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Breaching the Library proved to be a relatively easy task. Even sinking into the sand as it was, the main door had been left partially raised above the ground, tall enough for anypony to crawl under. After a cursory inspection of the interior, both Crash Dive and Depth Charge were able to force their way through the splintered remains of the door and into the darkness within; guided by the glow-bug filled lantern that the pegasus had tugged free of their saddlebags.

While she had felt giddy upon seeing the exterior, it simply didn't compare to Crash Dive's growing feelings of admiration as they passed one chipped indentation after the other, each expertly carved into the walls. While archeology was something beneficial to her field — and her personal obsessions lay with machinery and seal life — she could appreciate a priceless find when she saw one. Pausing for a moment, she turned the lantern's beam toward a largely intact image of another age. Angular diamond shapes had been cut into the wall, each with a broad, bright colour from sky blue to deepest jade set against a background of midnight back. It displayed an exchange of sorts, with a dark coated alicorn bestowing something upon ponies garbed in robes of a style long lost. The stone either side of it had been chipped away, eroded or torn down by the sinking pressure about the temple, but this small fragment had been preserved. It was a part of their history, lost to time and forgotten until now, ready to be restored.

If Depth Charge shared her sense of wonderment, he was hiding it well.

"Ya know, I kind of expected more from this place," Depth Charge spoke up, breaking the silence he had maintained since they had pushed within the library. His enthusiasm had dulled somewhat to a constant glint of excitement behind his eyes, but he was at least not shuddering like a foal on a sugar rush.

"It's a thousand-year-old underwater ruin holding arcane knowledge," Crash Dive snorted, "What were you expecting?"

The seapony shrugged, before gesturing about him. "I don't know — Big magical stuff? Hovering discs of light, ancient scrolls littered about, a few big magical traps? An old stallion demanding to ask us three questions? You know, powerful magic."

Crash Dive rolled her eyes, focusing instead on the path ahead, leading directly into the centre of the vast Library. Yet she couldn't wholly disagree with him. For something that Princess Luna had described as the single most important place in the region, the Library of Alexsauntria was remarkably lacking in defences. Oh, there had been the odd trap — the momentary threat of a pit of spikes and a dart launcher — each of which had been neatly sidestepped by the two, but that was nothing exceptional. Even the average ancient outhouse had at least one big death trap in them somewhere. She had expected perhaps a few spells hidden away in the sand, ready to awaken upon sensing intruders or would summon guardians to fight them. Thus far the closest thing they had come to facing a true obstacle had been the corridor itself, which had been tilted slightly as the Library had sunk into its foundations, forcing the two to stomp (or swim, in Depth Charge's case) uphill to its centre.

Small shoals of fish darted away from the beam of the lantern, escaping down ruined side passages or into cracks within the greater stonework. It was the only sign of movement within the building's interior, save for the momentary puff of falling sand as the Library settled, shifting against the dunes or shuddering as some great part of it fell away. The sooner they were done with this — the sooner they were done with this and could return to save anything still in one piece — the better.

After several more minutes, the corridor widened out, opening up into a vast hall room of lost grandeur. Faded banners lined the walls, their imagery all but a shadow of what had once been, while ruined fragments scripts, scrolls and books waited on shelves. Each looked as if they were as fragile as the main door, their pages so faded that they would require little more than a slight vibration within the nearby waters to send them crumbling into nothingness. Yet in the middle of it all, waiting upon a pedestal inscribed with Luna's markings, there waited their prize. Shining with the light of a protective spell and bound in centuries-old wards, the Pemarebra Codex looked as if it had not aged a day from when ink had met its parchment.

"Well, that was easy," Depth Charge shrugged as he peered about the hall, "Do all your expeditions end with some grand prize out in the open?"

"More than you would think," Crash Dive admitted, "But they're not usually this easy. There's usually something nasty guarding it, or a big rock ready to drop on the first person who approaches the treasure. Um, just wait here a moment."

She stomped forward, raising her lantern upward and squinting at the far wall. Anypony smart enough to build deathtraps tended to leave behind some riddle, usually a big hint as to how to avoid it. Crash Dive had never quite understood why but, given this was a place of knowledge, she would have bet the Wayfarer that the pony tasked with guarding the Codex wasn't about to pass up the chance for a good brain teaser. Unfortunately, they all had the habit of recording their messages in the worst way imaginable. It took Crash Dive almost a full minute to pick out what had likely once been the riddle in question, carved into the far wall and high enough that it resided just beneath the roof's supporting beams. What had not been lost to structural damage was coated in coral, blurring and all but completely erasing the words in question.

Crash Dive could make out the odd letter here and there, but nothing more. She kept walking turned back to ask Depth Charge if he had any ideas, and almost missed the flash of light beneath her. The aetherometer hanging from her shoulder momentarily flashed red, and Crash Dive's vision exploded in a haze of green colours. From across the library floor, tendrils of glowing emerald light rose up, spearing through the water toward her. She gave a surprised yell as two latched about her middle, while others coiled about her legs.

"Okay, I think I've found it!" she managed, struggling against each tendril as more attempted to drag her to the ground, "Just grab the Codex!"

"Are you sure"

"Just grab it while I have them busy!" she protested, fighting to drag herself free of the writhing mass of tendrils. In truth, it was more irritating than actually dangerous. The magically resistant substances mixed into her diving suit's exterior layers were resisting the spell quite effectively, and as each touched its surface, the light within them withered and died. It was a useful way of quickly bulldozing her way through small-scale spells, but against such a vast range of binding tendrils, numbers alone were slowing her down. Still, the fact they were busy with her at least gave Depth Charge an opening to snatch up their prize before things became worse.

Thrusting both hooves behind him, Depth Charge burst forward, propelled by a wave of bubbles. The sudden motion was neither graceful nor maneuverable but it was fast. One moment he was at the threshold of the hall and the next he was next to the Codex, moving faster than Depth Charge could follow. Closing his teeth about the book, he tore it free, the magical bindings holding it in place snapping as he came into contact with them.

"Got it!" he managed with a triumphant yell, heading back toward the corridor, "Easy as!"

He never finished the sentence. There was a deep thud from somewhere beneath the ornate pedestal as it rose slightly off of the ground, accompanied by the sound of something large being released overhead.

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Page 2 of a commission/collab with Turanic~

Upvotes at import: 24 | Stars at import: 16
Posted previously at: 2018-11-20T03:12:33 | Posted previously by: the-furry-railfan