Celestia’s sun felt hotter than usual today for Sandy Shovel as she wiped the fresh coat of sweat off her golden brow. Not even the cold water or the wide-brimmed hat she wore helped in any way. If anything, she only felt the effects of the heat even more. Still, she pressed on; the ruins she and her team were studying weren’t going to dig themselves out of the dirt, after all.
It had been the Earth pony mare’s dream since a shy little filly from Manehattan to become an archaeologist, and when she had made that dream a reality, her next goal in life was to follow in the steps of her (admittedly fictional) idol, Daring Do. Unearthing buried treasures, rediscovering old ruins, maybe even having the odd adventure or two, it was all she wanted.
But the problems with plans is that they never survived first contact with their eternal nemesis: reality. In truth, archaeology wasn’t exactly the heroic and adventurous life that she had dreamed about as a filly, but she loved it all the same. While she may not be battling ancient guardians or facing down disgruntled rivals, she still felt that rush of excitement when she and her team unearthed a piece of Equestria’s past.
So when the Princess of Friendship and scholar extraordinaire, Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville, hired her and her team to investigate some recently rediscovered ruins near the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, Sandy Shovel could hardly say no to such a challenge.
Sandy had heard many stories about the Everfree and its strange properties: wild, untamed magic; murderous monsters that prowled through the underbrush; plants and creatures that defied imagination entirely; and even uncontrolled weather patterns that baffled Pegasi scientists to this day. Truly, it was one of the most dangerous places on Equus, and yet despite all the warnings her colleagues had given her, she accepted the job.
And now here she was, with the blistering sun glaring down at her from space, regretting her decision and silently swearing to always read the fine print before signing her name on any document.
“You okay, boss?” a voice called from behind her, and she heard hooves trotting towards her.
Sandy swivelled her head around and smiled. “Yeah, I’m good, just resting a bit,” she replied. “Good morning, Onyx.”
The blue-furred, black-maned Earth pony stallion that approached her sent a warm smile her way. “Mornin’. Just checking up on things here and thought you could use the company. Found anything new yet?”
Sandy shook her head, and her ears drooped. “Still nothing. Eight weeks, and still nothing to show for it. Remind me again why we’re still here?”
Onyx shrugged. “The Princess insisted that something interesting would be found here. Personally, I could do away with the Timberwolves, but if she wants to keep paying us to dust a few stone arches and dig up a few old pots, I’m not going to complain. Royal bits are better than none.”
Sandy rolled her eyes. “Always about the money with you, huh?”
“Hey, what can I say, I’m a pragmatist.”
“As well as a total bore,” Sandy laughed, wiping her brow once more. “Celestia’s mane, it’s hot...”
The flapping of leathery wings signaled the arrival of another member of the dig team. Sandy and Onyx looked up and saw a violet, slightly breathless Thestral mare flying towards them at blinding speeds. She looked about ready to crash into them at the speed she was moving. The two Earth ponies exchanged a knowing, mischievous glance before stepping to opposite sides, letting the Thestral mare slam face-first into the dirt.
The mare yelped, bouncing and rolling through the dirt for several meters before slamming upside-down into a tree trunk, sliding down slowly. Onyx snorted, holding back his laughter, while Sandy had to force herself to keep a straight face. “Good morning, Whistler,” she said as flatly as Equinely possible (a feat that inwardly surprised her).
“Guys, whyyyyy...?” the mare whined, her voice muffled from her face still being planted in the dirt.
“Because it’s always so funny,” Onyx replied in a sing-song voice.
Whistler lifted her head up and glared at him, pouting. “I hate you.”
Onyx blew her a kiss. “Love you too, honey!”
Sandy shook her head and trotted towards the downed mare. “Alright lovebirds, that’s enough of that.” She held out a hoof to help Whistler up, which the mare gratefully took. “Now, what’s all the hurry, Whistler?”
Whistler gave her bat-like wings a few flaps to shake the dirt off. “Princess Twilight, she’s on her way here to check on our progress, along with that dragon of hers. She’ll be here any second. Dawn Star and Rainstorm are at the main dig and told me to get you two.”
“Holy horseapples!” Sandy exclaimed, spinning around and following the path through the trees to the main dig site. “Onyx, Whistler, move it! We’ve got to find something to show her!”
