//------------------------------// // Part 1: The Writing in the Window // Story: A Ghost Story for Equestria - The Treasure of Princess Luna // by Hereward //------------------------------// There was a crash and a clatter accompanied by a series of alarming cries that shook Twilight Sparkle out of her concentration; she looked up to see three fillies in a dog pile at the bottom of the stairs leading up from the ground floor. They groaned and untangled themselves but an adhesive appeared to be keeping them together better than their own camaraderie. "So much for getting our cutie marks in window cleaning." Apple Bloom stated as she tried to release herself from the binding that kept the cutie mark crusaders closer together than they were comfortable with. "Yeah, how did we get tree sap on us with that one?" Sweetie Belle asked incredulously. Twilight gave a resigned smile and shook her head and went to their aid. "Okay girls." She addressed them. "Let's get you all cleaned up and then you can tell me all about it." As she levitated them towards the bathroom the three fillies were not distressed by the sensation of being held up by unicorn magic, what with having been through this a few times before, but they were deeply concerned by what Twilight would have to say when she heard their story. "So I was just reaching up to the top o' the window when Scootaloo leaned forward int' the lower corner and Sweetie Belle... what were ya doin' anyhow?" Apple Bloom did her best to recall when they were washing the library's windows. "I thought there was a cobweb hanging from the branch just above that window." Sweetie Belle answered. "I was just trying to dust it away when the window swung inwards and we all fell down the stairs." Twilight shook her head in resignation once again as she rinsed the bubble bath off their shoulders. "Okay," Twilight began as she did her best to lecture them in a manner that wouldn't sound too condescending, "First of all, Apple Bloom, you can't wash the windows on an upper floor from the outside without proper support, like a ladder or a platform with more than two ropes or cables. Secondly, Sweetie, you really only have to dust away cobwebs that are inside the house; and third. Scootaloo, why were you leaning into the corner?" "I thought there was a blemish we missed." She replied with a pout as Twilight started lifting them out of the bath. "Well as long as there's no harm done." Twilight concluded as she dried them off, despite protests of independence from the fillies. Once they were dry Spike's voice came from the main room. "Hey, Twilight! Are you done with this book?" Twilight started for a moment before bursting out of the bathroom and promptly tugged Spike gently away from the table. "Not yet, Spike." She answered. "I just had to break off due to... unforeseen circumstances." Spike looked puzzled until he saw the cutie mark crusaders sheepishly exiting the bathroom and understood. As he made his way back upstairs Apple Bloom suddenly took an interest in Twilight's current studies. "So what'cha readin' about, Twilight?" She asked as she trotted up to her side. Delighted at the prospect of enlightening the younger generation Twilight decided to show them. "This is an off-shoot of the Legend of the Mare in the Moon. I never really gave it too much thought the first time I read it but, since Princess Luna returned, I found myself contemplating the implications of this old tale." Looking at the text presented to them the cutie mark crusaders each read a separate passage. "Whence Her Nightmare took hold so She was paranoid as sought sanctuary..." Apple Bloom read. "The glorious Solar Army advanced and She dug deep to hide that She gained..." Scootaloo read. "And as the light of harmony burst forth so She cried out "If thou sleekest it then thy must seek Smart Cookie, Platinum and Hurricane!"." Sweetie Belle finished. "What was that about 'seeking it'?" Apple Bloom asked. "This is the tale of Nightmare Moon's hoard." Twilight explained. "Supposedly when Princess Luna was overwhelmed by Her jealousy She wanted to ensure nopony would ever uncover Her most treasured possessions and hid them somewhere in the grounds of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Since then few have attempted to find it, either fearing the Everfree Forest or the association with Nightmare Moon or they simply didn't have enough information." The fillies grinned at one another before Apple Bloom spoke up. "Hey, Twilight, can we help ya find this treasure, please? We've done many scavenger hunts and we've not tried real treasure huntin' before." Twilight paused as she thought over the possibilities of them going out of control in this situation before answering. "Well, it's not really a treasure hunt so much as an archaeological investigation, so if you're willing to endure long painstaking research and very careful digging then I suppose I could use some extra help." She had barely