It was early in the morning, the grass and leaves were damp from dew, rays of sunshine were pushing through the leaves, and a cool breeze flowed through the woods. As Spike passed by an old fallen oak tree he noticed something shining near the base of the tree. Spike looked down at the object, just a small piece of the object was visible, the rest of the object was stuck in the dirt and what wasn't buried was covered in moss and vines. Spike then looked up and searched to see if anypony was around. He looked back down and leaned down and picked up the object. It felt cold in his hands, He had never seen anything like this before in his life, a basketball-sized metal dodecahedron, and on each side, the symbol for the long forgotten EIA was etched into the shiny metal, Spike looked at the symbol puzzled. He ran home as fast as his legs would take him to see if Twilight knew anything about such an object.
Twilight was still fast asleep, Spike getting tired from carrying such a large metal object, dropped it at the foot of twilights bed making a loud crashing sound as it broke a floor board.
“What in the name of Celestia was that?!?” Twilight exclaimed as she was ripped out of the world of sleep.
“T...Twilight” Spike called between gasps, “I found this strange box thingy in the woods!”
Twilight picked up the dodecahedron and inspected it closely
“Hmm I know I've seen these markings somewhere before.” she thought aloud “Oh my Celestia...Spike… do you know what you just found?” She inquired
“No Twilight, that’s why I brought it to you!” Spike said blatantly
“Spike.. this .. this is the symbol of the old EIA all their work disappeared from Equestria, you found an artifact!”Twilight exclaimed, jumping around the room
“EIA?” Spike asked
Twilight looked at Spike with a disappointed look and said “The Equestria Intelligence Agency, no one knows exactly what happened or why they closed down but, everypony that worked for them disappeared with the company, then, shortly afterwards Celestia started to keep the intelligence on all of Equestria” Twilight rambled on for a few more minutes, getting off track and talking about the history of the castle and Equestria.
“ Twilight, but what is the thing?” Spike asked.
“I don't actually know but I do remember this book I read once that said the Agency left a trail of clues to find where they hid everything that happened to the agency” Twilight explained
“Could this be one of those clues Twilight?”
“It could be but how could this be a clue?”
“I don’t know Twilight, maybe one of your books has some information on this,”
“Good idea Spike!” Twilight exclaimed as she ran over to her history bookshelf and began to flip through the pages of an old Equestrian history book. Spike look!!” She pointed to a huge paragraph with a small diagram of the dodecahedron and said“Spike this book says that there were twelve keys that when brought together with this ‘container’ it would open, but only if all twelve were with it”
“Does it say what is inside?”Spike asked.
“No Spike that's all it says.”
“Twilight, we have to find out what's inside this thing!!” Spike was clearly excited and was eager to go on an adventure.
“Are you sure you want to do this, the Agency shut down thousands of years ago, no one could possibly know where the keys are.”
“But Twilight, how will find all of the keys?”
“Actually this book says that the only known location of any of the keys was in the Agency’s main location before the shutdown, so I think we should start there.”
Twilight and Spike Headed out to find the lost EIA headquarters, on the North East of Equestria 25 minutes away from Manehattan was a two story brick building with vines growing up the sides and trees growing through the windows and roof. The walls were starting to crumble and fall apart. Spike and Twilight came up to the building and walked around it to find the entrance.
“Twilight over here! there’s an old door here.”
“Good eyes Spike!, but it’s boarded up, we’ll have to find another way in.”
They continued to look around the dilapidated and collapsing building until Spike found an open window on the second floor.
“Twilight what about up there?”
“Perfect! Hop on my back Spike.”
Spike jumped onto Twilight’s back as she flew them both up into the building through the open window, there were desks and filing cabinets knocked over, plants were growing on the floor. Twilight trotted over to a wall of filing cabinets, as Spike went to search in the desks. There was a crashing sound as the ground beneath Spike fell out, and he was dropped to the first floor.
“AHHHH!....Oww.” Spike yelled.
“SPIKE are you ok?” Twilight called.
“Yea I'm ok Twilight, holy crud, there’s a big metal door down here!” Spike called back
Twilight glided down to where Spike laid, she helped him up then turned and was face to face with a Giant Steel door, with the same EIA markings Engraved into the door as were on the dodecahedron. Twilight tried to open the door but to no luck, There was a small keypad next to the door.
“Spike, while you were upstairs, did you find any numbers that may have been to open this?”
“No, but could it be the number of sides on the container?”
“Great idea Spike! No, wait it needs three numbers. Hmm”
“ Well I didn’t find anything while up there, come on Twi, you’re the smart one, you can figure this type of stuff out really easily, Right?”
“Wait, you wanted to try the number of sides right?”
“Yea”
“What if I try the sides, then edges, then the vertices.”
Twilight entered the number 12,30,20. The locks on the metal door slowly slid out of the door frame and the door slowly began to swing open. Inside was a Purple Glowing Gemstone, Spike's mouth began to water as he ran toward the gem picking it up and saying.
“You are the most delicious looking gem I've ever seen, let's see if you’re as good as you look!”
“Spike!! Don’t eat the gem it’s the first key for the container!”
“But Twilight.” Spike whined.
“No Spike you will not eat the key, we are getting into this dodecahedron!” Spike reluctantly handed the gem to Twilight, she took it and put it in her satchel.
“Spike, what’s that?” Twilight asked pointing to a paper that was underneath the gem, Spike picked up the note, he read it aloud.
“To whom it may concern, If you have found this note then you must be in possession of the first key to open the great intelligence. You may have wondered what this was ‘Container’ was. This is the key to all the information about everyone who has ever lived If you can find all Twelve gems the intelligence will open with the one key that will open the intelligence vault underneath Celestia’s castle. We entrusted the remaining eleven gems to the families of our top workers. We left this gem, and note here when Celestia shut us down, if you care about the future of Equestria, please find all of these gems and show the truth about Celestia to all of Equestria.”
“Is that all the note says, Spike?” Twilight questioned.
“Yea, the name looks like it was torn off but an L is still visible.”
“Well, whoever wrote that note was out of here in a hurry.”
“Twilight, what’s that?” Spike asked pointing to a small light coming from behind Twilight. She turned to see a small hole in the wall and a small silhouette of somepony watching, in an instant the silhouette was gone and the light went out.
“I don’t know Spike but I think someone is keeping an eye on us.”