Chapters Chapter 1: Twilight is missing!
The barn at Sweet Apple Acres was busy. It was holding the meeting of six friends. Unlike usual, this meeting was not happy. In fact, not all of the usual guests were there. Instead of there being six ponies, there were five ponies and one dragon.
"Well?" Applejack asked, "Did y'all find anything?"
"No, darling," Rarity said, eyes filled with worry,"Pinkie and I checked every inch of Ponyville,"
"She's not in the sky either. 'Shy and I checked," Rainbow said.
"We'd better send that letter to the Princess, then," Applejack sighed.
Spike sent the letter through his usual method, dragon mail.
Less than a minute later, four members of the Royal Family of Equestrian stood before them. The Mane Six (minus Twilight) and Spike bowed to them.
"Rise," said Luna.
"Not to sound ungrateful or anything but ,y'all didn't have to come here," Applejack said.
"We wanted to come," Luna answered.
"Yeah! My sister is missing and you expect me to just sit around?" Shining Armor added.
"Touché," Applejack admitted.
"Well, the boys aren't back yet. Maybe they have found something!" Rarity said, hopefulness entering her voice.
"Who are 'the boys'?" Cadence asked.
"Our coltfriends," Rarity answered.
"You have coltfriends?" Celestia said.
"Yeah! All of us do! Even Twilight has one!" Pinkie answered cheerfully.
"What?" Shining shouted, "Twilight has a coltfriend and she didn't even tell me? Who is it?"
"His name is Flash Sentry! Please don't hurt us," Fluttershy said.
"Flash... Sentry?" Shining said, visibly surprised.
"Yup!" Pinkie said.
Just then, six stallions came in.
"O..kay" the leading stallion said.
"Well, these are our coltfriends. This is Caramel," Applejack said, pointing at the leading stallion. He was a caramel-coated, brown-maned, blue-eyed, earth pony. His cutie mark was three blue horseshoes.
"Uh... nice to meet y'all?" Caramel said
"This is Haley's Comet but he goes by Haley,"Rarity said pointing to a midnight blue unicorn with a mane and tail that alternated between lavender and white. He had blue eyes and a cutie mark that looked like Rarity's except that it had a comet flying behind the diamonds.
"Charmed," said Haley
"This is Lightning Strike," said Rainbow Dash, hovering next to a gray pegasus with a yellow mane . He had blue eyes and a cutie mark of a gray cloud with lightning coming out from underneath it.
"'Sup?" Lightning said
"Umm... this is Jay Feather, but he prefers Jay, " Fluttershy murmured softly glancing at a blue pegasus with a sky blue mane. His mane had a white stripe and his tail had a black one. He had blue eyes and a cutie mark of a blue feather.
"Hi" Jay said, his voice equally soft.
"This is Chocolate Cake!"Pinkie said, zipping around to stand next to a brown earth pony with a light brown mane and purple eyes. His cutie mark was a slice of chocolate cake.
"Its super-duper to meet you!" said Chocolate
The last stallion was a orange stallion with a royal blue mane and blue eyes. His cutie mark was a blue shield with a lightning bolt on top. He kept glancing at Shining as if afraid of him.
Shining recognized him immediately.
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Chapter 2: Why are WE the only ones who can open it?
"So.... you're Flash Sentry," Shining said. His eyes narrowed at the orange pegasus.
"Attention!" Shining suddenly bellowed.
Almost instinctively, Flash stood at attention, one hoof at his forehead in salute.
"Okay, now, I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them. Truthfully ," Shining said.
"SIR, YES, SIR," Flash shouted, military style.
"Good," Shining began pacing around the nervous guard, "Is it true that you are dating my LITTLE SISTER?"
"Uh... SIR, YES, SIR," Flash said.
Shining scowled fiercely. His horn began powering up.
Then, suddenly, he was encased in a bubble of blue magic. He turned to his wife, who was glaring at him and shaking her head.
"Oh, come on!" Shining whined, "Can't I just destroy a not-so-tiny bit of him?"
Flash paled so much that his coat seemed gray.
"Shining....," Princess Cadence said warningly.
"Fine!" said Shining, sounding like a pouty six-year-old.
"Umm.... okay,"Rainbow said
Applejack just stared for a bit and then shook her head, muttering, "I've seen stranger things"
"Did y'all find anything?" she asked.
This snapped them back to attention.
"Indeed, we found a scroll just outside the Everfree Forest" Haley said, hoofing a scroll to his marefriend.
The scroll was regular parchment but was held together by a seal that nopony recognized. It was a rainbow shooting out of the bottom of a purplish-pink, six-pointed star. Around it there were four images. The one on the top right corner was a apple. The one on the top left corner was a diamond. The one on the bottom left corner was a pink butterfly. The one on the bottom right was a yellow balloon.
"I'm guessing that's Twilight's seal," Rainbow said.
Applejack picked it up and tried to open it.
"Huh,"she said after a few minutes of trying. No matter what she couldn't get it to open.
"Darling, wait!"Rarity suddenly exclaimed, "There is a message on the side of the scroll!"
Applejack read out the message:
"Only a special five,
To both live and to die,
Orange, white, cyan, yellow, and pink,
Only together can they see what has been inked."
Rarity looked confused. She was not the only one.
"Okay. What. The. Hay!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"I'm afraid I don't know." Rarity said.
"How 'bout we go through it one line at time?" Applejack suggested.
"Only a special five" Rarity read.
