Part 1: The Writing in the Window
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.
Author's Note
For this story, in keeping with the idea that Equestrian and English are one and the same, I've opted for the earth ponies to speak a mix of Danish and Old English, the pegasi Latin and Greek and the unicorns Welsh and Irish.
As to the use of the remaining letters in the cipher I decided it would save time not to make any real use of them.
Part 2: Is This Pony Penitant?
On the following day, about mid-morning, the door to the Golden Oaks Library burst open and the cutie mark crusaders stumbled in over one another.
"Twilight!" They shouted in a panic. "Somepony stole our archaeology papers!" Twilight turned to them with a brief look of confusion before her eyes bugged out as she realised just what they were saying.
"Somepony's got the paperwork we've been doing?" She double-checked, earning a nod from each of them. "Oh, this is bad. I had just finished reading the reply to my letter to Princess Celestia and the news is not particularly encouraging." She pulled out the letter in question and read out. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, I was most interested to read about your efforts to study the missing treasure of Nightmare Moon. I have had the opportunity to discuss this with Luna and we have agreed that you must do all you can to ensure that nopony reaches it before she arrives in Ponyville this evening to talk about the removal of the guardian that she left there." Twilight didn't bother to read out the sign off at the bottom. "If whoever it was managed to reach the treasure, then... I don't know. But it can't be anything good."
"So, what should we do?" Apple Bloom asked. Twilight paused to consider this and answered.
"School starts again tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled for any unusual behaviour or if somepony's absent for no reason or for a rather vague reason." With that she escorted them out of the library.
That evening Princess Luna entered the library with a non-verbal flourish and greeted Twilight at a reasonable volume but retaining an archaic style.
"Oh Princess," Twilight groaned as she prostrated herself, "I regret to inform you that somepony managed to get hold of the research we've been doing and could very well have already been down there."
"We art aware of this, Twilight." She replied. "When a hoof was set upon the stone to remove the cover we were immediately aware of this and, despite the effective theft of our old horde as well as thy work, we do pity that pony." Twilight cocked an eyebrow at this.
"So that guardian's been there for over a thousand years?!?" Luna nodded matter-of-factly and added.
"'Tis a being of darkness in keeping with our command of the night, it has no need of food or drink but during Celestia's time it is quite helpless."
"Celestia's time?" Twilight was puzzled by this because she always associated those two words with the millennium where the Princess reigned alone.
"Sunrise to sunset." Luna clarified. "We are also disappointed by thy procrastination, Twilight Sparkle." Twilight cringed at this, but was confused as to what Luna was getting at. "Thou should have informed us of thy intent to recover our fehu the moment thou had known the mottos upon the window." Twilight felt a dreadful sense of guilt and self-pity and struggled to reply.
"P...Princess, I... had hoped... to surprise you with the gift of returning your possessions." As tears began to roll down her eyes Luna lifted her chin up with a hoof and calmly stated.
"We... I am not angry with th... you, just disappointed that you didn't pick up on the possible danger considering that it was our darker side that buried it." After a few moments Princess Luna decided that Twilight needed a bit more than absolvance and so called Spike. "Please get us some tea, preferably with honey and plenty of it."
"Uh, yes your highness." Spike sounded nervous in his reply as he made his way to the kitchen.
"We can discuss this situation once thou hast recovered from thy emotional state." Luna told Twilight.
A few days past. The cutie mark crusaders did manage to inform Twilight that Diamond Tiara hadn't been seen at school or anywhere but their sense of relief at this meant that they didn't deliver the news with much gravitas, also Silver Spoon kept turning up late and seemed rather eager to see Diamond Tiara immediately after school; she had told Cheerilee that Diamond Tiara was feeling under the weather in effect. Twilight's reaction was one of concerned intrigue but felt that there wasn't enough information at that time as there were no indications of some unspeakable horror passing through Ponyville overnight. But then, on Saturday morning, while Twilight was discussing with the crusaders as to what signs they should look out for Silver Spoon came a-knocking. When Spike had opened the door to her they could see that she was looking rather frantic, a trait missed by the crusaders during school hours.
"Miss Sparkle," She addressed in a somewhat uncomfortable manner, "Would you come check on Diamond Tiara? She says she needs some magical help but won't speak of any details until you're there." When her gaze fell upon the cutie mark crusaders she didn't show contempt but instead seemed to be exhibiting remorse.