three seconds to brace herself and hold her ears before... "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ARCHAEOLOGISTS! YAY." "Okay," Apple Bloom began as the cutie mark crusaders sat in their clubhouse, "What do we know so far?" "Nightmare Moon hid some treasure in the old castle in the Everfree Forest." Sweetie Belle answered. "She said that Smart Cookie, Princess Platinum and Commander Hurricane would lead us to it." Scootaloo added. "But they've not been around for thousands of years." Sweetie Belle pointed out. "They lived even before the Princesses arrived in Equestria." There was a brief pause before Apple Bloom spoke up. "So if Nightmare Moon suggested three ponies who weren't around at the time would guide ponies to the treasure, then..." "She could've been lying." Scootaloo suggested, which was in no way implausible to them but they didn't fancy saying this to Twilight for fear of being considered too dismissive. "Wait." Sweetie Belle ventured. "In the Canterlot palace there are stained glass windows showing many different events in Equestria's history." "I don't think we've got time for sightseeing, Sweetie." Scootaloo replied but Apple Bloom held up a hoof as she spoke. "No. Ah think what she's gettin' at is..." "A message in a depiction of them?" Twilight responded upon hearing their suggestion, at which Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked embarrassed. "Why didn't I think of it before? Nightmare Moon dwelt in that castle for a hundred days... that's not very long but with the powers the Princesses possess it would take only a couple of weeks to make something appropriate. Now it must lie within the castle grounds, so..." Twilight and the cutie mark crusaders stood at the entrance to the Everfree Forest, each of them feeling different forms of ambivalence towards their expedition to the old castle that lay within. "We'd best do this during the daytime." Twilight stated. "Most of the more dangerous beasts are nocturnal so we should be able to handle it." With that they set off. As they progressed Twilight did find that the journey to the castle was comparatively easier to the last time, but then there was no ethereal force trying to hamper their efforts this time. It was barely an hour before they came upon the bridge that crossed the gorge which marked one edge of the castle grounds. Without the pressure that held her during Nightmare Moon's return Twilight found that the castle grounds were overall not quite as disturbing as the rest of the forest and wondered about how much of an impact the Mare in the Moon had upon the ancient bastion. Still she put the query on the back-burner and led the fillies through the main gate into the castle proper. "Okay girls," She said, "We'll have to tackle this one room at a time. You can split up to search but, for everypony's safety, please stay in the same room as me." Quickly acquiescing the cutie mark crusaders promptly zipped from corner to corner while Twilight looked over every sculpture and anomaly upon the walls. An hour passed; the four of them went from room to room until they came into a space that was once used as a private study, the design of which strongly insinuated that it was meant to be used at night. Twilight was becoming rather bothered by the lack of results, in particular fearing that the material they were seeking had been destroyed by the passage of time or worse. However she was roused from her brooding distress by an off-hoof comment from Scootaloo. "That's funny." She remarked. "That's the first stained glass window I've seen without any holes." Stunned momentarily by this Twilight cantered over to where the filly was looking and gasped. The window in question was designed as a strange inversion of the typical gothic arch that would've been expected to have given in to the stresses of gravity but was in almost mint condition. There were three figures shown upon the glass. "Great heavens!" Twilight exclaimed. "That's it! Smart Cookie, Princess Platinum and Commander Hurricane. And in sequence too." At this the other two fillies came over and looked upon the window. "So now we've found it," Apple Bloom asked, "What do we do now?" Twilight had whipped a notebook and writing implement out of her saddlebags and was already taking notes. "I'm gonna duplicate the inscriptions." Twilight announced as she levitated a camera out of her saddlebags. "Girls, you can each take a picture but try and make sure it takes in the whole window without being too far away to see the details. If there's time we may even try to sketch it for added insurance." At this Apple Bloom took the camera in her forehooves and prepared to take the first picture. "Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle moaned, "Why do you get to take the first picture?" "We can do it in alphabetical order." She answered. "First me, then Scoots and then you. Anyhow we may even get our photography cutie marks." With that she gestured for them to move aside so she could see the window. "Twilight, yer horn's in the way." Twilight did a double-take, apologised and backed off a bit. "So what are those inscriptions?