"Special five? Hay, that could mean anything! It could be Spitfire, Soarin', Fleetfoot, Lightspeed, and Airdart!" Rainbow said.
"Who exactly ar-" Rarity began.
"Spitfire, Soarin', Fleetfoot, Lightspeed, and Airdart are the five most athletic pegasi in Equestria!" Rainbow squeed. Then, noticing that everypony was staring at her, she said, "But, yeah, off topic"
"It could be the Royal Family, minus Twilight," Rarity suggested.
"Are you actually suggesting that Blu-," Pinkie began.
"Darling, as long as you do not mention that name, I will answer your question. And the answer is yes-," Rarity said, before she was once more interupted.
"Look, there are too many "maybes" to be sure of anything! How 'bout we move on to the next line and try to figure it out?" Applejack said.
"To both live and to die," Rainbow quoted,"Uh.. anypony know what that means? 'Cause it sounds kinda creepy. Not "Cupcakes" creepy, of course, but still creepy."
"In my opinion, it means that these five ponies are alive, but they can still die," Rarity said.
"I 'gree with ya there," Applejack said.
"So we should probably move on to the next line," Pinkie said.
"Orange, white, cyan, yellow, and pink," Fluttershy read, "Only together can they see what has been inked."
"Hmm....," Rarity thought, "Together........ Harmoniously........ Harmony........ The Elements........"
"Of course!" she gasped out loud, "The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony!"
"So we basically have to open one little, tiny, scroll together?" Rainbow said, "Sounds kinda lame"
"Lame or not, we still gotta do it," Applejack said.
"Fine," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.
So they all worked together to open the scroll. Rarity contributed with her magic while the others pulled at the scroll. It easily opened.
"Wait a second," Rainbow said,"Why are WE the only ones who can open it?"
"I'm not sure that really matters right now.",said Applejack.
"Yeah, but why ?"Rainbow argued.
"It doesn't matter , darling."said Rarity,"What matters is that we figure out where Twilight is. Then we can ask her all these questions."
"Fine."Rainbow said.
She grabbed the letter and opened it.
"Go to the library in my castle. Find the book with the Hoofey Decimal System number 995.3 read the first 25 chapters. Then flip to the beginning of the last chapter and do what the parchment there says. Good luck. You will need it. P.S. You will need to complete the instructions before Wednesday the seventeenth " she read.
"Book number 995.3?"Spike asked,"Thats a history book. All of the books after 980.0 are Equestrian History."
With Spike leading them, the little party departed from Applejack's barn to the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle.
* * *
Spike stopped near a shelf. It wasn't surprising. This was Twilight's library. After all, if there weren't bookshelves, then what would be there?
The shelf he stood beside was supposed to showcase a glorious amount of books, all on the topic of early Equestrian History. Instead it was a pathetic affair, made out of wood and as tall as small shoe rack, as compared with the tall, crystalline shelves that surrounded it. It was not even packed with books, as the taller shelves were. This shelf contained a small amount of books, only about twenty of them to try and fill a shelf with three racks.
"This is it?"Rainbow asked, shocked that these were all the books that Twilight had been able to find since the library had been constructed.
Silence greeted her question. Rainbow Dash was not the only one who was amazed. Everypony except Spike had expected a huge shelf, not this tiny thing.
Spike sighed. "Yeah, i now that it isn't much, but thats all we've got."
"Were there more in the library?"asked Celestia, her curiosity taking hold of her.
"I can't say I rightly know."said Applejack"The only book in the old library that I know was about history is the Elements book."
She squinted at the bookcase.
"See, there it is, right there."she said, pointing at a slightly worn book.
Meanwhile, Spike had been looking for the book 995.3.
"There it is."Spike said, pulling out a book with the title:
The History of the Three Tribes and the Forming of Equestria
Chapter 4:Clover the Clever
Spike opened the book and began to read from it.
"Section 1: Clover the Clever: Chapter 1: Early Life. Not much is known of the early life of Clover the Clever. The few things known about Clover's early life include the fact that she was not born in any of the Tribes. She was a longtime friend of Princess Platinum. It was said that the only clue to where Clover was born was that she used to say that 'You will see in time.'
"Clover the Clever was born as Sparkling Twilight on 3rd July, 7556B.C. Her nickname became Clover the Clever when she got her Cutie Mark by a clover patch, showing excellence in magic and knowledge.
"Chapter 2: Arrival in the Tribes. Clover the Clever arrived in the Tribe of the Unicorns on 17th August, 7576B.C. along with her friend, Platinum. At the town circle, the two friends parted ways, each heading in their own direction, on the way to greatness.
"On one of the residential streets of the town, Clover bumped into the magical genius Starswirl the Bearded. Astounded by Clover's magical capabilities, Starswirl took the young unicorn as an apprentice.
"When her friend Platinum became princess, Clover became her advisor, especially in the matters of dealing with the other two tribes. Although most of Clover's ideas were wise, Platinum did not follow most of them, eventually causing the Great Colding.
"Chapter 3: Romantic Life. It was believed that romance was not a part of Clover's life until the journal of Starswirl the Bearded was found. It described Starswirl following Clover as she quietly escaped from the Tribe of the Unicorns. She was followed to a cave two leagues from the edge of Unicornia. Starswirl saw her with a pegasus with "A coat of light saffron and a mane striped both of the blue of day sky and that of ocean"
"Chapter 4: Disappearance. Clover the Clever disappeared during the year 7616B.C. on the same date that she arrived. It remains unknown whether she returned home or simply died. The meaning of her saying "You will see in time", is unknown as well.