"Okay." Twilight consented. "But I'd like these three to come too. It could prove fruitful to their learning." Silver Spoon sighed and conceded, leading them towards Filthy Rich's abode.
Upon arrival Filthy Rich was most welcoming towards Twilight and bade a fair greeting to the cutie mark crusaders. He seemed most anxious that Twilight should see Diamond Tiara and almost led her up himself until she persuaded him to leave her to dealing with the matter. One oddity in the household was that a maid should be scrubbing on the stairs that late in the morning.
"I'm tellin' ya, miss," She spoke when Twilight made a polite inquiry as to her well-being, "For the whole week past it's bin nothin' but scrub, scrub, scrub along 'ere. Ev'ry mornin' there's this thick mouldy slime from t'front door to youn' Diamond's bedroom and nopony but tha' little Silver Spoon can git in."
"Slime, you say?" Twilight was puzzled by that.
"Aye. It's almost as though some oversized slug was crawlin' along overnigh'. But nopony's seen nothing', or if they are they ain't talkin' 'bout it. My guess is them two fillies is meddlin' wi' some chemistry stuff; there jus' ain't nothing natural 'bout it." Twilight sniffed and the crusaders followed suit.
"'Cor." Apple Bloom remarked. "It smells like rotten apples in a pigsty durin' a bad case of potato blight."
"Phew." Sweetie Belle put in. "Rarity wouldn't stand for this. Why she'd grab all your cleaning supplies and evict everypony else until she was sure it's spotless."
"Yes, it does smell rather mouldy." Twilight affirmed, a sense of trepidation growing on her. Once they were at the door to Diamond Tiara's bedroom the door was open, Silver Spoon having gone in ahead of them. Stepping in they saw Silver Spoon perched on a chair near the bed, and when they looked at the bed itself they saw Diamond Tiara.
The cutie mark crusaders were uneasy about coming here for they were certain the brat would begin mocking them all over again, or when an adult was around give them a look like they hadn't bathed in days. What was sitting in that bed was not looking at them at all but was staring off and rocking to and fro like some nightmare had gripped her; when Silver Spoon directed her gaze to Twilight her look of abject fear faltered with a glimmer of hope.
"Oh!" The filly cried with uncharacteristic distress. "You've come at last!" The crusaders considered this remark typical. "You have to help me. Every night I've been disturbed and I can only conclude that you must take that away from here!" She gestured to a comparatively small sack sitting at the foot of the bed. "Take it, please! Take it anywhere! Send it back to the bottom of that gunge pit if you have to, just get it out of here!" Her ranting was both in her nature and anomalous at the same time. Twilight slowly walked towards the sack and before she had a chance to levitate it Silver Spoon put her hoof on it and, with a dangerous calm, said.
"If anypony keeps it, be sure that they'll bar their doors and windows before night time." Her voice rang with a barely suppressed anxiety. To Twilight it seemed that they were both struck with the same affliction but Diamond Tiara was suffering the most. Giving Silver Spoon a reassuring nod she lifted the sack and began to take it out.
"Let those blank flanks have it!" Diamond Tiara shouted suddenly. "They wanted it in the first place, so they may as well keep it." A double-take led Twilight to suspect that she had found the thieves but their behaviour strongly suggested that they needn't face any penalties as of yet. She calmly led the cutie mark crusaders out.
That evening Twilight requested the cutie mark crusaders stay with her for the night in the hopes of mutual support for whatever was going to happen and also sent off a message to Princess Luna in accordance with their agreement. As she watched the sun sink towards the horizon she insisting on all doors being locked and went to shut all the windows, the crusaders following and drawing the curtains as an added effort to avoid any exposure to what it was that could be creeping about Ponyville. Once that was done they congregated on the first floor, just below Twilight's sleeping quarters and made investigations as to the contents of the sack. Twilight gasped at the sight.
It was all there. A silver crown encrusted with jade and other relatively dark gems stood out among the assortment of artifacts but it was quite clear that this was Princess Luna's missing treasure. None of the younger four wanted to go downstairs until the morrow but Twilight couldn't help but be drawn by morbid curiosity.
