Chapter 1: A Most Interesting Find

Dust rolled across the ground as the distant sounds of digging ground its way into my tent. I had taken it upon myself to sit down at a small table and eat a plate of birthday cupcakes sent to me by my parents in Manehatten. They would do this every year on my birthday as I was away studying with Grit and I would often find myself unable to go and visit them as often as I would like. For my birthday Grit had taken me to a small mountain side excavation just outside of Canterlot where an archeological group from Adventure Inc. had discovered signs of an ancient settlement around the edges of the city.

“Ivory, Where are you!” I could hear Grit's voice shout as I sat there eating my chocolate cupcakes(chocolate is my favorite).

I quickly finished my last cupcake and ran out of the small tent on the edge of the excavation site, “Grit I'm right here, no need to freak out!” I shouted back as I ran up to him.

“In the twelve years I've known you Ivory you have never been late to going to one of these, especially one I am taking you to for your birthday.” Grit patted my head as I took my place walking next to him as we approached the dig site. “You know there is no food once we actually get to the dig right Ivory?” he asked as if he thought I actually would(again), it took me several seconds to notice the cupcake frosting still on my face.

“That one time from Appleoosia doesn’t count, I mean it was just a candy bar wrapper.” I said with a snark that I thought would make me sound right as I licked the frosting from my face.

“Yes but it was a candy bar that freaked out half the research team into thinking a time traveling pony brought a modern candy bar back into Appleoosia from sixty years ago.” Grit was trying to joke around I think, I mean it seemed funny at the time seeing a bunch of smart ponies freaking about how a candy bar wrapper from today appeared in a pile of dirt, inside a hole dug into a section of the town no pony had lived in for sixty years. “Took a couple hours before they realized they freaked out over nothing which made them ornery for the rest of the week.”

“Yeah, Yeah I remember...but come on it was funny how easily they jumped to such a stupid conclusion right?” I smiled at Grit trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Well of course it was funny but the ponies of Adventure Inc. definitely believe in an organized time travel conspiracy from the future and would love nothing more than to go around saying they proved it. Then I would never hear the end of it.” Grit groaned a little before smiling back at me.

We arrived at the edge of the dig looking out at the several areas where ponies were chiseling and brushing away at piles of dirt. Some had some small piles of things next to them, pottery shards, refuse, etc. As we looked around a green Pegasus pony who seemed to be overseeing the excavation caught sight of us and with a big smile on her face zipped up to where Grit and I were standing.

“EMMY!!” I shouted as I got a better look at the green Pegasus with a coral mane when she got closer.

“IVY!!” she shouted as she rammed into me giving me a big hug.

"Hello Emerald” Grit interjected as I continued to greet my friend.

“Oh! Glad to see you here Mr. Grit sir.” Emerald gave Grit a quick salute. “I didn’t expect you two until tomorrow but whatever I am always happy to see my little Ivy here she said as she bopped me on my nose.

“Whoa Emmy, you got a cool pith helmet now...” I paused for a second looking at it with widened eyes “And that compass symbol on it...but that’s”.

“That's right Ivory, I am now and official member of Adventure Incorporated and now have the license to to become the worlds next great adventurer.” Emerald said this with a look of extreme pride on her face.

“Wow, that's amazing, you’re amazing Emmy!” I was so jealous that Emerald got into A.I before I did when I was the personal apprentice to its founding member. You see Emerald Flake and I have been best friends for like ever at this point. I first met her when Grit took me to the A.I office in Manehatten about six years ago where she had been determined to become the worlds greatest treasure hunter. I introduced her to Grit and she almost fainted the first time which I thought and still think was super cute. We had been writing letters and meeting up every so often since then.

“Yes, yes that is wonderful and I am very happy for you Emerald but did you get what I asked you for ready?” Grit interrupted our conversation rather suddenly. Emerald's attention suddenly shot back up to Grit who was standing over the two of us.

“Oh yeah I did sir, and I got a whole section just for the two of you to look through first.” Emerald said with a big smile on her face. I had always loved her smile and the liveliness it brought to her face.

