Title:           foev3
Author:          TTS32
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/k7cAsmbY
First Edit:      Friday 16th of October 2015 01:44:28 AM CDT
Last Edit:       Last edit on: Saturday 17th of October 2015 02:13:42 AM CDT

"A message from the Travel and Tourism Equestrian Agency by the Ministry of Morale"
 
“Tired of being reminded about the war every five minutes? Do the alert sirens affect your sleep cycle? Overwhelmed by the everyday stress of your job? Well, suffer no more because the Travel and Tourism Agency have the solution for you! Treat yourself and visit the Tenochtitlan valley, one of the most exotic and beautiful places of our beloved nation
Located in the northwest part of Equestria, this wonderful place has everything for your perfect vacations and with the packages the Ministry of Morale is offering, we will gladly welcome you on your upcoming visit”
 
 
I still remember when I first heard the message using an old radio and with one of my oldest friend we began the journey.
About 5 days south from Manehattan, the road itself isn’t very dangerous since not many ponies wander over here. Exotic? Sure, beautiful? You could say that, stepping in for first time on the valley after traveling plain roads was really a sight to behold: Vegetation as far as I could see covered the scene only to be broken by irregular marks on the green sea of tress, these marks were the famous temples made by an ancient culture long before the Everfree forest was even discovered; Tombs of long forgotten kings, altars to venerate their gods, and even vaults where unthinkable treasures could be found! This is of course if you didn’t mind the death traps, and believe me when I say the builders really didn’t want anyone sticking their noses on their pyramids
 
I can’t really tell what convinced us to come this far, we had a very good life on our old home. Sure we were into some problems back then but that was almost a norm for us, finding a solution was always easy and life was overall good. “Track the valley and scavenge it” Sounded easy enough right? We needed the caps and it seemed like a fast idea that would take us 2 weeks at most, oh how wrong we were. At the end the inevitable happened and the wasteland took over my friend‘s life, if only we would have thought of a better solution than coming to this cursed place…
 
 
“Home of the Daring Do Museum, this place holds the biggest collection of the most famous adventurer that has ever lived. Previously her house and now functioning as a place to guard her legacy, this museum guarantee that every one of her fans will be satisfied with the visit. Between the most valuable possessions, we have the original typewriter that she used to capture on paper all her numerous adventures across the world, alongside this you can also find the first edition of every one of the books autographed by the own Daring Do. A must visit place for any lover of this genre or just an adventure fan in general. Come and meet where the fiction means reality!”
 
 
As I followed the path I saw the building. An old sign barely hanging by a rusted post was the only thing that marked this location, the local fauna haven’t been kind to the place and as I stepped through the main entrance the familiar putrid smell of wood hit me. For a normal pony this would have been enough to get them out of the building, but for me it was only a reminder to the time we had to past the first nights here.
The scarce sunlight filtering between gaps on the roof was the only thing preventing me to fall flat on my face. Not much to say about the ex museum,: All the artifacts had been long gotten stolen by scavengers years ago, the only thing that hinted this was once an historic place are the dozens of books lying around everywhere and some damaged murals depicting Darin Do and her adventurous scenes that inspired so many ponies two hundred years ago and to be honest, inspired us too a little
 
 
“Perhaps it isn’t enough for you to read about adventures, you need to live them! But don’t worry because we have you covered: Tenochtitlan region has one of the most diverse ecosystem of the planet, and luckily for you, a different adventure can be found on every one of them, from riding a zip line above the crystalline lagoon, to be able to base jump from the highest cliffs of the place, other activities also include wild canoe rides across the rivers, climbing on the numerous mountains and hiking on the diverse terrains the valley has to offer. As you can see, the adventure on this place has no limits and everything here is made to keep your heart beating to the limit”
 
 
It was true, the landscape was full of these kind of places but unfortunately centuries of not maintenance have make all installations useless. The “Exciting rapids” were a death trap without a proper boat, the mount climbing (required to reach the towns located at the top of the valley) was a difficult task, the equipment was rare and  proper instruction on the subject was out of question , one wrong step and it was a free fall to a guaranteed death. While I make my way to the hotel complex, I had to ford the lagoon because the suspended bridge that connected the two shores had been destroyed when the bombs fell and only Celestia knows what creatures live under the surface
 
 
“Of course for some ponies the idea of vacation is to relax, and the world class “Tonatiu” resort is here for you. Equipped with top notch technology and so much luxury than even the most exigent critics of Canterlot would be more than satisfied with this relaxation center. The complex was built on the heart of the jungle, making this place to be the perfect balance between nature and innovation. Visit the spa for a special full body treatment, dive in one of our 10 swimming pools distributed around the hotel area or take a peaceful walk across the natural corridor that connects the various buildings. By the night you could enjoy yourself in our casino or go eat in any of the 5 different restaurants equipped by the best culinarian staff from this side of the country. Whatever is your reason to visit, is our mission to fulfill your highest expectations”
It was almost morning when I got to the resort. You could see the golden form of it from miles away, the way it was designed made it seem like it was always illuminated by the sun. This makes sense because from my small stay on the valley I learnt that the name translates from the native language to “Sun”. Anyway the building was, not so surprisingly, empty, this was part of the plan which I will explain later if everything goes fine for the next few hours
 