When the others were tucked up with a few simple lucky charms that could offer little more than reassurance Twilight slowly made her way down to the ground floor. As she stood at the bottom of the stairs she heard a slow soft scraping from outside and a gross oozing approaching the door, the knob twisted in folly before whatever it was moved on to attempt another door. Twilight crept forward and espied a portion of foul-smelling slime seeping under the door. She swallowed uneasily and hoped that Luna would not leave them to fend for themselves the following night.
Twilight stirred from her fragmented sleep by the sound of someone knocking on the door, stirring she could see that the sun was up as it filtered through the curtains. Deciding to take a chance she peaked out one of the windows and breathed a major sigh of relief as she unlocked the door.
"We see that thou had an unwelcome guest last night." Princess Luna stated as She stepped in, dissolving the remnants of slime under Her hooves. Twilight nodded unsteadily. "Why did thee bring it here for the night?"
"I didn't want anypony else to be saddled with the prospect of some creation of Nightmare Moon and if I sent it back to the old castle it would've seemed like a waste of time in returning it to you." With a sigh Luna rested a surprisingly clean hoof on Twilight's shoulder and said.
"We shall welcome the return of our property from thee, but we must still confront the original thieves and hear what ordeal they hath been through." She then followed Twilight upstairs where the reception was simple but eager.
"Oh, Princess Luna!" Apple Bloom cried joyfully. "Are we relieved to see you?"
"Are we ever?" Scootaloo added. "I really struggled to get any sleep last night. Just what was it we were hiding from, anyhow?" Luna simply accepted the sack from them and said.
"I have a feeling that two young ponies you have a familiarity with can give you some idea of what was keeping watch over this."
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon entered the library looking really sorry for themselves, however it seemed that one undisturbed night had given them enough time to collect themselves so as to face up to the true owner of that horde. Indeed when they saw the bag beside the Princess they began to exhibit anxiety again until the offering of elevenses and Luna's reassurances settled them enough that both Twilight and Luna felt sure they could explain what they'd been through and so Luna bade them speak.
Author's Note
Some of the scenes may seem a bit rushed. This is because I was hoping to get this story done within a reasonably close timeframe based around Halloween.
Part 3: In Shadow and Slime
"I overheard them discussing your treasure," Diamond Tiara began, "And I was disturbed by the idea that a bunch of blank flanks should uncover the property of a Princess; indeed Twilight's encouragement of their involvement was almost inconceivable." Luna frowned at this but did not interject, wishing to hear the full story first. "Anyway I saw the opportunity to ensure that a more fitting pony would recover the treasure when those three bedded down in their tuppenny treehouse, so I managed to retrieve the materials that would've led them to the treasure and got Silver Spoon here out without too much trouble and we immediately set off to bring your things back to their rightful owner."
"I don't remember anything about that." Silver Spoon interrupted. "You dragged me away from my beauty sleep to carry all those paper and we agreed that you'd get all the diamonds, platinum, gold, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and pearls while I could keep the silver, crystal, iron, steel, tin, copper and bronze." She gave a distressful glance at Princess Luna, wondering what this confession would lead to.
"Well I had to offer you something or you'd never have come." Diamond Tiara moaned. "Anyway we made our way to the ancient castle under cover of darkness."
"Through the Everfree Forest?!?" Twilight ejaculated. "Did you have anything to defend yourselves with?"
"We had a shovel, a hammer, a chisel, a lantern and a length of rope." Silver Spoon answered. "To be honest I almost wish we never made it."
"Well," Diamond Tiara continued, "It must've been about midnight by the time we found a carving on the outside wall that looked anything like Nightmare Moon." She paused as the events in her recounting were about to catch up with the greatest horror she'd ever experienced. "It so happened that it looked straight down into a well as expected. It seemed rather convenient that there was a spiral staircase within it, so we made our way down, down, down into the pitch darkness with all that wet moss..." She trailed off as the impact began to get to her.
"We went all the way down to the bottom," Silver Spoon followed on, "Where the water went up to our knees, and then went back up again, looking over every stone until we got to the top without seeing anything. Doing a double-check I noticed that the cryptogram consisted of a hundred and eighty-four letters for each figure and mentioned as much to Diamond."
"Indeed I was most impressed that you finally worked that out." Diamond Tiara bragged. "So I went back down by 184 steps and still found no clue, so I did the opposite but found Silver Spoon standing on the 184th step up."