“Wait, you got a whole area that no pony has looked through yet just for us? You’re the best Emmy!” she really was the best.

“Yeah Ivy, this whole excavation was my discovery you see. Its what got A.I to offer me membership and I am happy to let you and Mr. Stratum here dig around in our newest area.” Emerald pointed off and I saw a relatively untouched area that had been cordoned off with several ropes.

“Happy birthday Ivory.” Grit said while giving me a smile and gesturing me towards the site.

I gave Emerald another hug and darted off towards the dig site before stopping and turning my head, “Aren’t you coming to Grit?” as he was just standing there next to Emerald.

“Don't worry kid, I'll catch up in a minute, I just need to talk to Emerald for a bit and I'll be right up, so go and see what you can dig up!” He shouted back at me as he and Emerald walked into a nearby tent.

Emerald gave me a smile and a wave before going inside with Grit and seeing as I now had permission to start I decided to do just that. This was going to be amazing, I had never actually helped in an official excavation before. I had mostly just sat and watched as Grit and others would show me how to brush dirt and safely chisel away rocks and other boring stuff that they insisted I needed to learn.

I suppose that stuff came in handy as I got to work on some of the corners of the roped off area they had pointed me towards. I said to myself again that this would be amazing and that I would find something incredible here that would make me instantly famous and fast track my own entry into Adventure Incorporated. Grit had always told me that in order to enter A.I a pony needed to show they had the skills to contribute to the company in order to show that any resources spent on them would be worth while and that he wanted me to be completely ready before he sent in an application for me.

“This is it Ivory Star, today you finally prove yourself to Grit and the world.” I let out a large sigh and gently picked up a small pick in my mouth, sometimes being an Earth pony is somewhat inconvenient. I began to, as gently as I could, pick away at some of the stones in a spot I picked out for myself.

Emerald and Grit had been taking some time, in fact it had been over two hours that they spent inside that tent talking. Every so often ponies would rush in and out carrying things away from the tent in packages then coming back to pick up and drop off others. I did not mind much though as I was very content just digging away looking for my treasure. I had found some small things of course, mostly just some pot shards and what looked like some eating utensil. They looked rather different from other pieces found in the area from past digs I had read about. The old Unicorns who first lived here really liked to make very ornamental and highly decorated things and it was cool to find some implements of everyday life that actual ponies hundreds of years ago used regularly.

“Oh the stories these things could tell if they could only talk.” I mused to myself as I brushed the dirt away from a small coin, or series of coins......or a whole pot full of old coins! “Wow, these must be worth a bunch, especially now after all this time! I wonder if Grit or Emerald would let me keep one or two?”

As I stared at the coins I noticed something sort of odd about them because they seemed to have strange symbols or maybe a kind of writing on them. “This isn’t old ponish, and the pictures on this one are well....strange to say the least.” I rubbed my forehead with my hoof as the day had become hotter going into the afternoon. On the coin I had in my hoof was a picture of...of an Alicorn! “What? This isn’t Celestia, the manes wrong.” I looked at it closer, “Not Luna either, she should have been still banished at this time.” This was confusing.

I looked at the other coins and with a small magnifying glass I held in my mouth I saw something shining under the surface metal of one of the coins. I put down the glass and picked up a brush and swept away the dirt revealing a dull metal surface to the coin. But on one edge of the ancient bit I saw a glint of silver edging its way into my eye when I held the coin in the sun. “Ponies didn't make coins out of silver in this time period, especially the Unicorns. For them it was all gems and gold.” talking to myself helped me think.

I stared at it for several more minutes before going back to the spot I found the pot in. This was a good spot and if I could find more stuff like this I could definitely impress Emerald and Grit and get into Adventure Inc. I put my chisel and pick back into the ground and with a bit less care than I should have had I began to quickly pick away at the dirt. It took only about thirty seconds before I heard a smashing sound when the small pick I held in my mouth hit the dirt. “OH SWEET CELESTIA'S RAINBOW BUTT!! I BROKE SOMETHING!!”.

