this if someone ever passed my test. Why did you step in to save me?"
"Because it's the right thing to do," I replied, "and I know a certain yellow Pegasus would kill me if I did nothing to help a Phoenix. That, and I didn't want to see you die."
Hestia tilted her head curiously at me, then chuckled a bit. "Well, I'm really grateful that you decided to save me. You passed my test, and as such you are worthy to make your way to the final stage of the test to find the Sunsword."
"Only three steps?" I asked. However, before Hestia could even reply, the floor beneath me began to ascend again. "Whoa!" I slowly stood and stayed right beside the pole, holding it with one hand and holding a still weak looking Hestia close to me. The roof continued moving closer to us, and I aimed the light at the top of the ceiling. As we continued growing closer, I saw a large rhomboid shaped formation in the ceiling.
As we continued to approach, the green gem around my neck began to glow, and lifted itself up, aiming towards the rhomboid shape. In return, the shape in the wall glowed an identical green color before splitting into two triangles, each of which moved aside as if they were a door opening.
I held Hestia close and pinned my wings back as I stood as close to the center of the rising floor as I possibly could. The opening, which led to presumably another chamber, had no light shining through it. Finally, we passed through the ceiling, and the lights on my neck immediately vanished.
I quickly pulled out my phone, turning the flashlight function on and looking around. However, the darkness seemed to swallow up the light. I looked down, only seeing the small rhomboid former opening in the floor. I looked around the floor, seeing a rise around us. I carefully stepped up into the darkened room.
Still in my arm, I saw Hestia looking curiously at the phone. "How are you casting magic in here?" she asked. Her voice echoed around us, almost like we were in a massive cave.
"This isn't magic," I explained. "It's a piece of-WHOA!"
Bright yellow light erupted out of nowhere, blinding me temporarily. Instinctively, I spread my wings and covered my eyes. Even despite that, the light shone through my wings. However, the light quickly faded to a tolerable level. As I released my wings, Hestia looked at the red portion of my wings, then turned back to me. "You're full of surprises, master."
"No master. Just Jethro, please," I said as I got a good look at the now lit room. Unlike the room before it, this one appeared ten to twenty times bigger than the treasure room I was in moments ago. I was standing, in what looked like a natural looking cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling and stalagmites rose up in random patterns all around. I heard water dripping onto the floor all around us and a strange soft humming.
I faced the direction of the humming and saw a bright glowing light located apparently directly in the center of the room. My current location was to one side of said cavern, so I spread my wings, wondering if the magic draining was still in effect. I burst my wings into flames briefly, but as before, the flames vanished, turning into magical energy and heading directly towards the center of the room.
Hestia chuckled and shook her head. "I didn't expect to be alive this far, but since I am, I'll let you know right now that you won't be able to fly or use magic here."
"So…it's walking then," I sighed and began walking straight towards the glowing light.
As we walked, Hestia spread her wings a bit, flapping them slightly and getting a bit of lift before returning to stand on my shoulder. We walked a few minutes in silence, the light at the center of the room never appearing to get any closer. Eventually, she said, "You never quite did answer what you are, mas-Jethro," she said, quickly correcting himself.
"Well, it's a very long story," I said, "but after I tell it, I'd like to ask you some questions as well."
"You chose me as your new property," Hestia said, "so I'll answer anything you so desire."
"Property? Ugh, I hate that way of thinking, but for now, let me start at the beginning."