Chapter 1

ACT I --  CHAPTER I

REVELATION

Valiant Charge, an Earth pony colt working on a large farm, was just one of many ponies wanting to get indoors after a hard day’s work.

Valiant had was steeped in curiosity since he was young - always asking questions and finding out what about what he didn’t know. But what he really had a calling for was technology, marked by two cogs as his cutie mark. He’d even taken the family washing machine apart, out of curiosity to find out how it worked. And as such, in the surroundings he lived in on the farm, he had always wanted to find out about the rest of the world, to see new things, and find out how they worked.

The farm itself was one of the many patches of land on the outskirts of modern day Fillydelphia, a city on the east side of Equestria, where all types of ponies (and even the occasional zebra) lived in harmony amongst the tall stone houses and sprawling markets.

And you could not find a community more friendlier and accepting than this one, with different species helping each other in day-to-day business without complaint. The Pegasi controlled the skies, aiding the Earth ponies who grew the food, while in turn the Unicorns took on the long and arduous administrative work that held the city together.

Therefore on harvest day, when the fruit and vegetables were collected just before the start of winter, all of the ponies did their bit to make it go as well as possible. They managed to do a good job at it too, and before long the bumper crop had been gathered.  Valiant had just finished his duties and began to head off, when a mare with a familiar voice called to him.

“Hey, Val!” asked Sweet Pea, another Earth pony and friend of Valiant’s, currently overloaded with countless baskets of fruit and a muddy spade balanced on the top.

“You wouldn’t mind taking this spade over to that barn over there, would you?” pointing to a ragged old building off in the distance. “I would go and do it myself, but, well…” She pointed at her back.

“Sure!” replied Valiant, seeing the state she was in.

“Thanks a bunch! Can’t wait for the apple pies we’re gonna make this season, it looks like we’ll be stuffed ‘til new year!” said Sweet Pea as she trotted over to the farmhouse.

Valiant was just as excited about this season’s harvest, especially for the tiny cherry cakes, which were his favourite, and were made by Ms.Shortbread in the city centre every year. The magically gifted cook could make a pastry taste perfect in her kitchen.

Valiant was daydreaming about them all the way to the barn, without realising that he’d never visited it before, and that it certainly didn’t look like the proper tool shed. The paint had peeled off in all sorts of places, as well as the door being weathered by the weather, and constant use.

The inside of the barn was barely any better. The wood seemed to have been chewed straight through by a family of mice, and holes littered the walls, shining light through to the gloomy inside.

His mind off of Ms.Shortbread’s cooking, Valiant went to the task at hand. Clearly, this was not the tool shed, the barn was mostly bare. But before leaving he took a look final around and noticed that covered in hay, in the back of the barn, was a brown box with some sort of lock on it. Valiant was always a curious colt, and he advanced with interest on the box.

Looking at it a good few hooves away, Valiant saw that the box was not a box, but in fact a chest, with an easily accessible push lock attached to it.

Valiant felt lucky that it didn’t need a key, and as his curiosity took hold, he went on to open the chest.

And so he did, with little to no effort, and inside the box lay a rather strange shoddy-looking hat, which unusually had two sides, with the middle of it sticking out awkwardly with many worn decorations and medals pinned on. Valiant had never seen something like it before, and it certainly didn’t seem like the new fashion from Canterlot.

Valiant concluded that it must have been the previous owner’s winter hat, seeing that the interior was lined with wool. He also decided that it would be a good idea to trouble Barkbeard about it, and see if he could make anything of it.

Barkbeard was the historian and relic-collector of Fillydelphia. If a Fillydelphian pony found almost any type of artifact, it was Barkbeard who could tell them what it was. He also had a peculiar accent for an Earth pony, as well as being able to speak what other ponies regarded as “fancy talk” (Which was a prevalent feature on the hat).

Rumour had it that Barkbeard used to travel all around Equestria where he picked the language up from far distant lands, but due to his old age now was more than happy staying at his home in Fillydelphia, where his renown for being a historian resulted in ponies coming to him with all manners of objects from the past.

It was getting dark, and after Valiant returned the spade to the right tool shed, he said goodbye to the other farm ponies and started to trot the way to the door of Barkbeard’s abode with the strange hat. His every breath formed a pale misty haze in front of him which disappeared in seconds as he crossed the winding streets and back alleys on his journey, as he navigated his way through the walkways.

He eventually found the solid wood entrance to Barkbeard’s house, and knocked the door firmly three times with his left hoof. He heard Barkbeard approaching the door, who opened it half-way and hesitated, looking at Valiant for a few seconds.

“Allo, uh. Charge is it?” Barkbeard said, contorting his face as he tried to remember the names of ponies.

“Yeah, um, it’s Valiant,” replied Valiant.

Barkbeard hesitated again, searching for Valiant in his mind.

“Ah, Valiant Charge, one of the farm ponies over at hedgerow house, correct?” Valiant nodded.

What did you want, Valiant? It is quite late, after all,” asked Barkbeard, as he looked overhead and saw the moon settled in the dark sky.

“I was looking in one of the barns out near the apple orchards, and I found this in a chest,” said Valiant, raising the hat off from his back into plain sight of Barkbeard.

A usual response from Barkbeard in this situation would be to take the object given to him and thank the finder-pony. He take a few glances at it later on the next day, and give back a couple of quick notes on it in the most positive way possible (“What you have found may just be a common tent-peg, but don’t lose heart, I’m almost certain from these markings and...etc. that this was not used by any common pony, my friend!”).

Instead, he looked at the tattered hat, and a mesh of memories came shooting into his mind, making him instantly straighten up, with a twinkling in his eye.