I looked down at what I had just hit thinking to myself that I had just ruined my my big find and my best chance at getting into A.I when to my great relief what I had just hit was an old box. Wait that was still pretty bad since this box was still a historical treasure. I used my brush to sweep away the surrounding dirt to find that the part I had hit was the lock holding the lid shut. The wood had pretty much petrified or had been enchanted because the outside was pretty much still intact and hard as rock. The lock on the other hand had chipped when I hit it allowing for the clasp to open up and unlock the box.

“Well I should at least see whats inside of it.” I told myself as an inner glee filled my body at the chance that what I would find would completely rewrite Equestrian history.

The item contained within the box was surprisingly simple at first glance, as if it was just a plain piece of what seemed like some kind of metal armband. As I brushed away the dust I could see carvings and engravings laced upon the edges and sides of the band. A single purple crystal adorned the outside as what seemed to be six vaguely pony shaped images stood around the crystal. There was what looked like three earth ponies, one rather large and two of them had some kind of symbols near them(cutie marks maybe?). There was a unicorn, also with some kind of image painted near it but I couldn't make it out and what looked like two pegasi with only one having a very faded picture next to it.

“Well well, what have you got there Ivory?” Grit's voice suddenly popped up behind me almost making me drop the artifact out of fright.

“Don't sneak up on me like that, I almost dropped it.” I said letting out a sigh of relief at not having dropped it. “Where is Emerald?” I asked looking around for her.

“One of the workers dragged her away to look at some pottery shards or something.” Grit said as he started to look at what I held in my hooves. Suddenly his face turned to one of sudden disbelief and almost shock, “Ivory did you just find that here!?” he quickly panted out as he almost seemed out of breath as he talked.

“Yeah it was in this box here, why is it something amazing that will change Equestria forever!??” I added as my face grew wide with excitement with Grit's own as I rarely saw him excited about a find.

“I don't think it will do that but still, this is something that I've never seen before and I have seen a lot.” he said as he regained his composure and continued to look even closer. As he looked I could see his eyes widening even further as he gazed over every inch of the band. “Give it here Ivory and let me have a closer look at this.” he said as he reached out his hoof to take it from me.

“Oh, uh sure, here you go.” I was unsure what he was looking for but if he was excited then so was I.

“I've seen these kind of markings before, and some of the pictures here around the crystal, I recognize them also.” Grit pointed to several of the images printed on the side of the band and the ones around the crystal. “The bits on the edge here are called Pre-Celestial Script and from what I know it was the first writing system in Equestria and was used by early unicorns.” Grit sounded very sure of this and of course that meant something cool.

“Grit?” I asked, “How can this be early unicorn writing, I mean it really doesn’t look like anything that came around later?” I had a point here. Grit had taught me some about several early pony languages and this looked like nothing that developed later in pony history.

“Well there are very few examples of it and I must admit that it only appears in a relatively limited time stamp so pretty much nothing is known about it.” wow something he didn’t know about, this was rare. “We don't know how it was developed and we can't read it but there is one thing we do know and that is that it predates Celestia and Luna and most of known pony history.” now he was getting very excited.

“What about the pictures around the gem there in the middle, those definitely aren’t the same writing system as that pre whatever it was.” I said staring at the center crystal.

“Oh yes this is where it gets interesting, you see that big one there on the side Ivory?” Grit pointed to a large pony pictured on the edge of the group. “Well that is a buffalo and a rather early depiction of one at that.” this was getting more and more interesting.

“So this is some kind of friendship thing made by ponies for the buffalo or maybe the other way around?” I asked trying to think of explanations for this.

“No its better than that.” Grit said with an ever growing smile on his face. “I also see a griffon pictured here and oh yes that is interesting.” Grit's face was now transfixed.

"What is it? Come on and tell me Grit!” I didn't realize it but I was starting to whine a little here.