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Upon Smart Cookie's cloak," Twilight began, "It's in the old earth pony tongue. Þær is stôw for gold swâ hit is hýdað. 'There's a place where gold is hidden.' The one on the trim of Platinum's robe is in ancient Unicornian. Maent yn ei chael ar eu dillad yn ysgrifennu nad oes neb yn gwybod.. 'They have on their garments a writing that no one knows.' I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean at this time. And the banner over Hurricane's head reads in a bygone dialect of the Pegasi. Super lapidem unum hexem oculi sunt. 'Upon one stone are six eyes'." It didn't quite read like that but Twilight knew that if anypony heard the crusaders using the real word for six in this context that there'd be a lot of unfortunate misunderstandings and poor communication. "But the word 'hexem' looks more like s..." Scootaloo was rapidly interrupted as Twilight tried to cover her tracks. "Yes. Well, these ancient languages often had a few anomalies in their spelling before it was standardised. In fact some of them used an f where they meant an s." The fillies accepted this and Twilight wiped her brow. "Where've ya been?!?" Applejack asked the quartet in question when they came in sight of Ponyville. "Honestly, Twi, Ah thought yer had more sense than t' encourage young fillies in anythin' dangerous." "Applejack," Twilight defended, "They volunteered to assist me in an archaeological study of the old castle. I'll admit the Everfree Forest is not somewhere I'd be happy to go on a regular basis but I made sure we were back before sunset." Applejack deflated at this and began to lead Apple Bloom home. "Next time yer might like t'warn us before takin' some fillies on some kinda field trip." With a half-sigh Twilight continued on to Ponyville while giving Sweetie Belle an encouraging nudge. "You'd better get on home yourself then, girls." She said as she went on to check which way Scootaloo was supposed to go. "We can catch up tomorrow." As they headed off in separate directions none of them noticed a silhouette moving through a patch of bushes nearby. "Hey Twilight!" The cutie mark crusaders blurted out as they entered the library. "Got any news?" Twilight rubbed her head and turned to reply. "So far all I can gather is that wherever the 'treasure' in question is hid it'll be marked by a stone with six eyes carved into it, but even though I'm pretty sure it must be within the grounds of the castle it'd take over a year to find it if we only go by this one clue alone." "Can't ya work out the bit about the writings on their clothing?" Apple Bloom asked with a sense of arbitrary disappointment. Twilight turned back and gave a resigned groan before answering. "I could've done but there are no writings except what I've already transcribed." The fillies leaned over to look at the paraphernalia they had already compiled. "I don't think Rarity would think much to their outfits." Sweetie Belle remarked. "I'm sure she'd understand the fashion but those black streaks make them look as though they hadn't been cleaned in years." Twilight paused at that and levitated a magnifying glass over the photos. "Smart Cookie I could understand," She said, "Commander Hurricane would probably have had one if it took place during a campaign but the setting's more like a formal address to an assembly of ponies and Princess Platinum wouldn't be seen dead in a robe with such grime. Girls, we'll have to go back and we must take some trowels or knives or something that can be used to scrape." "You got an idea about the marks?" Scootaloo checked. "I sure do." Twilight affirmed with a proud smile. "Ah don't know abou' this, Twi." Applejack spoke up as she helped load up some gear into a small cart that Twilight was harnessed to. "Ah can't rightly see how ya can finish up and git out before sundown." "That's why I'm packing some camping equipment." Twilight answered. "Anyway if we're not back today have somepony come for us in the morning, then we can be more certain about our day-to-day affairs." It wasn't long before Twilight felt sure they were loaded up and that it didn't go over her torque limit, which was naturally lower than that of an earth pony, even Pinkie Pie could haul more than her. Anyway she gave a few casual goodbyes to a few ponies as she moved out with the cutie mark crusaders tagging along beside the cart, none of them noticing that a small ground-hugging silhouette keeping watch, slipping from bush to bush as they went. Twilight levitated a small trowel up towards the black mark upon the depiction of Smart Cookie and began to scrape, slowly peeling away a layer of black paint and revealing a couple of golden letters underneath. "So, you see, girls?" Twilight remarked as they