Onyx ran after her, with Whistler flying close behind him. “What about those silver plates we found the other day?” he yelled after Sandy.
“Onyx, this is Princess Twilight!” Sandy cried. “She eats off of golden plates! Silver is nothing, we need something more!”
“The tablet?” Whistler offered.
“No, even more!”
“We’ve...got nothing more?”
“Ponyfeathers!” Sandy gasped, picking up the pace. The dig site could now be seen through the trees.
“Girl, it’s nothing to panic about, relax,” Whistler said, flying to Sandy’s side. “I met the Princess before, she’s chill.”
“And she has our funding,” Sandy reminded her, slowing to a stop as they arrived at the dig site. “We’ve found nothing of real worth! We’ll be fired! I can’t lose this job!” She ran into her tent, opening a large chest and digging through its contents.
“Always about the money with you, huh?” Onyx echoed, smirking as he watched her.
“Don’t you sass me, mister!” Sandy deadpanned, slamming the chest shut and dating into the next tent. “Come on, there has to be something...”
Whistler leaned in to Onyx’s ear and whispered, “This is gonna be one of those days again, huh?”
Crash!
“Oh great, as if that didn’t already cost a few thousand bits...” Sandy whined from inside the tent.
Onyx nodded and rubbed his two front hooves together deviously. “Oh yeah.”
It had taken several minutes of talking and at least two cups of tea before Sandy had been properly calmed down. By this time, the other two members of the dig team, the Pegasi twins Rainstorm and Dawn Star, had joined the group in waiting for the arrival of the Princess. Rainstorm and Dawn Star were the team’s muscle; they built the camps, they dug in the ground, they protected the team from any danger, and they worked the machines. Sandy had rescued the two brothers from poverty after they had been fired from a mining company from Canterlot a few years back, and they had been loyal to her ever since.
Now, however, they simply stood silent and alert as the team watched the Princess’s chariot descend from the sky, being pulled by two Pegasi and followed by a small retinue of other Royal Guards. The chariot landed in a clearing the dig team had prepared earlier to accommodate visitors, and out stepped a young, lavender alicorn: Princess Twilight Sparkle, followed by a small, slightly pudgy purple dragon holding a scroll and quill.
Sandy had only met the young Princess of Friendship once before, when she had been offered the contract, but seeing her again still brought a sense of wonder to the archaeologist. She was in the presence of royalty, and a world-renowned hero and scholar! Not to mention the prodigy student of Princess Celestia herself! Every step Twilight took sent ripples of power through the very earth that Sandy stood on, and the Earth pony magic inside her could sense it. Twilight Sparkle may have been the Princess of Friendship, but sensing the raw magic inside her compelled Sandy to do what most ponies would normally do in the presence of royalty. She and her team knelt down on their forelegs, bowing their heads low.
The Princess halted mid-step, one foreleg lifted up. She made a face when she saw what Sandy and the others were doing. “Oh, um, you can...stop that. You don’t have to bow.”
Onyx lifted up his head first. “Apologies, Your Highness, we’re just very thrilled to have you visit our humble, uh, ‘home’.”
Twilight shook her head and smiled. “Please, just call me Twilight. I’m not that big on the whole ‘Highness’ thing.”
“O-of course, Your--I mean, Twilight,” Sandy stammered, standing up. “Welcome to our dig site!”
Twilight looked around, grinning at the uncovered ruins. “It looks like you five have been making good progress,” she noted. “I’m happy to see I chose the right ponies for the job.”
Whistler lifted her head up proudly, flashing her fangs. “We try our best, ma’am.” She motioned with a hoof towards the camp’s central tent. “We’ve stored most of our findings in there, if you’d like to take a look.”
“Of course!” Twilight beamed, following the three of them into the tent with a slight bounce in her step. “It’s always fun to see artifacts from ancient Equestrian times.”
Rainstorm nudged his brother in the ribs once they were out of earshot. “See, just like I told ya, like a cat to milk.”
Dawn Star rolled his blue eyes and pulled out a small bag of bits from the pouch at his side, tossing it to his brother.
“So what’s this, then?” Twilight asked, holding up a broken piece of slate with writing on it in her telekinetic grasp.