“There are two images that I recognize very clearly here, these two pictures here are of very specific people that I definitely recognize.” he pointed at two of the ponies printed near the top of the band. “this unicorn here is Aurora Solstice, I can tell by the insignia pictured above her.” Grit pointed to an image of multicolored glittering lights above the head of the unicorn. “This was her cutie mark and became the insignia of her future family.”.

I looked closely at the pictures shown and several of them had the same insignias around them as well. One in particular had a strange picture by it since it seemed less like a cutie mark and more like a jumble of twisting lines, “What about this one?” I asked Grit as I pointed to it.

“This is the most interesting one in the bunch.” Grit said, “This looks like Abila the Unifier, one of the most legendary Zebras who ever lived.”

“Aurora Solstice and Abila the Unifier, who are they Grit?” my curiosity growing with each second.

“Aurora is one of the most obscure ponies in history, the only things we know about her are that she was considered a powerful wizard and that she started a settlement in the far north that many years later was formed into the Crystal Empire under another ruler.” Grit rubbed his chin with his hoof, “It is believed that her magic is what made crystal ponies...well....all crystalline to begin with, or at least a modified version of spells made by her.”.

“And Abila, why is she so famous, I've certainly never heard of her.” I was trying to sound smart here but Grit was making it hard.

“Zebras do not like to share their history with outsiders but from what I've learned over the years Abila was an ancient zebra hero who is said to have used some form of powerful magic to unite the scattered zebra clans following some great cataclysm that destroyed their old kingdom.” Grit puzzled over what to say for several seconds, “They pretty much revere her as a hero who saved and preserved their entire culture and people.” Grit wouldn’t or couldn’t elaborate any further than that.

“So basically this is a super important thing that depicts legendary pony, zebra and what I must also assume buffalo and griffon heroes on it for some unknown purpose.” I thought for several more seconds, “Maybe leaders from the various kingdoms back in the day had these made as a symbol of unity with all their favorite heroes on it to show their willingness to be friends?” That certainly sounded smart and I hoped Grit would also think so.

“I don't know kid but I think I know someone who might have some insight into what we see here.” Grit formed a small smile on his face as he said this.

****

OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!

I had lived in Canterlot for the last several years with Grit but in all that time I had never actually been inside the royal palace or personally met any of the princesses. But now finally Grit was taking me in to meet with Princess Celestia herself since he says she might have some information having been alive much closer to the time period he believes this hoof-band was probably from. As one last present for my birthday Grit also got special permission for us to take a tour of the palace before meeting the princess. The palace was very beautiful with wondrous tapestries hanging from the walls and lavender flowers lining the hallways. I especially enjoyed what was the most famous and well visited part of the palace; the hall of stories. In this room hung stained glass windows of the deeds of the legendary ponies known as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony led by Princess Twilight Sparkle.

As we walked past each window I loved how they sparkled in the light of the late afternoon sun with their myriad of colors reflecting off the shining walls and floors of the hallway. The room itself seemed like a rainbow flowing in every direction as a cool breeze swept in from several smaller open windows. And there at the end of the hallway was what I decided was my favorite window because it was about none other than Grit.

On the window piece was portrayed Grit Stratum standing alongside a small(relatively speaking of course) red feathered dragon and some weird blue pony with mismatched red and violet eyes. Grit was in a rearing position as the dragon blew cyan fire into several plumes around him as the other pony zapped some sort of ray gun at the center of the window. In the center where the three heroes faced was another stallion with a golden mane who held a miniature city within his hooves while looking down menacingly at it. This story I knew and in fact everypony knew it since it is what made Grit famous to begin with.

Leaving the hallway made me sad since I found it incredibly beautiful and made it a note to come back and spend more time in it someday; but we had a princess to meet. Not so surprisingly Grit and Celestia were good friends and had been for many years. Grit had not seen her much in the past twelve years because he was always so busy taking me around Equestria and teaching me things. The past several years while we had been in Canterlot though he had always been super busy working on a lot of projects. He never let me in on what they were but from what I could gather from snooping around his room whenever he went out was they involved rare artifacts from various places.