"Yes," Silver Spoon continued before she could spin the events any further into her ego, "And I showed you that the wall was more like cement there than the rest and, upon chipping away at it, found that the layer was in fact composed of surprisingly dry clay. Underneath we saw six eyes aligned like the corners of a hexagon and thusly Diamond initially wanted me to remove the stone slab but took over quite suddenly after I had done one half. I moved up to recover the shovel just in case, since we had left it next to the outside wall of the well, and I was just on the last few steps when I heard a significant scraping and a clunk as the slab was pulled away." Diamond Tiara did not interrupt as she may have done for she was visibly sweating by this point. "Looking down I saw the light of the lantern flicker upon Diamond's face as she looked inside, crying with joy that she'd found a great quantity of sacks but also moaning about the stench of the old alcove. At any rate..." She struggled now as she recalled just what she saw at the time, "She reached in and pulled the sack you see there out of its hiding place and, just as she got it between her teeth and reached out again for another sack, what looked like a particularly large bag slipped out onto her chest... and wrapped its tentacles right round her; the cry she made was blood-curdling and the lantern fell into the bottom of the well as the thing finally exited from its hiding place. I immediately grabbed the shovel and hurled it down, making it release her and let out a terrible watery groan as she scrambled up the steps and we both dashed off with the treasure, leaving everything else except the rope behind."
"Well," Diamond Tiara finally gasped out, "We galloped all the way back to my place and barricaded ourselves in my bedroom. I suppose I should've considered about how to get a bath without anyone asking how I got so dirty and slimy." She shuddered, clearly Silver Spoon was the only one with any real control of her faculties.
"It hardly seemed like five minutes when this thick dark slime began to seep under the door," Silver Spoon mentioned, "And this dreadful clawing came from the corridor outside along with an appalling sound of a heavy something shifting about; every now and then the doorknob would twist but never did it enter. When dawn arrived the sounds ceased and more familiar ones came in from outdoors. It wasn't until somepony hammered vigorously and asked about getting us breakfast that I dared open the door. And every night we would wait in that room, listening to the same dreadful noises that harkened back to that time in the well, so that I could not leave until the sun was up but Diamond just wouldn't move from the room for all the jewels in a dragon's nest. I do believe you know the rest."
"While the two of thee hath received enough punishment for thy acts of theft," Princess Luna spoke, "'Tis quite clear that thou needs to better understand the true meaning of Equestrian harmony. Indeed, young Tiara, thy arrogance is most distasteful to be exhibited and so we shalt decree a new system of profiling for foals so we may see the disciplining and reformation of troublesome children while also providing us with a way to identify and cure situations of nepotism within local government circles. But for now I shall return to the well and relieve the guardian of its role, returning it where it hath come from." She made her farewells and shooed off the two fillies before taking to the skies.
The following day Twilight appeared to be a tad sleep-deprived to Spike. He could guess the reason and so attempted to console her.
"Come on. You know the Princess went to banish that thing and even if She hadn't She's got the treasure so it's only gonna bother Her, and She was the one who put it there in the first place." Twilight looked at him as though he'd undergone a significant growth spurt before replying.
"I know, Spike. It's just I wanted to make sure nothing was gonna disturb the nights around here anymore. Frankly I don't think I'm gonna leave the downstairs doors and windows unlocked for many days yet. And besides I just can't get over the fact that I've no idea what it would've looked like; I know I'd probably be better off never having seen it but the curiosity keeps grinding away in my mind." After a moment's thought he made a suggestion.
"Perhaps we could ask the Princess? I mean I do have a connection to Her as well as Celestia now." Accepting this idea Twilight began to prepare a message.
Interestingly enough, after a few minutes a sharp blue flash filled the room and Princess Luna stood there, curiously clad in a pair of pyjamas.
"You just got through to me in time." She told them. "I was just about to turn in for the day." Twilight gave a nervous smile, especially from the evidence of Luna's improvement in modern elocution. "I was surprised by your choice in inquiry, Twilight Sparkle, but to best put you in the picture without causing any major fright I'll offer you a comparative description. Imagine a slug the size of a bear crossed with a squid and coated in a runny tar and then add the dreaded aura that filled any room that the real Nightmare Moon occupied." Twilight bit her lip and gulped. "Just remember merely seeing it would've led to many a sleepless night." She made a quick farewell and returned to Her Canterlot quarters in the same kind of flash that She arrived with.
Author's Note
This chapter turned out a fair amount shorter than I anticipated. But this did motivate me to have it done before Halloween's out.