“Ah, that’s probably our most interesting find,” Sandy answered, gazing down at it with pride. “It’s a tablet fragment of some sort, with some kind of language written on it. My linguist, Onyx, can’t make heads or tails out of it.”
Twilight squinted at the tablet, newfound wonder in her eyes. “An ancient tablet with a possible dead language? Amazing! Have you sent a sample to the Canterlot museum for study?”
Sandy nodded. “We did. The eggheads got back to us within days. It’s a few hundred years old, at least.”
Twilight frowned. “But...then it can’t be a dead language, then. Even languages from before the era of Nightmare Moon are still spoken today by a few several long-standing families and nobility.”
“Which is why it’s currently our most fascinating find,” Onyx spoke up, trotting over to them. “Unfortunately, it’s only a fragment. We couldn’t find any other pieces.”
“That’s a shame,” Twilight murmured, placing the tablet piece back on the table. She sighed, looking across the table of artifacts in front of her. Most of them were broken clay pots or tarnished pieces of silver. Quite valuable for museums, but when she had been told of these ruins by Celestia, she had been hoping for...well, more.
Frankly, she was now starting to understand her friend Rainbow Dash’s obsession with adventure. Ever since Cozy Glow’s plan to take over Equestria by draining its magic had been stopped, things had simply quieted down. Granted, Twilight enjoyed the quiet for a while, as it allowed her to catch up on her own studies and various scientific endeavors, as well as teach the students of the School of Friendship, but she’d be lying to herself if she said she didn’t miss going on adventures with her friends.
Simply put, she was stuck in a monotonous loop.
Twilight’s ears drooped slightly. She had hoped that something in these ruins would excite her again, or, in a best-case scenario, even start a whole new adventure for her to partake in. Not the world-ending kind, Celestia forbid, but something at least. Even a little one?
“Whoa, what’s this thing?” a young voice said from across the tent, interrupting her thoughts.
Twilight and the others turned to see Spike, Twilight’s dragon assistant, holding up a small ball that had seemingly rolled off the artifact table. At first sight of it, Twilight could tell that it was not at all like the other artifacts. This ball had swirling, circular markings all over it, seemingly with no set pattern, and it was perfectly spherical. In fact, she had to compliment the dig team’s precision, they had dusted and polished the ball to a shine.
Wait, a shine?
Twilight took a step towards Spike, staring at the ball. Now that she was closer, she could see that it wasn’t made of stone, like she had previously thought. Rather, it was metal.
Interesting...
“Oh, of all the...” Sandy muttered under her breath, stepping towards Spike. “Thank you, young dragon. I had wondered where that had gotten to.”
“What is it, though?” Spike asked again, looking at the ball with curiosity in his gaze. “It looks cool!”
“We...don’t know,” Sandy admitted, placing the ball on the table. “We found it a few weeks into the dig. It’s unlike all the other artifacts we’ve found, but we can’t tell what it is.”
“Why wasn’t it on the table?” Twilight asked, inspecting the markings.
Onyx shrugged. “Darn thing keeps rolling off, no matter what we do.” As if on cue, the ball slowly tipped to the side and rolled off the table again, coming to a stop at a corner of the tent. “See?”
“Hmm...” Twilight hummed. Her horn lit up in a magenta glow, and a similar aura enveloped the ball, lifting it up to her eyes. “And the markings?”
“Same thing, we’re not sure. Although...” Whistler’s voice trailed off. “I did have a suspicion, once.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
“I took a picture of the ball and sent it to a friend of mine in Cloudsdale. She told me that the markings reminded her of stars in the sky.”
“Stars?” Spike asked.
“Yeah,” said Onyx. “Apparently Griffons used to carve stars into stone spheres and use them as maps for sailors. The knowledge on how to use them has been lost to time though, and the Griffons don’t exactly have a navy anymore, so those things are very rare.” He looked back at the ball, still in Twilight’s magical grasp. “But we’ve never seen one made out of metal.”
“Which brings me to my next point,” said Whistler, causing groans to come from both Onyx and Sandy. “What, it’s a legitimate theory!”
“Nopony wants to hear your conspiracy theories,” Sandy scoffed.