“When are we gonna meet the princess Grit?” I asked probably sounding a little to whiny for being about to meet one of the most important ponies in the world.

“Hold your horses there kid” Grit responded by patting me on the head, “Celestia is in a very important meeting right now and we will have to wait until she is done to see her...hence the tour” he said sounding clever.

We were sitting on a small (for a castle at least) bench that had been set up outside the massive twin doors that led to the royal throne room. I sat there next to Grit in wide eyed wonder as the room was filled with all sorts of cool things to look at. Tapestries hung from all the walls as chandeliers hung from the ceiling holding slender wax candles which emitted a warm glow around the room as the sun began to set outside.

This excitement soon faded as the minutes passed and I soon found myself becoming suddenly and irrevocably bored out of my mind. The tour had only lasted so long and we still had to wait a long time to see the princess. I tried to entertain myself by bouncing back and forth on the bench, singing my favorite winter wrap up song and popping in and out of the large tapestries that hung from the walls.

“Do you think Princess Luna will be there too, I mean since it is getting dark out she might come out to raise the moon, right Grit?” I asked Grit trying to get my excitement and anticipation to grow as we neared the time Grit said the princess would talk to us.

“Luna is out of town right now Ivory so I don't think we are going to see her here, sorry kiddo.” Grit's words brought a slight frown to my face since I had always liked Luna and thought she was really cool. She actually was in several of Grit's novels and had gone on some pretty crazy adventures with him in the past if they books were to be believed (which obviously they were).

Finally the two large doors opened outward into the foyer and several very important and fancy looking ponies exited talking and mumbling amongst themselves about matters that I suppose were probably important but not relevant to the excitement I was feeling for finally being about to meet the princess of the sun herself.

As Grit and I were ushered into the throne room by Two of Celestia's royal guards I listened to the horn blast as they announced our presence to the princess and then promptly scuttled out of the room and closed the door. I looked back thinking that kind of rude for such an important pony like Grit but then I turned around and got my first ever up-close view of Princess Celestia. She was breathtaking as she elegantly sat upon her golden throne looking out at us with a kind and gentle smile. I stood there dazzled as I gazed upon her sparkling white coat and flowing mane which shimmered in a rainbow of colors. Her face seemed so young and full of life even as she just sat there looking out at Grit and me. Yet even in its youthful appearance I noticed her piercing magenta eyes as they looked at me as if sizing me up for something. She rose from her throne and slowly began to walk towards us and with each step I could feel both the pride and compassion she held in equal measure.

I quickly looked over at Grit and saw that he was bowing down and not really knowing what to do I followed suit. Now I had never really bowed before so I just did my best to try and copy what Grit was doing before I tripped on my own hoof and face planted onto the floor right in front of the princess. It was at this point I believed my life was over for now I had just embarrassed bot Grit and myself in front of FREAKING CELESTIA! For his part Grit just looked over at me as I lay there on the ground with a slight redness on his face as Celestia stopped to stand in front of us.

“Wonderful to see you again after so many years Grit.” Celestia said with a kind and understanding smile on her face. “And this must be the famous Ivory that you have spoken of so often in your letters to me.” Celestia's voice to me sounded like a chorus of streams gently rolling off into the ocean, soft and gentle but leading to a sense of strength and control as she lovingly chose each word to say.

Grit rose up and gave a smile to his old friend, “Yeah it's been too long since we spoke last and I do regret not being able to find the time to visit sooner.” Grit said with some embarrassment.

Celestia gave a little chuckle as she looked down at me, still lying on the floor to embarrassed to move. “Don't worry Ivory, I don't bite that badly.” she said as she gently held out her hoof to help me up off the floor.

My face was redder than if you smashed a tomato and a whole bunch of cherries on my face as I slowly accepted her hoof and pulled myself up. “Th..th..thank you princess.” I said very awe struck at meeting the increasingly more amazing ruler of all Equestria.

“So I hear that Emerald's little project has found something interesting today that you wanted to show me.” Celestia said turning towards Grit.