“Valiant, please forgive me, but this is no normal hat!” spoke Barkbeard in an astonished tone. “This, what we would call a bicorne, is something I would not have believed somepony to find! If you could, please come and drop by tomorrow, if you are truly interested in knowing the tales accompanied by this find. But I may warn you, it is not for the faint of heart. And for Celestia’s sake, but it back in the chest you found it in and bring it back here safely!”

Valiant, rather taken back by the response he was not expecting from the wise stallion, simply nodded as Barkbeard close shut the door firmly. Valiant returned to the barn, where he placed the hat in and shut the lock.

Still dazed, he hoisted it onto his back, and went home. He decided against telling any of his family, and instead rushed up to his room, put down the chest, and flung himself onto his bed.

But even though his internal clock was ordering him to, he could not sleep, and he thought

for a good hour about Barkbeard’s response.

What was important about this hat? Was it famous? Famous thing’s don’t get locked up in decrepit barns.

Was it cursed? Maybe that’s why it was meant to go in the chest? Valiant shuddered at the thought, and pushed the chest to the other side of the room with one of his back hooves.

He suddenly realised then that he was extremely tired after the hard day’s work, and although he pursued dwelling on the subject of the mysterious hat for as long as he could, Valiant eventually drifted off into slumber.

* * *

The next morning came, and Valiant awoke to the sun’s rays arching across his room in the

usual fashion.

Having completely forgotten the events of yesterday, he took a look at his calendar which read “Thursday”, and forced himself out of his comfortable bed. Thursday was a work day.

He stretched, and then reluctantly trotted down the stairs, where he made himself a slice of toast. Without magic, he thought, everything is such a bother. Even buttering toast takes skill to do, without dropping the knife on the floor.

“Remember to comb your mane before you leave!” his sister, Graceful, called out to him.

“Remember to comb your mane,” he repeated in his head. It would be difficult even to do that without magic.  Another one of life’s daily routines. But as he recalled, something out of routine happened. Something interesting.

And as he ate through his breakfast, he remembered the chest. He remembered how scared he was yesterday, and thought how ridiculously worried he got. After all, it was just a battered brown box with somepony’s hat in it.

And then he remembered - Barkbeard! He would have to go and meet him today. What interesting story could lie in his discovery?  Then he sighed; it was a work day. So he would have to wait. Feeling annoyed, the beige colt got up from the breakfast table and started searching for the comb.

It was another uneventful day at the farms, and the only thing separating it from the day before was that instead of harvesting, they were planting the new seeds, watering the trees, and cutting the bushes that were overflowing onto the pathways surrounding the fields. When that was over, the farm ponies had a half hour break, before attending to other less pressing issues, like helping the mill ponies crush the wheat, repairing and repainting the picket fences damaged by the cold weather, and so on.

But Valiant didn’t forgot his task for after work, and even told a couple of his friends and fellow workmates about the strange hat.

None of them either, it seemed, had heard of a style called “bicorne”, and they all seemed quite worried, in the same way as Valiant was during the night before, by the way Barkbeard reacted after seeing the hat.

But enough waiting! The shift had come to an end (a bit earlier than yesterday, his shift before was prolonged because of the harvesting), and while other ponies trotted off to their own homes, Valiant returned home where he greeted his mother (who was already out in the morning) and sister, picked up the chest, and went back to the stone-built house in the alleyways of Fillydelphia.

* * *

It seemed that Barkbeard was waiting on him intently, for when Valiant got in view of the house, the door was opened without a doubt this time with a friendly ‘Welcome!’ and was let in and led to a small round table with a couple of stools beside it.

Perched on top of the table was a tiny bordered painting of an unknown pony, and a map of what looked like Equestria, on a tanned and tattered piece of paper.

“Come, sit down, Valiant! You shall find that the story of Toutlemonde Rêves takes more than a few words!” said Barkbeard as he placed himself on a stool.

“Toot-laymonday?” spelled out Valiant slowly as he followed suit on the other stool. “I’ve never heard of it.” He paused. “Is it fancy talk for something?”

“Yes, in fact, it’s the name of long forgotten pony. What we call ‘Fancy talk’ now was a well known language long ago, but at the time of the pony Toutlemonde, was used primarily for names, much as we now give our fellow ponies names of fruit, and the such.”

“Now I must ask you, before we begin, to not utter a single word of this story to anyone

else, lest it come back to Celestia herself.” Barkbeard said in a serious tone.

Valiant looked down with guilt after remembering telling all of his acquaintances at the farm. “Do not worry yourself just now, even if you may have told your friends! They know nothing important, yet. A bicorne itself was used over many years, not just the period in time that I shall talk about.”

“I trust that you shall not speak any more of it now, though. Any questions?”

“Just one” replied Valiant, puzzled. “How come Celestia can’t know about this story? Does she not know?”

“Oh yes, she knows, and very well! And if she knew that we had an artifact from Toutlemonde himself, she would set upon the task of finding and destroying it, quickly,” remarked Barkbeard knowingly.

“Why would she ever do that?” asked the concerned brown colt, taken aback.

“Because Celestia is a very wise princess, my friend. And she knows that some ponies are not destined to know the events of the past, lest it takes them to some action, or at the very least, into a heated discussion with one of their fellows. I do not believe you are one of those ponies, and therefore I will tell you this story, but with the utmost discretion. Any other questions?” Barkbeard asked.

“Hmm.. Nope,” replied Valiant, shaking his head briskly.

“Good! Then we may move on and begin!” said Barkbeard.