“Says the mare who thinks it’s a toy. What kind of pony makes a toy out of metal?”
You’d be surprised, Twilight thought, but she shook the thought out of her mind. “Uh, guys?” she spoke up, raising a hoof. “What’s this about?”
Onyx rolled his eyes. “My loving, naive wife here thinks that the ball isn’t from this world, which of course is preposterous.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” she asked sweetly. “What makes you say that?”
“Because there are no other worlds that can sustain life beyond our own,” Onyx declared, lifting up a hoof to his chest. “I may be just a linguist, but I have friends in several scientific circles in Canterlot. They assure me that no such world exists, and that Starswirl’s thesis on the subject was based on a flawed understanding of thaumaturgy at the time. Modern science has advanced our knowledge on this subject quite considerably, enough to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that without magic life is simply unsustainable.” He straightened himself up.
A fond memory of Sunset’s world flashed through Twilight’s mind briefly, before she remembered her promise to Celestia to keep quiet about the mirror portal. The less panicked their little ponies were, the better. “Yes...” she replied carefully. “Many mages have theorized and debated over the existence of other worlds before, and I suppose that if many of the experts in that field of study are saying otherwise based on studies and observations, we might have to conclude that there aren’t any.”
Onyx smirked and nodded towards his wife. “Precisely!”
“But,” Twilight continued, lifting a wing and sending a wink Whistler’s way. “knowledge continues to advance, as does our understanding of science. Sooner or later even these same experts and their conclusions can be challenged.”
“Exactly!” Whistler exclaimed, undaunted by her colleagues’ disbelief. “It obviously has to come from somewhere, but then why is it so unlike anything we have here on Equus?”
“What makes you think we can’t make it ourselves with the technology we have now?” asked Twilight. “Metal can be easily bent and reshaped, especially with magic.”
“Because, while it may look like a Griffon sphere chart, it’s too perfectly shaped. Even the Griffon spheres were nowhere near that smooth, nor were they metal. I used to apprentice under a blacksmith in Stalliongrad, and I’m telling you, the metal is not like any metal I’ve ever seen, and the shaping technique used is far beyond even our current level of magic. I even saw it glow once!”
At this all eyes turned towards her. “You saw it do what?” Sandy asked, her voice cracking slightly.
“I did!” Whistler nodded. “It was a few nights ago, I was heading to our tent just before midnight, and I saw some of the markings glow a faint red color underneath. I thought I was going insane, and when I rubbed my eyes to check again, the glowing vanished. It never did it again afterwards, so I thought nothing of it.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Onyx asked.
“Because you all already think I’m nuts with my theory,” Whistler answered, leaning against the tent’s entrance. “Besides, I just figured it was a trick of the moonlight.”
“Twilight?” Spike asked suddenly, looking up a the ball with a thoughtful look on his face. “Can I see it for a sec?”
Twilight lowered the ball and plopped it onto his claws. “Sure, just be careful, Spike.”
“I know, I know,” Spike said, moving the ball around in his claws. With one talon, he poked at one of the circles on the sphere. With another, he knocked on its surface a few times, listening to hear if it was hollow. When nothing happened, he gripped the sphere tightly in both claws and tried to turn the upper and lower halves in different directions, to no avail. Finally, he tried to dig under one of the grooves the symbols made on the surface with one of his talons. When nothing seemed to work, he frowned and held it up to Twilight again, who was watching him with keen interest. “Well, that was a bust. Dang...”
“Actually,” Twilight said, picking up the ball with her magic. “You may be on the right track, Spike. See these big circles in the middle of the spirals? Those are closed off from the rest of the symbols, and look like pressure points.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too,” Spike agreed, looking glum. “But it didn’t work...”
Twilight rubbed his head with a hoof, smiling warmly. “Don’t feel bad, it was a good idea. Maybe you were just using the wrong tools to press them with,” she mused. The magenta field around the ball swirled about, forming several finger-like appendages. “Maybe it was made so that it could only be opened by magical pressure?”
Sandy raised an eyebrow and stepped closer. “Well, we’ve never tried that before. Worth a shot.”
