Adventure Inc.

Obligatory Exposition

Greetings my wonderful and definitely literate readers, I am.....well ok you probably know who I am by now because I mean come on. But for all of one or two of you, I am Ivory Star, world class adventurer, legendary archeologist, historian, part time guest professor at the Canterlot Historical Society and the personal protege of the legendary adventurer, Grit Stratum.

I have been convinced by various parties(yes several parties were thrown and summarily thrust into epictacular levels of awesomeness) to launch my own official series chronicling my legendary adventures across Equestria and beyond. Here in this novel edited and approved by me, so you know it's credible, are written the series of events that led to the rebirth of ancient Equestrian history and mythology into modern times. The quest to discover ancient truths, delve into perilous dungeons and battle dangerous enemies as the secret workings of Equestria's newest and greatest hero are made public for all to see.

But before I go into all of that I would like to give a little history lesson of my own here just for you dear reader. You see It is very important for you to know(as if you already don't) about Grit Stratum since he is my personal mentor (squee) and himself a legendary adventurer from back in the day.

Grit Stratum is the incredibly famous and universally beloved hero of Equestria and responsible for the creation of the world renowned Adventure Incorporated. This is what is considered his greatest achievement and legacy since it is pretty much responsible for the rediscovery of much of Equestria's ancient and mysterious past before the reign of the two royal Alicorn sisters. He found lost cities, trekked the deepest jungles, fought giant monsters and overthrew shadowy crime syndicates. He recovered relics and treasures of antiquity as well as united the greatest adventures in the world to create his masterpiece, Adventure Inc.

Adventure Incorporated was Grit's answer to the increasing demand for knowledge due to the princess Twilight Sparkles emphasis on promoting greater education across Equestria. Grit's journals and letters became the first pieces of the largest library in the world with well over eight million volumes of text stored across several facilities in Canterlot specifically designed to hold the collection. Adventurers of all stripes are employed here and sent out and assigned to various projects in acquiring and saving priceless artifacts from all over the world. Grit opened museums, founded universities and with his personal outings created friendships with countless kingdoms and creatures the world over.

Now now, I know what you are thinking dear readers: how did you become the personal pupil of the legendary Grit Stratum who as we all know was in his youth the chosen apprentice of you guessed it, Daring Do herself and the founder of Adventure Inc. Well you see it has to do with how I got my own amazing cutie mark that signaled my destiny as an adventure pony.

When I was just a filly I lived with my parents in Manehatten where my mother worked as a party cake designer and my father was a newspaper photographer. I had always been a massive fan of the Daring Do and Dash Venture(a fictional pony who was based on the adventures of Grit Stratum) series of novels and my father had gotten the news at his work that Grit Stratum was opening a new exhibit at the new wing of the Canterlot History Museum. All of the princesses would be there and the exhibit was about obscure pony history with the far away zebra kingdoms. I of course practically demanded we go even though my parents fully intended to go there with me since they knew how much of a fan I was. It was there with all five Alicorn princesses in attendance and with Grit Stratum himself cutting the opening ribbon that I was able to meet my greatest hero.

When the ribbon was cut hundreds of ponies rushed into the museum and I became separated from my parents in the huge crowd. I was pushed inside the museum and being too distracted by all of the absolutely amazing exhibits I barely noticed my missing parents. Since I was shorter than all the other ponies(I was only 9 at the time) I was pretty easily able to hide in the crowd and sneak through some doors into a back room where I hoped they stored all of the more priceless and magical artifacts too dangerous for public consumption. It was a large storage room filled with huge boxes that were stacked nearly to the ceiling in some places. This was like heaven to me, it was like all of the comics, books and movies I loved were now real and I was in the secret government room where legendary artifacts of great power were stored for study and safe keeping. It was to my great disappointment that most of the boxes I was able to pull open held only pieces of old jars and bits of other junk that didn’t even seem to have amazingly magical powers that could change the fate of the world. I looked and I looked and I looked but most of the boxes were too big and heavy to open and I was not finding anything good in the few I could pry into. It was only when I was about to give up, when all of my patience had left me that I found what I was looking for. It was in a small unassuming box that sat on the top of a pile of large boxes I had scrambled up on top of. Within the box was an old but very beautiful looking necklace of a very weird and foreign design that I had no idea of. It was while staring at this that my cutie mark of a compass star with a compass inside of it appeared on my flank. I thought it was pretty cool until I noticed the compass needle pointed west which even I knew was WRONG!!!.......ok I know but it annoyed me, a pony who loved adventure books and knew how a compass was supposed to work.

Just as I was pondering exactly what what was going to happen I was distracted bu the shouting of several security ponies who had spotted me from the floor. I was so surprised by their shouting at me that I fell right off of the pile of crates and landed on top of one of the security ponies and spraining my own hoof in the process. Maybe that’s what the off kilter needle meant, finding bad luck or something like that or at least that’s what I was thinking as they carried me off to my parents who were standing in a corner looking very worried and also very mad. With them to my surprise was.......well.......oh I remember the feeling of seeing Grit up close as my parents had gone to him looking for their missing child. I could hardly breathe as he asked me if I was ok and OH MY GOSH HE WAS TALKING TO ME!!!!!!!! After hyper ventilating and calming down my parents were so happy to see my cutie mark and even Grit was willing to pat me on the back(squee again) and I told everypony what had happened. Grit was very impressed and since he at least thought my cutie mark had listed me as a pony who might excel in his organization he offered to take me on as his own pupil and eventually have me join Adventure Inc. as one of its adventurer ponies. I was so ecstatic and began begging my parents to let me go and after some thinking it over and a private talk with Grit that they said I would find boring they agreed to let me go. Thus began the beginning of my apprenticeship to the legendary Grit Stratum and the introduction of the many events that as of then I was unaware and maybe even somewhat unprepared for that would happen to me during the course of my life.

And so now that you know how I ended up as an eventual first class adventurer welcome to what would become of my life.