gazed and their faces curled up into delighted realisation before they began to scramble to her assistance. It took somewhere in the region of three hours for them to clear away all the black paint and expose a series of long unbroken letters. "What's it say, Twilight?" Scootaloo asked eagerly. "What's it say? What's it say?" Twilight gave a rather disappointed sigh and said. "I don't know." She turned to them as they felt the disappointment more severely as they believed they hit another dead-end. "Clearly it's a cipher of some kind, a cryptogram if you will. We'll have to decode it in order to find any recognisable words in it and don't be too surprised if you do get anything incomprehensible. Chances are it's in one of the old languages of the pre-Equestrian era like the lines we've already covered." She prompted them and they each carefully wrote out a copy of the writing on the window. The sun was already dropping and, thusly, they had to camp in the old castle after all. The next morning Twilight insisted that they pack up ready for the journey back but paused to double-check all copies of the inscriptions before being satisfied. On Smart Cookie: RRIVIGIOPDDOOOMSMVTVIISLCAVEBNSBVTAOÆTRDIDEAMILASIFVSPTDOEETRSEUTSAEIGIANNDRFEEEAGLUQDLVAIDMMLEØATTNHTOOEVMCRAEHQREDESCKEMJMILULLIATAVRIIBRERPOSØINTADSVNETNINJPVTEEGOISNATEDRRENVICEIDO On Princess Platinum: PPEDMÅOAOMGSMVUISVLMISLÁCTAVÁIBAASOBANTAOBVUTRIDIIREGAMLRLEÉSIIPRVSPAONDSIEEINRTSEITTANANESAGIALVENNARFTGETEAAILNRQADPRVAITVHMTÓLEEGAÁTTIOHILOAONIVMCRARATAHGEBNHIGAHTMDAHREAMOOTNHPRAIN And on Commander Hurricane: CBEHSSALUNIARPRTINCLEISSOCELMEISTAIAHDOINEGSTYCGOENIERONSNITEYKIÉNGDNIESSALÉAUCGHTHEÕRLTOYAHLÉTYSMAGEIICTÉWILNIAGHFTSPÝALRKALEAKPAPLPEJAÁCNKFÕKUTATPERÓSHYTROAITNBOHWÎDASSHPAIVNKRIEPÓ.I. The four of them had just crossed the bridge that marked one border between the forest and the castle grounds when the sound of cantering echoed from up ahead and before long three pony-shaped silhouettes appeared and, as the mist cleared, they saw it was Applejack with Zecora and Caramel. "Thank Celestia y'all all right." Applejack gasped as they met. "So any o'yer mind explainin' why y'all were out here over night?" With this Twilight made a point about the difficulty in transcribing ancient ciphers that were hidden under paintwork as all of them made their way back. "The desire for wisdom is something we all share," Zecora remarked, "But when dealing with mysteries as these one must take care." Aside from a few more remarks about the effort Twilight and the crusaders were willing to put into this venture the journey back to Ponyville was uneventful, even after Zecora said her farewells there was nothing of note. However their return seemed to attract a bit more interest than when they left. Twilight tried time and time again to find meaning by rearranging the letters but every result was either gobbledygook or completely irrelevant to the matter at hoof. Sweetie Belle offered something she'd heard about from Rarity regarding some of the more higher society schools, which sparked Twilight's interest until she saw the result. IGPOMVILVNVORDMAFPOTESIADEAULIMØTTECEREKJLLTRBRSNDNNJTGSTRNCDPMAGVSMLTÁAONOUIIGLEIRPNIITIANAAEATTANARIHÓEÁIIAICRAEHAMHAOHACHANRTCIOLIAHIGYOIONEIGISÉCTÕTAÉSGIÉLAFPLAAAPANÕTPÓYOTOÎSPVRP "No, that's not gonna work." Twilight stated to Sweetie's disappointment. "There are two many consonants grouped together that way." For three days they strained to decode the cipher before deciding to return to the window in the hopes of finding more information. At first nothing could be gleamed and so Twilight went elsewhere within the ruins in the hopes of finding a clue with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle tagging along while Apple Bloom gathered some firewood in case they should end up spending another night. She had just finished laying out what she thought was the final bushel when she happened to make a tired glance at the window. She stopped and looked harder; after a few minutes she began to scratch out more information on her copy of the cipher just as the other three returned with a look of dejection. "Twilight, Ah have an idea." Apple Bloom mentioned when she heard their hooves on the stone floor. "In the window Smart Cookie's holding one of her hooves up in a confronta... confronto..." "Confrontational?" Twilight suggested. "Yeah, that sorta manner. And Platinum's got her two forelegs up like she's makin' a speech. Also commander Hurricane's got both wings out and a hoof stuck out like he's commandin' an army to move forward." Twilight looked at the window again and confirmed this. "So if we skip one letter after the first, then skip two, then three and then one again." Struck by this idea Twilight dashed over and swept Apple Bloom off her hooves and gathered everything together. "Let's get going!" She declared. "We can work on this idea back in Ponyville, and if we don't get going soon the moon will be up