“Well Ivory here is the one who found it though Emerald had already flagged the location and had simply given us first dibs on it.” Grit said probably trying to give credit to both me and my friend.

“Well then my little ponies lets see what you’ve got and I will do the best I can to help.” Celestia paused a second and then interrupted her own thought, “Although don't you think Twilight would be more helpful in this matter than I?”

“If what I am thinking is correct then this is a bit before Twilight's time and you would be the one to ask since you were probably alive back then.” Grit said as if trying to just casually correct the princess, “And beside isn’t she preparing for a trip to Saddle Arabia tomorrow, I wouldn’t want to get her behind just to help me out.”

“Quite right my friend.” Celestia answered sweetly in response. “Well then lets waste no more time and see what it is you have.”

I slid the saddle bag I was wearing off my back and slowly grabbed the band out of the bag holding it up carefully with my mouth and putting it into my waiting hooves. Celestia took one look at it as her eyes suddenly widened as she began to dart her eyes to every inch of the pictures and inscriptions.

“You say you found this here at the dig?” Celestia seemed very interested and almost nostalgic as the words left her mouth.

“Yeah it was in a chest buried with a bunch of weird coins but Emerald is currently looking over those.” on second thought maybe we should have brought the coins as well but I didn't want to leave Emmy with nothing to look at while I was away at the palace. “There was this one especially that had this strange silver metal under its surface covering and was all sparkly.” I added at the last second.

“Do you recognize it Celestia?” Grit asked now somewhat more curious than he already obviously was.

“Yes and no my friends.” Celestia said with some contemplation as she continued to stare at the strange little crystal that was set in the center of the band. “When Luna and I were very young and I mean when we were both still foals, I do remember having seen one of these very bands somewhere.”

“Where!” I almost shouted saying this as I wanted to know more about my first find.

“The one I saw, if my memory is right, was worn by one of the Alicorns that once lived here on this mountain.” Celestia stared in thought and continued, “But I thought that when they all disappeared they took everything with them and left nothing behind.” she said continuing to stare at the markings on the side of the band.

“Wait, so you’re saying that this...that this belonged to actual Alicorns!” my amazement matched only by my own disbelief at what the princess had just said.

“That's impossible, all of the Alicorns were said to have completely disappeared from Equestria without a trace.” Grit said adding in his own skepticism to the mix.

Suddenly Celestia's eyes lit up as she gazed at the pictures engraved on the edges around the crystal, “I recognize that Zebra, it's Abila if I am not mistaken.” Celestia sounded unsure but a reassurance from Grit assuaged her doubt.

“Each of the images on this band represents a famous hero from legends so old that even our own legends would consider them ancient.” Grit said looking straight at Celestia, “If only Star Swirl and the other pillars were still around we could get their take on this.” he added somewhat dissatisfied.

“How do you two know so much about the ponies on the bracelet here?” I mostly wondered to myself but actually said out-loud.

“My dear” Celestia sweetly said as she glanced down at me, “My sister and I grew up on some of these stories and when Grit started taking an interest in them we told him what we knew and he pretty much found out much more on his own.” she said as Grit began to blush a bit at Celestia praising him.

Grit regained his composure, “Well if this belonged to Alicorns then all we can do is go to the Adventure HQ here in Canterlot and see what the library has to say on the subject; there are more books in that one building than in the rest of Equestria, the Crystal Empire and every other neighboring kingdom combined.”

“Well then I wish you two luck in your search and If you ever need anything please return here and don't hesitate to ask.” Celestia gave Grit a hug as the two friends parted ways and gave me a smile as I followed Grit out of the throne room.

“So Ivory, what did you think of the princess?” Grit asked me as we walked out of the castle and into the cool Canterlot night.

“She was really cool, and pretty and obviously knows a lot stuff, almost as much as you.” I put that last bit in so Grit wouldn't think I liked her more than him. “Could we go and see the princess again once we find out more about the bracelet?”

“Sure kid, and maybe we could get Luna and Twilight in to see it also.” Grit was awesome and I am so glad that I have him as a hero.