“Almost...” Twilight murmured, sticking out her tongue in concentration. A click was heard as one of the magical appendages pressed down on one of the circles. “Yes! Got it!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, her jaw dropped as a red glow emerged from the ball, illuminating each and every curling symbol. A red mist poured out of the circular spirals and flowed into the air, startling everyone in the tent and causing Whistler to yelp and hide behind the table. Several Royal Guards, seeing the red glow from the ball from outside the tent, rushed in, brandishing spears, only to stop and gaze in wonder at what they saw.
A massive, glowing, magical map had appeared over their heads, showing sparkling stars, planets, nebulae, moons, comets, and more stellar phenomena. A grid had formed under their hooves and across the walls of the tent, layering the map in perfect square sections. Solar systems and galaxies flew past them with twinkles of light, and slowly, curling lines began to form from planet to planet, like roads between cities. Small dots could be seen traversing the lines, some even jumping ahead vast distances by flying through small circular “gateways” in the voids between galaxies. Twilight and Spike stared in wonder at the ball and the map, their slack jaws slowly transforming into broad grins.
“Whistler?” Sandy called softly as her eyes widened with every passing star.
“Yeah?” Whistler replied, still hiding behind the table.
“I think I love you.”
Onyx glared at Sandy. “Mine,” he grumbled.
“Twilight, look at this!” Spike cried, pointing at a planet with five rings around it. Three moons orbited it, each one larger than the last. “Oh, Princess Luna is gonna be over the moon when she sees this, I know it!”
“What, again?” Onyx quipped, but he too stared in awe at the sight.
“So it is a map...” Twilight whispered, her eyes glimmering with raw excitement. She felt the urge to squeal but resisted --- barely. “And there are more worlds out there besides...” Her voice trailed off before anypony could overhear her.
“But if it’s a map,” said Sandy, stepping forward and squinting at a peculiar, crescent-shaped mass near one of the planets. “Where does it lead?”
Twilight wished she could answer that question, but she couldn’t. At that moment, all she knew was that her life’s growing monotony had just shrunk to the size of a pinhead, and that there was a treasure trove of information here. So much, in fact, that it would take her weeks, if not months just to decipher the very basics! The endless possibilities made her shiver in delight and anticipation.
And somewhere in all that information was the answer to Sandy’s question, and by Luna’s night, she would not rest until she found it.
But first, she was going to need documentation.
Without taking her eyes off the map, she said, “Spike, take the chariot back to Ponyville and get all my blank journals.”
Spike looked up, surprise etched into his features. “A-all of them?”
She nodded. “All thirty, yes. And my star charts. Oh, and my pillow, toothbrush, saddle bags, and coffee thermos. And get Starlight here while you’re at it.”
Spike slouched forward and gave her a flat look. “What is this, a scavenger hunt?” he muttered under his breath, only to gulp and salute when Twilight raised an unamused eyebrow at him. “Eheheh, I mean, sure thing Twilight.”
“But first,” Twilight spoke up, flaring out her wings. “Please take a letter. The Princesses are going to want to see this for themselves.”
Darkness.
Emptiness.
Loneliness.
It was all that he had felt for the last few hundred years as he gazed out into the beautiful expanse of the Etherium. He was the Guardian of the Trove, and had been charged with keeping others away from the Six. The Seventh was but a decoy, the Six held the true secrets of the universe.
But the Keystone was hidden. Safe. Secure. Captain Flint had made sure of it, before he had gone off on his final crusade of plunder. The Six could not be found without the Keystone. The Great Trove was safe. It was the Guardian’s solemn duty to keep it that way, and Flint had promised him a great reward.
And so he would stand ever ready, ever watchful, waiting for the moment when he was needed again.
A twinge.
A shiver down his spine.
He felt something. Something elusive. Something ancient.
Somewhere, something had stirred that he had not sensed for many years.
The Keystone! It had been found!
It had been...opened!
Rage filled his mind. Red entered his vision. Mechanical bones that once laid dormant twitched and moved. Gears and gyros clicked and whirled, and the Guardian rose up from his slumber.
The Great Trove was in danger. The Six could never be found. He would not allow it.
He turned his mighty gaze to his right, seeing the small ship that Flint had left for him all those years ago.
“The hunt begins...” the Guardian’s voice boomed, and for the first time in eons, the Etherium trembled.