before we've even got out of the forest." At this they all made their way out as quickly as possible. "Let's see," Twilight mused as she began to scratch out all the letters meant to be skipped according to Apple Bloom's idea, "R-I-G-D-O-M... Rigdom, that's an old earth pony word for wealth. Now we're getting somewhere." "So," Apple Bloom attempted to provide assistance, "T-I-L-E-N... Tilen?" Twilight paused as she considered this. "In the old earth pony tongue 'tilen' means a valve." Once she said this she considered some of the other ancient languages of pre-Equestrian ponydom, quickly lifting a number of language textbooks from the shelves and consulting them. "And there's no meaning to this word in any other language spoken by ponies that I can find, so... if we break it down we get 'til' and 'en', which is essentially an indication to direction." They continued at this until they could no longer use the earth pony system, resulting in 'Rigdom til en værdi af to tusinde guldmønter er skjult i brønden jeg ser ned på' "Aha!" Twilight cried after mulling over these words for a while. "Wealth to the value of two thousand gold coins are hidden in the well I'm looking down on. So if we find a well where a portrayal of Princess Luna or Nightmare Moon is looking down into it we'll find her... missing property." "So what about this 'agus má tá aon'?" Sweetie Belle asked as the three of them continued to pick out the needed letters during Twilight's effort to determine the exact words and then translate them. "It makes no sense in earth pony languages." Twilight answered after a few moments of consulting the textbooks. "But in one of the Unicornian dialects it translates as 'and if any'... Hmm, it must follow on to something. You girls got any of the next words?" "B-U-I-R-G-L..." Scootaloo began. "É-I-R-A-N-I-N..." Sweetie Belle added. "T-I-N." Apple Bloom finished. "Buirgléiranintin? What's that?" "Girls, there are no definitive spaces between the words." Twilight pointed out. "We'll have to extrapolate where the words are amidst the jumble. I think what you've got is... 'Buirgléir a n-intinn', the next letter is another n, right?" Apple Bloom nodded emphatically while the other two nodded at a more steady pace. "So we've now got 'And if any burglar...' I'm not sure as to the context of the 'a n-intinn' yet." "Come to think of it," Sweetie Belle mentioned, "If it's two thousand bits worth it can't be much more than a nest egg to the Princess." "But back then two thousand bits was worth quite a bit more than today." Twilight pointed out. "They were using reins and annos back then instead of shillings and pence. Chances are such a quantitated value these days would be worth something in the region of... twenty-five thousand bits or so but we have no information that She was referring to bits precisely when it comes to the line about 'gold coins'." Further decoding occurred, which Twilight compiled and thusly got. "Agus má tá aon buirgléir a n-intinn a leagtar ar thógáil air rabhadh a thabhairt liom iad i gcoinne é." Twilight read out loud. "Looks like a warning against treasure-hunters; it translates as 'And if any thief thinks they can help themselves I advise against it'." Eventually they had all the information they needed and the final result made Twilight edgy. "So we've got 'Rigdom til en værdi af to tusinde guldmønter er skjult i brønden jeg ser ned på agus má tá aon buirgléir a n-intinn a leagtar ar thógáil air rabhadh a thabhairt liom iad i gcoinne é gia écho̱ thései éna fýlaka páno̱ apó to thi̱sav̱ró.'." Twilight informed them. "Wealth with a value of two thousand gold coins are hidden in the well I look down on and if any thief thinks of helping themselves I advise against it for I have set a guardian over the treasure." The cutie mark crusaders looked both anxious and confused at this. "The last bit is in a Pegasus language. If Nightmare Moon did place a guardian there then I guess I'll have to let the Princess know of our archaeological investigation and see if we can go and open up the hiding place. And I was hoping to surprise Princess Luna with the recovery of Her ancient possessions." As the night drew in the cutie mark crusaders settled down for a sleepover at their clubhouse along with a copy of every clue picked up as to the whereabouts of the lost treasure of Princess Luna. "If there were no threat of a guardian we could've been down there gettin' that treasure out and then our cutie marks could've arrived when Princess Luna received it from the four o' us." Apple Bloom bemoaned as they settled down. "We wouldn't have been able to go until the morning anyhow." Sweetie Belle pointed out. "It is smack in the middle of the Everfree Forest." "Yeah." Scootaloo yawned as the night rolled on. "Let's just get some sleep." With that they said their goodnights in a resigned manner and dropped off, just and a shadow began to creep across the room towards the pile of papers on a small crate.