 
I walked through the lobby: An immense space adorned with white pillars and a golden intricate tapestry on the walls, this place shouted elegancy from all sides and even the terminals screens were custom made and instead of normal green light, they used a white faint glow. And behind the main receptionist desk, a giant 30 ft. tall statue of Celestia rising the sun watched over me. The resort wasn’t damaged by the bombs and after one of the stables opened, it was quickly inhabited by a tribe whom, using the supplies of the place, transformed the hotel into the most important trading center that the valley has to offer. Now it was deserted, the tribe leaders weren’t amused by my request but their experience told them it was the safest thing to do for their families. I only hope I ca pull this one off, the only thing I could do to honor my lost traveling companion
 
 
 
“Of course you can’t travel this far without seeing the ancient city ruins of Teotihuacan and its various temples spread around the landscape. In the center of all of this you are able to see the two legendary pyramids of the sun and the moon which were made two thousand years ago by the locals to honor the celestial gifts that the princess blessed us with. Even better, take a special tour to these architectural inventions and explore the amazing works of this ancient civilization and who knows, you may be the one that finds the map to the mythical city of El Dorado!”
 
 
From the highest point of the resort you are able to see the whole jungle, two constructions could be easily spotted on the middle of this marking where the two temples are. I have only been there once, nopony over here is desperate enough to go to the still standing ruins of Teotihuacan. Exploring the temples around is preferred over entering the city. Me and my group hardly managed to survive a couple of nights inside, its atmosphere even felt wrong. The legend said that before even the banishment of Nightmare night, a forgotten deity jealous of their cult to the princesses, cursed the entire city leading them to their fall, centuries later and the locals still believe her spirit is there to haunt anyone foolish enough to enter the place, not even Darin Do was able to escape from her enchantress
 
 
“In these times of war any precaution is necessary and because your security is as important as your enjoyment, our good friends at Stable Tec built two fully functional nuclear shelters designed to withstand a direct zebra balefire missile in the hypothetical case of a nuclear exchange. With the capacity to hold all the locals and tourist, these two stables are designed to work for the next two hundred years. Because here at Stable Tec, we will be there for you.
 
 
Of course Stable Tec had to come all over this corner of the world, capitalism at its finest. To be fair with them, they actually managed to save some ponies, and from all the rumors about their experiments, here they got lucky with their two stables: One for the natives and employees, the other one for the important ponies that had the money to pay for a place on it. The place wasn’t heavily targeted by the zebras so they didn’t spent too long underground. One of them actually serves as a small town, or served a few days ago anyway, I was in a hurry to get to the resort so I didn’t have enough time to check. From the message I sent them it should have been one of the first settlements to be evacuated
 
 
“So what are you waiting for? Whether you decide to explore the ancient temples or relax in our resort, Tenochtitlan valley has everything for you. Contact your nearest Ministry of Morale customer service to get a custom package, and remember, all of the profits are donated towards our soldiers at the front line. This is your change to visit one of the few places untouched by the war and loss yourself in the diverse activities that your friends here at MoM have prepared for you”
 
 
Definitely an interesting place to visit. I should know since I did all the journey from my old home, using a broken radio to track a signal, took us two weeks in total of  traveling the wasteland. Unfortunately we ran into someone else business that ultimately got us into a bigger problem that the one we were trying to escape and ultimately getting my friend killed; I still can feel those widening as the life was being sucked out of the body, I really tried to fix my mistake but my medical knowledge doesn’t go very far from “Drink enough potions until you feel better”. I remember laying besides my friend’s body without any hope to save it, we knew each other since before we got our cutie marks and if It wasn’t for me, we maybe would still be on our old home like any other day.
 
 And now I was left alone on this abandoned part of Equestria: Myself, a melee weapon called Macahuitl and an old hunting rifle.
 
 Suddenly my train of thought was interrupted by a figure entering the hotel hallway, he wasn’t alone, by its side 5 earth ponies wearing some sort of ceremonial robes were discussing between them, one of them had a bow while the other four showed to be using what appeared to be spears with sharp obsidian heads. As I stand up there looking at their leader I could feel its eyes staring back at me as if it was trying to pierce my skull with his sight.
For a full minute everything was silent, the only sound was from the birds outside on the jungle and as I checked once again my two weapons a surge of adrenaline began to form inside me, in front of me was the reason my friend had died and many more innocent ponies had been killed on the crossfire. Hoping my plan will work I readied myself at the same time the creature’s mouth opened throwing a tearing howl of hate directed to me
 
Under Celestia statue’s gaze I charged towards the group as the last battle for Tenochtitlan had began